Archstone Foundation (Long Beach, CA)

A five-year, nearly $1.3 million collaboration between Archstone Foundation and the RAND Corporation will bring a comprehensive understanding of the health and health care needs of older Californians and their caregivers into focus. The two organizations will assemble and make publicly available a wide-ranging collection of data about the health and well-being of nearly 6 million Californians over 65.

RAND’s development of an evidence-based Data Monitoring Center will be followed by creation of an associated Impact Dashboard to display a range of statewide and localized data about health outcomes. These will assist the Archstone Foundation in evaluating the impact of its new strategic priority: true integration of medical care and social support services—care coordination—to help improve the health of older Californians and their caregivers. The foundation’s strategy is focused on what it calls the Three Ts: fostering Teams, bolstering Technology, and improving Training, with an emphasis on reducing the health disparities that plague older Californians of color or with lower incomes.

The foundation and other philanthropies, medical and aging service providers, and government leaders will be able to use the data to make smarter, evidence-based decisions about their own investments and policies and assess progress in the coming decade based on the best available metrics. Collecting both qualitative and quantitative data will enable users to draw inferences about how successful interventions could be replicated or scaled and to identify opportunities for improvement.

The monitoring center, composed of RAND researchers and collaborators, will obtain all the relevant existing data from public and private sources and also develop qualitative and quantitative research questions that would yield additional sets of valuable data. It will then design, develop, pilot, and launch the Impact Dashboard.

Contact: Jasmine Lacsamana at jlacsamana@archstone.org.

Blue Shield of California Foundation (San Francisco, CA)

Blue Shield of California Foundation is investing nearly $10 million in more than 30 organizations that can help advance health equity and end domestic violence in California.

The grant recipients include:

  • Alliance for Girls ($800,000)
  • California Common Cause ($150,000)
  • California Pan-Ethnic Health Network ($300,000)
  • Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties ($150,000)
  • Center for Effective Philanthropy, Inc. ($50,000)
  • ChangeLab Solutions ($350,000)
  • Children Now ($300,000)
  • East Bay Community Foundation ($250,000)
  • Economic Security Project Inc. ($200,000)
  • Family Values At Work A Multi-State Consortium Inc. ($500,000)
  • Futures Without Violence ($900,000)
  • Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees ($150,000)
  • Grantmakers for Effective Organizations ($150,000)
  • Grantmakers In Health ($150,000)
  • Hispanics in Philanthropy ($100,000)
  • Hispanics in Philanthropy ($100,000)
  • Jenesse Center, Inc. ($602,390)
  • National Academy of Sciences ($50,000)
  • National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy ($100,000)
  • Northern California Grantmakers ($200,000)
  • Project HOPE – The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc. ($200,000)
  • PICO California ($600,000)
  • Public Health Institute ($160,000)
  • Public Health Institute ($200,000)
  • Public Health Institute ($300,000)
  • The Regents of the University of California, Berkeley ($650,000)
  • The Regents of the University of California at Riverside ($125,000)
  • Social Good Fund ($500,000)
  • Southern California Grantmakers ($150,000)
  • Women’s Foundation of California ($575,000)
  • The UCLA Foundation ($350,000)
  • Urban Habitat ($425,000)

The California Endowment (Los Angeles, CA)

The California Endowment has made a $1 million pledge of funding to support the transgender community, which has been the target of unrelenting attacks nationwide. The pledge is aimed at raising public awareness and elevating the focus on the health, economic, and educational disparities facing the transgender community.

The Endowment’s pledge will support building a durable transgender movement infrastructure that reinforces and provides technical assistance and learnings for other transgender organizations fighting these horrific and painful policies. It is intended to serve a catalytic role in encouraging other funders and philanthropic organizations to contribute and leverage investments as part of a national campaign. The funds will be provided to California-based organizations.

Contact: Sarah Reyes at 559.470.4545 or sreyes@calendow.org.

The Convergence Partnership (New York, NY)

Entering its fifteenth year, the Convergence Partnership announced it is becoming an independent entity, with Amanda Navarro at the helm as Executive Director and Michele Silver as Director of Programs. The move comes as Convergence Partnership steps into its new strategic direction to focus its efforts on funding community power through frontline organizations with Black, Indigenous, and people of color leadership and staff, to advance racial justice and health equity in six states and large metro regions across the country.

In the last 14 years, Convergence Partnership has granted $13.5 million to community-based organizations and local foundations across the country focusing on health equity, including the Innovation Fund in 2009 which leveraged $59.7 million in local and federal funding and resulted in hundreds of local policy changes on equitable food access and community infrastructure improvements in under-resourced communities.

The Partnership made $1.2 million in grants to 31 organizations, 29 of which are frontline organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color, to support COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts, a tangible step in its new strategic direction to deepen its connection between health equity and racial justice.

