Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation (Buffalo, NY)
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation announced a $3.3 million program to address the cancer burden in rural areas and Native Nations across New York State, with an emphasis on the Western New York region.
The foundation’s grant supports a service collaboration between Roswell Park, the Indian Health Service (IHS) and geographically matched rural federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) across New York. It will allow Roswell Park to provide on-site and virtual patient navigation consisting of cancer prevention, screening, treatment, and education as well as available education on clinical trials, palliative care, and survivorship. The primary focus will be on breast cancer and prostate cancer and secondarily on co-occurring conditions that have high rates in these communities.
Six full-time patient navigators in the high-need communities as well as two virtual navigators will be created through the grant. The funding will support:
- Mobilization of a network of patient navigators in collaboration with IHS health centers and adjacent FQHCs that serve Native American and rural community members to provide a tailored program to improve screening and co-occurring disease management
- Administration of in-person, phone-based and virtual web-based navigation systems for tribal and FQHC communities
- Work by patient navigators with health care staff and participating clinics to provide education on breast and prostate cancer screening guidelines, cancer care continuum, and management of co-occurring conditions
The initiative has been carefully designed to incorporate the Two Row Wampum philosophy developed by the Haudenosaunee and based on the Two Row Wampum Belt and the Covenant Chain of Friendship. Historically, this Wampum agreement was used as a guideline between Native Americans and the Dutch, French, British, and Canada. Like the Two Row Wampum, this patient navigation collaboration will provide a bridge between two health delivery systems that are functioning in parallel, like two boats in the same river.
The grant will serve residents in Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegheny, Niagara, and Oneida, New York counties and further north into the St. Regis Mohawk territory, Tuscarora, and Tonawanda Band of Senecas through Indian Health Services–Lockport, as well as the Allegany and Cattaraugus Territories of the Seneca Nation. Recruitment for the navigator positions is underway in partnership with tribal partners, IHS clinics, IHS regional offices and our partnering FQHCs to ensure that the hiring reflects the unique perspectives of the area.
Over three years, it is expected that 3,200 community members will be engaged and educated.
Contact: Annie Deck-Miller at 716.845.8593 or annie.deck-miller@roswellpark.org.
Convergence Partnership:
- The California Endowment
- Chicago Community Trust
- Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo
- Elevated Chicago
- Foundation for Louisiana
- Health Forward Foundation
- Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
- Kansas Health Foundation
- Kresge Foundation
- Nemours
- Sierra Health Foundation/San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, and
- the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
After 14 years of work as a pioneering national funder collaborative focused on health equity, 12 foundations announced the reset of the Convergence Partnership (Convergence) grounded in a new vision and strategic direction. The partnership is a co-creation between the Convergence Partnership’s long-standing Steering Committee members, regional funders, and its grassroots and narrative change partners.
Today, the Convergence is guided by a new Steering Committee of 11 national and regional funders working together to advance joint actions and investments at the local, state, and national level: The California Endowment, Chicago Community Trust, Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, Elevated Chicago, Foundation for Louisiana, Health Forward Foundation, Kansas Health Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Nemours, Sierra Health Foundation/San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. It welcomed Conrad N. Hilton Foundation as the newest national funder to join the partnership. It will continue to be supported by PolicyLink as program director and fund manager, along with Prevention Institute as strategic advisor.
The losses and hardships of 2020 and efforts of the insurrectionist mob on January 6 reaffirmed that the only way forward is to take action to eliminate structural racism and white supremacy, and transform established systems of power that perpetuate racial inequities. 2020 also showed the tremendous power of Black and other organizers of color in places like Georgia and Arizona who continue to pave the way toward building a true democracy and an equitable society.
The health of families, children, communities, and nation hinges on ensuring that everyone—especially those most impacted by structural racism—can participate in the nation’s democratic systems and feel safe and empowered to do so. Convergence will work toward this new vision by:
- Amplifying Community Power—Investing in the power and agency of people of color and low-income people to transform racist policies and systems by making investments that expand the equitable grassroots, power-building infrastructure for local, state, and national policy and systems change.
