Blue Shield of California Foundation (San Francisco, CA)

Blue Shield of California Foundation invested another $6.53 million in communities statewide toward its mission to make California the healthiest state and end domestic violence. Its board of trustees unanimously approved a package of grants designed to advance the foundation’s core strategies: to strengthen economic security and mobility, break the cycle of domestic violence, and align systems with community priorities. In addition, the foundation has made multiple rapid-response grants this quarter to organizations defending the health, safety, and economic security of California communities.

  • Alliance for Girls—to mobilize a network of over 120 organizations in its membership collectively serving over 300,000 youth, to ensure coordinated systems of care, access to critical resources and information, and bold, data-driven advocacy. ($520,000 over two years)
  • California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative—to support its network of collaboratives around the state that are focused on health equity. ($450,000 over two years)
  • California Partnership to End Domestic Violence ($640,000 over two years)
  • Futures Without Violence ($600,000 over two years)
  • Public Health Advocates—to support Defend California, a statewide movement to protect the public health and social systems underserved communities depend on. ($375,000 for two years)
  • State of Equity—a project of Public Health Institute that will continue to advance health and racial equity work in government. ($475,000 over two years)

The foundation and its partners will continue to elevate stories of the policies and systems that advance — or hinder — Californians’ economic security and mobility. This quarter, grants totaling $350,000 will go toward supporting journalism uncovering deep economic inequities in California and what solutions are possible to improve Californians’ health and well-being. Among these grants, $50,000 to Capital & Main will support its State of Inequality column investigating, among other things, issues in California’s care economy.

For a complete list of current grants and more information on the foundation’s grantmaking, click here.

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

The Foundation for a Healthy High Point announced its first round of grant awards for 2025, totaling $833,334 to support local initiatives that address root causes of health disparities and strengthen the systems that support well-being. These investments reflect the foundation’s continued focus on upstream factors such as behavioral health, built environment, organizational capacity, youth development, and support for immigrants and refugees, that influence long-term community health outcomes. The funded efforts are grounded in equity, collaboration, and the belief that lasting change comes from building community power and partnerships.

The approved Spring 2025 grant recipients are:

  • Alcohol & Drug Services of Guilford, Inc.—to support a second year of the Be Strong Families Parent Café model in High Point, North Carolina. With the first year of funding, ADS established a core group of community members and parents trained in the BSF Parent Café model and launched a Parent Café series in High Point, North Carolina. The organization will train a second cohort of parents and community members to host Parent Cafes and engage families, and will launch a Parent Leadership Circle advisory group. ($50,000)
  • Beyond Sports—to pilot a new program called Beyond Recess in three Title I elementary schools in High Point, North Carolina. The initiative aims to redesign recess as a tool for trauma-informed care, improving student engagement, behavior, and academic outcomes. The effort supports both students and teachers to decrease behavioral incidents and increase school attendance and educational achievement scores. ($80,000)
  • D-UP—to continue the expansion of its work in the Washington Street neighborhood with the addition of two new staff positions, enabling the organization to focus on community development and strategic initiatives. D-UP provides wraparound services and programs promoting youth health, education, and life readiness while advancing neighborhood-level development. ($83,334)
  • FaithAction International—to continue its partnership with Triad Health Project by embedding case management services for immigrants and refugees directly in High Point, North Carolina. The grant also supports advocacy, education, and elevating the lived experiences of immigrant communities in High Point, North Carolina. ($50,000)
  • Mega Mission Ministries (M3)—to strengthen its operational capacity, launch youth-led storytelling programs, and expand access to its Voices on Washington Street initiative. M3 operates the Community Writing Center in partnership with High Point University. It is developing a new student-run open mic series and a student-run podcast as part of the Voices on Washington Street program. The grant also supports adding student transportation. ($100,000)
  • Resilience High Point on behalf of High Point Schools Partnership—to formalize and grow a network of Youth Enrichment Providers. The grant will support shared measurement, coordinated programming, and a new Capacity Building Fund to increase the quality and impact of youth services in High Point, North Carolina. ($145,000)
  • Southwest Renewal Foundation (SWRF)—to support land use and zoning reforms that remove barriers to health equity in inner-city South High Point, North Carolina. SWRF will partner with city planners and a local organizer to launch a civic engagement series and create a Community Task Force focused on advancing equitable development, public health, and resident voice in planning decisions. ($175,000)
  • Success Hope Center—to transition from a volunteer-led church-supported effort into a fully staffed, community-anchored organization providing multi-generational programs that span academic support, parenting education, and elder wellness. Programs include: Greater Success Study Hall, Parent Success Academy, and a Senior Day Program. ($150,000)

The foundation believes upstream investment is more than a strategy, it’s a responsibility. These grants reflect bold, local ideas that challenge the status quo and give communities the tools they need to lead. A second round of funding will be awarded later in 2025.