Now, the Partnership, which is made up of eleven local, state and national foundations, is continuing to deepen its equity focus to center communities most harmed by structural racism.

The new strategies that Convergence Partnership is undertaking include investing in community power and agency to drive long-term structural change; elevating narratives and stories to shift public attitudes toward inclusion, belonging, and the dignity of all people; and, mobilizing and influencing funders to fundamentally shift their practices, relationships, and investments toward racial justice and health equity.

Becoming an independent entity led Convergence to partner with NEO Philanthropy, to serve as the Partnership’s fiscal home. Aligned with the Partnership’s values and vision, NEO Philanthropy has more than 30 years of experience helping nonprofit organizations and funders build movements for justice, equity, and dignity.

This summer and fall Convergence Partnership will release a report providing research and guidance for funders focusing on narrative change as well as season two of the podcast series featuring grassroots leaders who are building social, political, and economic power in the San Joaquin Valley in California; Kansas City, Missouri; Louisiana; Chicago, Illinois; and Buffalo, New York.

To learn more, click here.

The Foundation for a Healthy High Point (High Point, NC)

The Foundation for a Healthy High Point approved a total of $975,686 to support local efforts. The projects selected focus on behavioral health, built environment, capacity building, education, food security, housing and homelessness, and maternal and child health.

The approved grant recipients are:

  • Community Housing Solutions of Guilford, Inc.—to help it preserve safe and affordable housing, restoring dignity and hope for homeowners in Guilford County, North Carolina neighborhoods. ($89,727)
  • Guilford Education Alliance, Inc. (GEA)—to support general operations and the High Point Schools Partnership, an affiliate of GEA focused on the unique needs of the 25 High Point, North Carolina schools. ($20,000)
  • Guilford Nonprofit Consortium—to support general operations to strengthen and increase the capacity of nonprofit organizations working in High Point, North Carolina. ($25,000)
  • Open Door Ministries—to support the planning phase to develop and build a Day Center to provide comprehensive, all-in-one assistance for individuals experiencing homelessness. It will support a consulting firm to facilitate project management, planning, and technical designs and fill a critical gap not covered by federal and city funding streams. ($80,000)
  • Operation Xcel—to support costs the state does not cover, providing enrichment activities, student transportation, program supplies, and computer software. ($25,000)
  • Out of the Garden Project—to help it expand its free Fresh Mobile Market Program to Greater High Point by establishing five new locations, including High Point, Archdale, Jamestown, and Trinity, North Carolina. Funding supports the Fresh Mobile Market vehicles, food, fuel, and maintenance. ($45,000)
  • Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC—to support the expansion of two existing programs into the High Point, North Carolina community. ($38,000)
  • World Relief High Point—to support its behavioral health services and fill a gap in services for clients who need mental health support, but have been in the United States for over five years. ($32,565)
  • Southwest Renewal Foundation of High Point, Inc.—to support the development of a locally-driven and designed half-acre urban park in the Highland Village community. ($100,000)
  • The University of North Carolina at Greensboro—for continued support for the Healthy Homes program, which aims to reduce health-related illnesses such as asthma, COPD, and lead poisoning, caused by poor housing conditions. ($50,176)
  • Guilford Child Development—to support its Nurse-Family Partnership program that provides home visitation services for first-time, low-income mothers in High Point, North Carolina. ($60,000)
  • High Point Regional Health Foundation—to support establishing a Maternal Navigator program based at High Point Medical Center to link expectant and new mothers to community-based resources and improve birth outcomes. ($196,218)
  • Reach Out and Read Carolinas—to provide books and training for medical providers that will increase the number of High Point sites implementing the program from four to seven, allowing the organization to reach an additional 2,300 children and families. ($19,000)
  • Ready for School, Ready for Life—to provide general operating support for its critical role in guiding the initiative’s vision to have a prenatal-to-age-three system across High Point and Guilford County, North Carolina. ($35,000)
  • YWCA High Point—to provide continued support for expanding the organization’s Parents as Teachers program which provides adolescent parents with education about childhood development and equips them with parenting skills to help improve school readiness. ($160,000)

Contact: Curtis Holloman at 336.822.7740 or cholloman@healthyhighpoint.org.

The John A. Hartford Foundation (New York, NY)

The John A. Hartford Foundation approved $5,991,046 for six grants that will spread age-friendly care for older adults, especially those living with serious illness and receiving long-term care in nursing homes and in the community.