- Transforming Narratives—Elevating narratives and stories that shift public attitudes toward inclusion, belonging, and the dignity of all people by using its positioning and platforms to advance a national narrative driven by local experiences and successes of people of color and low-income people that shifts the paradigm toward racial justice and health equity.
- Building Funder Capacity—Mobilizing and influencing funders, including itself, to embrace transformative practices and relationships that dismantle systemic racism and power imbalances in philanthropy. Seven new partners are committed to this fundamental shift and to bring more of the sector into equitable practices.
Beginning in May 2020, Convergence provided support to 19 grassroots leaders and organizations in seven places across the country working toward an equitable community recovery from COVID-19. These rapid response grants were intended to fill a notable resource gap for grassroots organizations–funding critical organizing work and planning to ensure groups have the capacity to adapt and scale their local and state policy campaigns to the changing environment.
For more information, click here.
The California Endowment (Los Angeles, CA)
The California Endowment (TCE) announced plans to issue $300 million in social bonds to further its commitment to investing in a strong social justice infrastructure that will lead to improved health and racial equity in California. With an ongoing pandemic, a national awakening to racial injustice, and an increasing political divide, TCE’s board of directors and leadership believe that philanthropy must go above and beyond its current commitment in order to see full, transformative systems change in California.
TCE also announced that two minority-owned investment banks will serve alongside J.P. Morgan as the lead underwriters of the offering. African American owned investment banking firms, Siebert Williams Shank and Loop Capital Markets will participate with a combined total of 50 percent, and J.P. Morgan will comprise the remaining 50 percent of the offering. In addition, the bond counsel, Hawkins Delafield & Wood, LLP and underwriting counsel, Nixon Peabody, have each named women partners to lead their respective racially diverse legal teams in support of TCE’s social bond offering.
TCE leadership recognizes that this critical and important objective of the social bond offering process will send a strong message about advancing racial equality and economic opportunity in hopes that others will follow suit, specifically to take action to address the structural inequalities and health disparities faced by African Americans and minority- and women-owned businesses.
The social bond funding will support a number of efforts that align with TCE’s goals for the next decade. Creating a larger health and public health workforce through pipeline programs that start as young as elementary school, greater investments building on the Affordable Care Act to create a universal health care system in California, and the completion of a new center that supports statewide community organizing infrastructure focused on civic engagement, activism, and advocacy are just a few of the initiatives to be funded through this investment.
Contact: Karen Napoletano at 559.443.5303 or knapoletano@calendow.org.
Commonwealth Fund (New York, NY)
The Commonwealth Fund’s Health Equity Action Fund is a major new initiative to advance equity in United States health care. Its goal is to contribute to efforts to dismantle systemic racism in health care policy and practice and counter inequity in treatment, patient experience, and health outcomes for Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.
Financial and regulatory pressures can motivate health care leaders to examine their internal cultures, attitudes, and beliefs and take remedial action. At the same time, delivery systems must partner with their local communities in order to fully understand the needs and experiences of the people they serve and to become effective anti racist organizations. The Health Equity Action Fund will develop, promote, and evaluate interventions to:
- Disseminate effective anti racism practices or models of community partnership, both in the United States and abroad
- Incentivize progress toward anti racism goals through pay-for-value programs
- Promote the collection and reporting of data disaggregated by race and ethnicity
- Create accreditation standards for measuring, tracking, and reporting on comparative care experiences
- Establish regulatory requirements for inclusive community partnerships
People who work in health care are too often unaware of, or ignore, the ways in which prevailing institutional culture and personal attitudes contribute to racism. To foster anti racism in health care, it will be essential to show how racism and bias manifests itself within management, among members of the workforce, and between patients and providers. Examples of work in this area include:
- Efforts to track the history of racism in United States health care and health policy and the impact of racism and bias on health outcomes and patient experience
- The development of metrics for assessing how racism manifests itself in health care
- The application of equity measurement and reporting systems for tracking progress in dismantling racism in health care
Having insurance does not alone guarantee equity in the provision and receipt of health services. The Health Equity Action Fund will sponsor efforts to ensure federal and state policies related to health coverage explicitly combat racism and ensure good access to high-quality services from community providers that prioritize equity. Examples of activities include:
- Evaluating how options for expanding coverage through the Affordable Care Act would combat systemic racism and improve the health and well-being of people of color
- Examining how Medicare, Medicaid, and other coverage programs can dismantle racism in health care and better serve people of color
- Developing new policy options that can address inequities in care.
