Austin-Bailey Health and Wellness Foundation (Canton, OH)

In September 1996, Doctors Hospital in Massillon was sold to a for-profit entity and the proceeds from that sale formed what became the Austin-Bailey Health and Wellness Foundation. The foundation serves the Ohio counties of Holmes, Stark, Tuscarawas, and Wayne and has granted more than $11 million since its inception. This includes providing scholarships totaling more than $800,000 to college students involved in health-related studies. The foundation’s mission is to support programs that promote the physical and mental well-being of the citizens of the counties mentioned above. 

Following are the grants approved by the foundation for the September cycle:

  • A Kid Again—to provide holiday happiness and healing for kids with life-threatening illnesses. ($5,000)
  • AHEAD—for a behavior coach to provide early intervention support for young students experiencing behavioral, emotional, and social challenges. ($5,000)
  • Apostolic Christian Home—to add a cross trainer as part of its therapy program. ($4,900)
  • Beacon Charitable Pharmacy—for operational support. ($40,000)
  • Ben Curtis Family Foundation—to provide food through its Birdie Bag Program to schoolchildren in the Alliance City School District. ($3,000)
  • Chapel Hill Community—to replace its aging vital sign monitors. ($9,300)
  • Compassion Delivered—for a reach-in refrigerator and freezer. ($10,000)
  • Heart of Ohio Diaper Bank—for essential supplies. ($8,000)
  • Michael’s World—for clothes for needy children. ($5,000)
  • Orrville Area Boys & Girls Club—for mental health program supplies. ($5,000)
  • Pomerene Hospital—for thyroid uptake equipment. ($28,600)
  • Sacred Ground—for a used wheelchair-accessible van to transport clients weekdays. ($7,000)
  • Tuscarawas County Senior Center—toupgrade fitness equipment for its senior clientele. ($23,300)

The foundation has two grant cycles each year and welcomes grant requests that are health and wellness related. It is suggested that nonprofit organizations call the foundation office first to discuss their project or program. The deadline for submitting grants for the next cycle is November 17, 2026.

Contact: Don Sultzbach at 330.580.2380.

The Cleveland Foundation (Cleveland, OH)

The Lake Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation has awarded $325,000 to support organizations leading transformative projects in Lake and Geauga counties in Ohio, marking a new era in the fund’s 38-year history. 

The award represents the first round of grantmaking from the fund following a two-year community planning process to assess and maximize its impact into the future.  

The fund now supports three focused impact areas: capital projects for long-term transformation, projects targeting economic and workforce conditions for businesses and residents, and infrastructure and systems projects that help achieve impactful outcomes.

Grantee organizations and projects include:

  • Crossroads Health—to continue its work toward achieving Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) status to expand access to its behavioral and integrated health care services and comprehensive care for low-income, uninsured, and medically vulnerable populations in Lake and Geauga counties in Ohio.
  • Extended Housing Inc.—for the completion of construction at Windermere Village, an eight-unit permanent supportive housing development for families with a disability and at risk of homelessness.
  • Lake County YMCA—to create an inclusion-focused, barrier-free playground environment featuring adaptive equipment, sensory-rich experiences and more to ensure children of all abilities can play, learn, and build relationships together. 
  • Lake County Free Clinic—for the launch of a Mobile Medical Unit program to bring free health care directly to uninsured and underserved children, adolescents, and young adults across Lake and Geauga counties, helping overcome barriers such as transportation challenges, provider shortages, and gaps in insurance coverage.
  • Lifeline, Inc.—to expand its JumpStart Car Repair Program, which helps low- to moderate-income residents maintain reliable transportation, a critical factor in accessing employment, education, job training, and child care.
  • West Creek Conservancy—to launch critical planning and assessment work for site remediation, ecological restoration, and trail development that will transform 108 acres in Painesville Township into a publicly accessible riverfront destination, complementing the nearby Diamond Shamrock revitalization effort.
  • Ravenwood Mental Health Center—to create a sustainable internal training program that will strengthen the skills, confidence, and effectiveness of employees by equipping them with expertise in areas such as crisis intervention, suicide prevention, trauma-informed care, client engagement, family support, and risk assessment, helping them better respond to increasingly complex community needs.

The grant process will reopen for applications in January 2027. Any 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit conducting meaningful work for and with residents of Lake and Geauga counties is eligible to apply. Learn more at clevelandfoundation.org/grants (select “Other grant opportunities”).