Grant recipients include:

  • AARP Foundation—to update the Scorecard with a refreshed framework, indicators, and scoring, including with updates related to COVID-19. AARP will explore collecting and analyzing data for the 2023 Scorecard that will address issues including workforce stability, equity, and health disparities. ($100,000 for 18 months)
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC)—to train 5,000 home-based clinicians in palliative and age-friendly care skills, engage 10 percent of CAPC members with new anti-racism and equity resources, and implement palliative and age-friendly skill-building strategies with at least 25 new health care organizations. ($1,960,000 for three years)
  • Institute for Healthcare Improvement—to develop an Age-Friendly Health Care Package for inclusion in state Master Plans for Aging that presents the implementation, measurement, and business case for statewide adoption of programs from three initiatives—Age-Friendly Health Systems, the Geriatric Surgery Verification program, and the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative/Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation. ($1,388,406 for 18 months)
  • LeadingAge—to convene and lead an expert panel and stakeholder coalition to identify the most actionable recommendations in The National Imperative to Improve Nursing Home Quality and make them a reality, create an effective communications strategy, and evaluate plan implementation. ($1,168,868 for two years)
  • National PACE Association—to double the PACE monthly enrollment, engage 25 percent of PACE organizations in a provider recognition learning community, and have three to five states adopt the model practices for growth, access, and quality, creating a trajectory to achieve a national PACE census of 200,000 by 2028. ($467,972 for three years)
  • Project HOPE – The People-to-People Health Foundation/Health Affairs—to advance best practices in the care of older adults and showcase aging and health policy issues as central to the national health care dialogue. ($905,800 for three years)

Contact: Clare Churchouse at 212.324.7480 or clare.churchouse@johnahartford.org.

Health Foundation for Western and Central New York (Buffalo, NY)

In the second quarter of 2022, the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York awarded grants totaling $1,927,023 to support projects that are advancing health equity and enhancing the health of their communities.

These programs include:

  • BISON Children’s Scholarship Fund—to broaden the educational opportunities of low-income families through scholarship provision to local private schools throughout the eight counties of western New York. ($250,000)
  • Blackwell Chapel – Jamestown Baby Café—to support pregnant people, new parents, infants, and children to achieve better health outcomes. It offers access to free lactation care, training, mentoring, and weekly support groups, creating a nurturing community that supports women and infants in addressing physical, emotional, and social well-being. ($10,000)
  • Common Ground Health—to launch its second iteration of the My Health Story survey that measures overall health and well-being, primary health concerns, health care access and usage, chronic conditions, and several other factors related to health outcomes. ($50,000)
  • Buffalo Together Community Response Fund—In response to the May 14th mass shooting, the Buffalo Together collaborative effort supports Black-led organizations on the frontlines of addressing immediate needs in the community, ensuring availability of mental health services, long-term community rebuilding, and systemic issues that have marginalized communities of color. ($50,000)
  • Endeavor Health Services—to support programmatic, operating, and administrative costs as it met mental health needs in Buffalo, New York following the May 14th mass shooting. ($50,000)
  • Erie Niagara Area Health Education Center – Doula Coordination and Services Program—to enhance its work to improve maternal health outcomes by connecting Medicaid eligible pregnant and birthing people with trained doulas and community health workers in Erie and Niagara counties in New York. ($602,000)
  • Erie Niagara Area Health Education Center – Doula Task Force—to enhance the work being done through the New York State Medicaid Doula Pilot Project in Erie County, New York. It provides an opportunity for doulas and others working on maternal health issues to come together for networking, information exchange, and training. ($602,000)
  • Grantmakers in Aging—to lead a national, action-oriented campaign for improved, tangible government support of low- and moderate-income family caregivers of older adults and people with disabilities through capacity-building grants and programming for 10 state-based caregiving coalitions, including New York. ($25,000)
  • Holy Cross Head Start—to support the continuation of Cavity Free Kids, oral health education for young children, from birth through age five, and their families. ($3,000)
  • Institute for Nonprofit Practice—to bring Institute for Nonprofit Practice leadership development opportunities to the western New York community through 2022 and 2023. ($50,000)
  • National Compassion Fund – Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund—to provide direct financial assistance to the survivors of the deceased and those directly affected by the mass shooting that took place at the Jefferson Avenue Tops on May 14, 2022. All contributions donated to this fund will go directly to victims and survivors of the shooting. ($25,000)
  • New York Academy of Medicine – Age-Friendly: Go Local!—to empower neighborhood-level groups and organizations to get involved in building equitable, livable, and age-friendly communities. ($441,783)
  • New York Academy of Medicine – Health and Age Across All Policies Evaluation—to conduct a mixed-methods evaluation of the Health and Aging Across All Policies project. ($22,500)
  • Fellows Action Network (FAN)—to introduce new approaches to engage Fellows such as making resources directly available to Fellows interested in organizing events and projects in their communities, leveraging the Fellows to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in their organizations, and making FAN a welcoming and nurturing place for professionals of color. ($212,740)
  • Solutions Journalism Network—to support year two of the first interstate collaborative of journalists focused on caregiving in the western New York and southeast Michigan regions. It combined standard platforms of the media collaborative with experimentation in other forms of outreach and data analysis/visualization. ($24,000)
  • Southern Tier Health Care System – Safe Kids Southern Tier Coalition—to implement evidence-based child safety programs in Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua counties in New York. The programs include car-seat safety, safe sleep education, and water safety to help parents and caregivers prevent childhood injuries. ($100,000)
  • WNY Public Health Alliance Trauma Symposium—to support two guest speakers at the Western New York Public Health Alliance Trauma Symposium: Yodit Betru, Professor at the School of Social Work at University of Pittsburgh, who addressed trauma in marginalized populations and Darryl Tonemah, PhD, a psychologist who spoke on the impact of trauma on brain health and health behaviors. ($4,000)

Contact: info@hfwcny.org.