Contact: Bethanne Fox at 212.606.3853 or bf@cmwf.org.
CDC Foundation (Atlanta, GA)
The CDC Foundation launched a new public-private coalition for a national campaign called Alliance for Million Hearts to confront cardiovascular disease. COVID-19 has exposed public health vulnerabilities through its connection to underlying medical conditions—chief among these is cardiovascular disease, which remains the leading cause of death in the United States even during the pandemic. There is a relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease: deaths from heart disease and stroke have increased during the pandemic, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
This new campaign will empower more adults to prevent heart disease and strokes by empowering more people to understand their personal risk for heart disease and stroke, believe in their power to change it and take steps that lower their risks. Amgen and Bayer are funders for the campaign; the FH Foundation and the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors have joined the Alliance as the first community partners.
To read more, click here.
Contact: Amy Tolchinsky at 404.523.3486.
George Family Foundation (Minneapolis, MN)
The George Family Foundation recently awarded $995,000 to 40 organizations, bringing its total giving to more than $5.2 million for the year, a record number for the foundation. In its most recent grantmaking round, the foundation continued to support the general operations of many long-term partners. It also issued three new grants to further its mission.
The grants approved include:
- Appetite for Change—to support mindfulness programming for the Youth Training and Opportunities program. ($10,000)
- Audubon California—to support general operations of the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary. ($50,000)
- Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative—to support Nicollet Square supportive services. ($15,000)
- Betty Ford Alpine Gardens—to support general operations. ($10,000)
- Big City Mountaineers—to support programs for women and girls to attend expeditions and camps in the Boundary Waters. ($30,000)
- Café Momentum—to support general operations. ($30,000)
- Carleton College—to support the Class of 1996’s efforts to raise $690,000 in honor of their 25th reunion and to be used for scholarships for students with high financial need ($25,000) and additional grant to support George International Fellows due to COVID-19. ($10,000)
- Children’s HeartLink—to support general operations. ($15,000)
- Compassion & Choices—to support general operations to help ensure everyone in Minnesota and across America has the options they need to die in peace and with dignity. ($50,000)
- Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa—to support the Conservation Corps Minnesota Summer Youth program. ($30,000)
- Eagle Valley Land Trust—to support general operations.($15,000)
- The Dallas Foundation—to support general operations for Bonton Farms. ($30,000)
- Eagle Valley Land Trust—to support general operations.($15,000)
- Enriching Lives through Music—to support general operations on behalf of the Next Generation ($30,000)
- Girls Inc.—to support general operations on behalf of the Next Generation Fund. ($20,000)
- GirlVentures—to support GirlVentures Outdoor Adventure and Leadership Programs: Empowering Girls from Diverse Communities to Become Environmental Stewards. ($10,000)
- Penny George Institute Foundation—to support training and education for Penny George Institute for Health and Healing practitioners. ($25,000)
- Global Minnesota—to support general operations. ($15,000)
- ISAIAH—to support the Building an Inclusive and Equitable Minnesota program. ($40,000)
- Junior Players Dallas—to support general operations on behalf of the Next Generation Fund. ($20,000)
- Karuna-Shechen—to support Shechen Clinics in Nepal, India, and Bhutan and in honor of Matthieu Ricard. ($25,000)
- MacPhail Center for Music—to support the After-School Strings program on behalf of the Next Generation Fund. ($30,000)
- Mayo Clinic—to support general operations for the Mayo Clinic Center for Women’s Health.