Contact: 216.861.3810.

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

The John A. Hartford Foundation approved new grants totaling $3,355,104 to expand access to community-based palliative care and advance policies that support aging, caregiving, and long-term care.

  • Center to Advance Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai—to expand access to standardized, scalable, and sustainable community-based palliative care for people living with serious illness across home, nursing home, and ambulatory care settings. CAPC will assess the national landscape of community-based palliative care and identify gaps in availability and establish program standards across settings; train 5,000 clinicians; provide tools and technical assistance; and work with the National Academy for State Health Policy, the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), accrediting bodies, and payers to advance payment and policy pathways. ($2,009,821 for three years)
  • National Academy for State Health Policy—to improve access to community-based palliative care by helping states strengthen supportive policies, including Medicaid payment policies. Building on existing momentum, NASHP will conduct policy research, disseminate tools, facilitate state peer learning on communications and model legislation, track and promote state legislative and budgetary actions, and provide education and outreach to policymakers. As a result, up to 25 states will build capacity for community-based palliative care, and five new states will make concrete progress on regulations, policy, or payment. ($925,001 for three years)
  • Justice in Aging—to work in coalition with advocates, experts, and researchers to develop a unified, comprehensive, age-friendly policy agenda to present to Congress and the next presidential administration. The policy agenda will reflect priorities including long-term care and caregiving, health care, elder rights, and economic security. The project’s Future of Aging Policy Playbook and federal action plans will provide a clear, actionable path forward for policymakers to improve the lives of older adults. This initiative is cofunded by The SCAN Foundation. ($250,000 for two years)
  • Oregon Health & Science University, Center for Health Systems Effectiveness—to study Washington state’s WA Cares program, the nation’s first payroll-funded long-term care insurance program designed to expand access to long-term care. Using quantitative analysis of administrative data, the study will examine who uses the benefit and how, whether the $36,500 lifetime benefit is sufficient, and what happens after benefits are exhausted, including beneficiary transitions to Medicaid. Findings will help identify access gaps, inform coordination between WA Cares and Medicaid, and provide evidence for policymakers in other states considering similar long-term care insurance programs for older adults and their family caregivers. ($170,282 for two years)

Contact: Kiri Oliver at 212.324.7484 or kiri.oliver@johnahartford.org.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey (Millburn, NJ)

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey awarded $2,137,909 in grants to 11 New Jersey nonprofit organizations in its third quarter of grantmaking in 2026. The centerpiece is a $1 million capital grant to Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center for a dedicated Short Stay Unit at its new Melchiorre Cancer Center, which will deliver brief infusion treatments for patients with cancer.

Several of this quarter’s grants continue the foundation’s commitment to preparing the next generation of health care workers. The Health Resources and Services Administration projects a nationwide shortfall approaching 700,000 physicians, nurses, and other clinicians by 2037.

Grants awarded in the third quarter include:

  • Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center—for a dedicated Short Stay Unit at the Melchiorre Cancer Center. ($1,000,000)
  • Easterseals New Jersey—for an integrated care initiative using telehealth and remote monitoring in group homes in Newark. ($75,000)
  • Helen Keller International—to expand a program that trains Newark youth to deliver vision screenings to their peers and communities. ($115,000)
  • Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association—for the third year of its All Hearts Collaborative. ($111,428)
  • Jewish Educational Center—for the third year of Thrive Together, a social-emotional learning initiative for Jewish adolescents. ($150,000)
  • New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics—to launch a pilot program training staff at Family Success Centers in Newark to provide culturally responsive, evidence-based immunization education. ($90,557)
  • Rabbinical College of America—for the third year of its Office of Emotional Wellness, which provides in-school clinical guidance for students. ($130,000)
  • STRIVE International—for the second year of its Career Path Program in Newark, which will grow from 75 to 125 students training for roles such as patient care technician, patient navigator, and certified medical assistant. ($130,000)
  • Three Doctors Foundation—for a mentorship program run in partnership with Montclair State University’s Health Careers Program. ($60,000)
  • The Valerie Fund—for a hematology nurse navigator to work with patients and their families at Goryeb Children’s Hospital at Morristown Medical Center. ($148,000)
  • Visiting Nurse Association of Central New Jersey—for the third year of its Community Doula Learning Collaborative in Essex County, which will recruit and train seven new doulas. ($127,924)

Contact: Kevin McManeminat 973.921.1210 ext. 1101

RIZE Massachusetts Foundation (Boston, MA)

RIZE Massachusetts Foundation (RIZE) announced $620,000 in grant funding for five nonprofit, community-based organizations to scale substance use disorder care models that improve continuity of care and reduce overdose risk.