Jewish Healthcare Foundation (Pittsburgh, PA)

The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) awarded the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) over $1.4 million in funding to continue the Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative’s (PA PQC) work in improving perinatal health outcomes.

The funding from DDAP includes $700,000 for a continued focus on improving outcomes for maternal opioid use disorder (OUD) and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) that began in 2019, and $1.4 million to expand maternal substance use and substance exposed newborn work through March 14, 2023.

As an action arm of the Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee, the PA PQC supports health care providers across the commonwealth in implementing key interventions in response to the major causes of maternal deaths. This includes a focus on maternal substance use, substance exposed newborns, maternal depression, severe hypertension, and reducing racial/ethnic disparities. The PA PQC’s focus is growing in 2022 with several expanded and new initiatives to help birth sites and neonatal intensive care units (NICU) drive improvement and adopt standards of care.

The PA PQC was launched in April 2019 by over 140 advisory and work group members across the commonwealth, with a focus on reducing maternal mortality and improving care for pregnant and postpartum women and newborns affected by opioids. The PA PQC currently includes 53 birth sites and NICUs, representing 81 percent of live births in Pennsylvania, and 14 commercial and Medicaid health plans across the commonwealth, which are actively identifying perinatal processes that need to be improved and adopting best practices to achieve common aims.

The perinatal care teams from the PA PQC sites form a team, participate in quarterly Learning Sessions, launch quality improvement initiatives, access quality improvement resources, and report aggregate data via surveys and the PA PQC Data Portal to drive improvement towards the PA PQC’s goals.

Among PA PQC hospitals that submitted surveys for the January-March 2022 quarter, the PA PQC has observed the following in comparison to the baselines for sites prior to joining the PA PQC:

  • 43 percent increase in the percentage of hospitals providing medications for OUD
  • 100 percent increase in the percentage of hospitals using validated, self-reported screening tools for maternal substance use
  • 41 percent increase in the percentage of hospitals using standardized non-pharmacologic protocols for NAS
  • 26 percent increase in the percentage of hospitals using standardized pharmacologic protocols for NAS

DDAP previously awarded JHF $700,000 to support the launch of the PA PQC in April 2019. The launch included a 140-member advisory work group across the commonwealth primarily focused on reducing maternal mortality and improving care for pregnant and postpartum women and newborns affected by opioids.

To learn more about the PA PQC, click here.

Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts (Worcester, MA)

The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts has received just over $500,000 from the Central Massachusetts Independent Physicians Association (CMIPA) Foundation. CMIPA was formed over two decades ago to support small, independent physician practices in Central Massachusetts around the time that Central Massachusetts Health Care (CMHC), a nonprofit physician-initiated health plan, was sold to a for-profit corporation in 1996, with the proceeds used to create The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts. With the recent dissolution of CMIPA and its affiliated foundation, the CMIPA Board elected to contribute the remaining CMIPA Foundation assets to The Health Foundation, a transfer that has received court approval. The entirety of this significant contribution will further The foundation’s strategic grantmaking to help area nonprofit organizations improve the health of those who live or work in Central Massachusetts.

For further information about the foundation’s grant programs, click here.

Contact: Dr. Amie Shei at 508.438.0009 or ashei@hfcm.org.

RRF Foundation for Aging (Chicago, IL)

RRF Foundation for Aging approved $1.2 million in grants supporting aging-related efforts across the organization’s priority areas. The grants include:

  • Florida State University—to adapt and test Combating Social Isolation, a brief intervention that uses technology in an innovative way to reduce the adverse effects of loneliness for older adults. ($91,000)
  • Metropolitan Asian Family Services—to continue supporting a program serving low-income, limited-English-speaking older people in Chicago, Illinois’s west and southwest suburbs, helping them apply for and receive the economic and health benefits for which they are eligible. ($50,000)
  • Rush University Medical Center—for the Rush Caregiver Intervention to identify and support family caregivers throughout the Rush system and serve as a model for health systems nationwide. ($75,000)
  • Shriver Center on Poverty Law—for advocacy efforts to protect the safety and quality of life of older adults living in subsidized housing. ($60,000)

For a full list of grants recently awarded, click here.

Contact: info@rrf.org.

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