- Mind & Life Institute—to support general operations. ($25,000)
- Mindful Life Project—to support general operations on behalf of the Next Generation Fund. ($40,000)
- Minneapolis Institute of Art—to support the annual fund. ($15,000)
- Minnesota Orchestra—in honor of the leadership of Marilyn Carlson Nelson and Paula DeCosse. ($15,000)
- Minnesota Public Radio—to support the annual fund. ($15,000)
- National Academy of Sciences—to support A National Academy of Medicine Project to advance financing that rewards better health and well-being. ($50,000)
- Pathways—to support general operations. ($15,000)
- POETIC—to support general operations on behalf of the Next Generation Fund. ($20,000)
- Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation—to support the Itasca Project’s Minnesota Young American Leaders program. ($50,000)
- Somali Success School—to support general operations due to COVID-19. ($10,000)
- Twin Cities Medical Society—to support Honoring Choices Minnesota’s Rural Community-Based Advance Care Planning Phone Facilitation Helpline pilot program. ($10,000)
- Twin Cities PBS—to support the annual fund. ($15,000)
- University of St. Thomas—to support the annual fund. ($15,000)
- Urban Strategies, Inc.—to support general operations for Green Garden Bakery. ($20,000)
- Vote Run Lead—to support the RUN 51 Minnesota program. ($30,000)
- Walk-In Counseling Center—to support general operations. ($15,000)
- Wilderness Inquiry—to support the Project FIT: Building Healthy Families and Thriving Communities through Shared Outdoor Adventure program. ($15,000)
- YWCA Minneapolis—to support the Girls Incorporated program. ($60,000)
The Rider-Pool Foundation (Allentown, PA)
The Rider-Pool Foundation announced the participants of the seventh year of the Collective Impact Fellowship. This cohort represents leadership across sectors that address social determinants of health at a community level including education, housing, nutrition, and mental health.
The Fellows are:
- Dalairis Amaro, Site Coordinator, Communities in Schools
- Hasshan Batts, Executive Director, Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley
- Nate Boateng, Project Analyst – Network Transformation, Lehigh Valley Health Network
- Sherri Brokopp Binder, Executive Director, Ripple Community Inc.
- LaTarsha Brown, Partnership and Communication Coordinator, Community Bike Works
- Hannah Clark, Senior Planner, Michael Baker International
- Veronica Gonzalez, Executive Director, Valley Health Partners Community Health Center
- Katarah Jordan, Director, Second Harvest Food Bank
- Leonard Lightner, Director of Community and Economic Development, City of Allentown
- Samantha Shaak, Program Manager, Rider-Pool Collective Impact Fellowship and Director of Community Innovation and Evaluation, Lehigh Valley Health Network
- Reverend Maritza Torres-Dolich, Pastor of Outreach, Christ Lutheran Church and Executive Director, St. Stephens Outreach Center
- Tony Winters, Public Health Informatics Fellow, Centers for Disease Control
The foundation created The Collective Impact Fellowship Program in 2014 to address and make measurable improvement to complex quality of life challenges within neighborhoods surrounding Allentown’s downtown Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) by training and supporting current and emerging nonprofit and community leaders. To date, 63 Collective Impact Fellows have completed the program and are working in neighborhoods surrounding the NIZ and across the Lehigh Valley. Additional support for this program is provided by The Dorothy Rider Pool Health Care Trust.
In 2021, the fellowship has adopted an advanced framework that incorporates several returning Collective Impact Fellows in mentoring roles, new local leaders to the program, and a focus for community improvement in and near the neighborhoods that make up census tracts 18 and 20 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Over the next nine months, the new cohort of the fellowship will participate in an intensive program of virtual training from national experts in effective project design and evaluation, theories of action, authentic community engagement, and effective communications and messaging. These new skills can be used to address complex community issues and develop stronger cross-sector partnerships.
To learn more, click here.
Contact: Katherine Davis Santoro at 610.248.3863 or kdsantoro22@gmail.com.