The one-year grant program, Linkages to Care (LinC): Scaling Effective Models, runs from July 2026 through June 2027 and builds on RIZE’s original LinC grant program.

A RIZE-funded 2024 research study found that individuals who survive an overdose face a heightened risk of future overdose and that linking them to ongoing services following a hospital discharge is likely to save lives. In response, RIZE awarded nearly $2 million that year through its first LinC grant program. The funding supported community-based treatment, harm reduction, and recovery programs to strengthen connections to substance use services for individuals during hospital visits and after discharge to the community.

In this next phase, LinC: Scaling Effective Models grantees, which are located across Eastern and Central Massachusetts, will refine, document, and disseminate best practices for broader use. RIZE’s decision to extend the initiative was based on an evaluation of the original LinC grant program. Preliminary findings indicate that the program increased both the frequency and depth of collaboration between hospitals and community-based organizations, helping more people with substance use disorder connect to, and remain engaged in, community-based care after discharge.

RIZE awarded the following grants:

  • AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, in partnership with Cape Cod Hospital, Duffy Health Center, and Gosnold. ($135,000)
  • Community Health Connections, Fitchburg, in partnership with UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital. ($135,000)
  • North Shore Community Health, Salem, in partnership with Mass General Brigham Salem Hospital. ($135,000)
  • The Pettengill House, Inc., Amesbury, in partnership with Beth Israel Lahey Health Anna Jaques Hospital. ($135,000)
  • Riverbend, Lowell, in partnership with Lowell General Hospital. ($75,000)

Throughout the grant year, RIZE will engage the Institute for Community Health to work directly with each grantee to document and strengthen its approach, and to develop a plan to share the model broadly. This will expand the potential impact of effective linkage-to-care models across the care continuum.

Contact: Molly McKinney at 617.243.9950 or molly@ballcg.com.

Vitamix Foundation (Cleveland, OH)

The Vitamix Foundation recently announced the recipients of its 2026 grant cycle, awarding more than $480,000 to five partners working to expand access to nutritious food, strengthen early childhood nutrition education, and improve health outcomes for families and communities nationwide.

This year’s grantees are addressing some of the most pressing challenges in nutrition and health, from rising rates of diet-related disease among children to food insecurity and inequitable access to healthy, whole foods. Through a range of approaches touching individuals to systems-level changes, together these partners are working to ensure that moms, babies, and families have the knowledge, resources, and support needed to thrive.

  • Arkansas Children’s Research Institute—in partnership with the ENRICH Center at Louisiana Tech University, will advance Year 2 of the WISE Babies evaluation, an evidence-based program designed for children from birth to age three. Building on a successful pilot, the project will expand to new early child care education sites across Arkansas and Louisiana while continuing a rigorous randomized control study to strengthen the evidence for promoting fruit and vegetable consumption in early childhood.
  • Brighter Bites—to provide families with fresh fruits and vegetables alongside hands-on nutrition education, while exploring and testing new models for scaling their impact. By partnering with schools and community organizations, Brighter Bites empowers children and their families to build lifelong healthy eating habits.
  • CDC Foundation—to maintain and strengthen the Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in Pregnancy (HNH-P) Action Network, bringing together partners across sectors committed to improving nutrition and health outcomes for pregnant people and families. The network’s leadership will focus on strategic planning, expanding member engagement, and developing resources to sustain and grow a national movement dedicated to health equity and the eradication of hunger.
  • National WIC Association—to strengthen and elevate the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) by providing technical assistance and support to WIC providers and leaders. These efforts will ensure that more families can access critical nutrition support, education, and healthy foods during key periods of maternal and early childhood development.
  • Teaching Kitchen Collaborative—to build on its April 2026 convening in Washington, DC, where national leaders across medical education, policy, and nutrition science came together to advance best practices in medical nutrition education. This next phase will translate those insights into shared resources and actionable next steps to integrate nutrition more fully into medical education and practice nationwide.

To learn more about the Vitamix Foundation and its impact, visit vitamixfoundation.org.

Contact: Abby Szabo at 216.678.2355 or aszabo@vitamixfoundation.org.

Share this