To learn more about eligibility, deadlines, and how to apply, click here.

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

The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts (Worcester, MA)

The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts awarded nearly $1 million in grants to 10 nonprofit organizations serving the region. The Activation Fund supports organizations in building capacity in sustainable ways as they work to address community-identified health issues.

The 2025 projects reflect a variety of focus areas, including completing repairs to an emergency shelter, purchasing a digital X-ray system for an urgent care facility and expanding language access by creating a recording studio to produce critical health information in multiple languages.

These grants will enable organizations to advance their work and deepen their impact by reaching more people, improving how they deliver their services or launching new programs that improve access to care and address social factors that shape people’s health.

The grant awards, totaling $998,000, are as follows:

  • AIDS Project Worcester—to modernize technological infrastructure agency-wide and migrate to a robust, cloud-based secure system, improving operational efficiency and elevating quality of services provided to clients and data reported to key stakeholders. ($125,000)
  • Center For Health Impact—to equip a language access recording studio at its offices in Worcester, Massachusetts that will be utilized by staff and partner organizations to produce audio translations of critical health information into multiple languages that reflect the needs of Central Massachusetts. ($42,000)
  • Cultivate Care Farms—for renovation of a historic shed on its property in Bolton, Massachusetts to become an ADA-compliant therapeutic space that is usable year-round for group and individual sessions, increasing program capacity and expanding access to underserved populations. ($125,000)
  • Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center—to purchase a digital X-ray system to equip a new, publicly accessible urgent care facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, reducing waiting times for diagnosis and treatment for patients in both the urgent care and primary care clinic. ($125,000)
  • Girls Inc. of Worcester—for training, renovations, and equipment needs related to Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care licensure for its after-school and summer programs, making them accessible to more low-income families who rely on state child care vouchers. ($75,000)
  • Guild of St. Agnes of Worcester—to partner with the Life is Good Playmaker Project, a nonprofit that provides trauma-informed training and support to early childhood professionals, to bring their signature certification program (Playmaker University) to staff and build internal capacity for meeting ongoing training needs by employing a train-the-trainer model, impacting more than 350 center-based educators and family child care providers as well as over 1,800 children in their care. ($91,000)
  • Habitat for Humanity North Central Massachusetts—to purchase a truck to support its Critical Home Repair Program, increasing its capacity to provide structural repairs, safety, accessibility, and independence-enhancing modifications for low-income homeowners, seniors, and veterans in the North Central Massachusetts region. ($65,000)
  • South Middlesex Opportunity Council—to complete critical capital repairs at its single adult emergency shelter located on Queen Street in Worcester, Massachusetts expanding capacity to meet increasing demand for services. ($125,000)
  • Winchendon Community Action Committee—to complete ADA-accessible renovations of indoor and outdoor community classroom spaces at The Hub, its community action center in Winchendon, Massachusetts enabling launch of an innovative workforce training and service-learning program benefiting up to 500 youth. ($120,000)
  • Worcester State Foundation—to acquire specialized, portable equipment that will enable expansion of community hearing screening services conducted by the Speech-Language-Hearing Center and enable screenings for special populations of adults and children who have difficulty responding to sound. ($105,000)

Contact: Izzy Nickel at 617.243.9950 or izzy@ballcg.com.

RIZE Massachusetts Foundation (Boston, MA)

The RIZE Massachusetts Foundation (RIZE), a nonprofit foundation dedicated to funding and collaborating on solutions to end the opioid overdose crisis in Massachusetts, announced that it is awarding nearly $440,000 in grants to develop a pipeline of social workers trained in harm reduction approaches to this crisis.

The Harm Reduction Training (HaRT) Scholars program supports specialized internships for Master of Social Work students at Boston College, Bridgewater State University, Simmons University, and Westfield State University. The funding will also support Northeastern University in its continued evaluation of the program.

The HaRT Scholars program was the first of its kind in the country in 2021.  It has supported paid internships and specialized training for 55 HaRT Scholars, and will support an additional 20 scholars in the upcoming 2025 to 2026 academic year.

Harm reduction training sites for the program receive increased clinical presence and a financial payment to offset time for intern supervision.  Each of the participating universities promotes the HaRT Scholars program to students who identify as BIPOC to increase the presence of racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse social workers in the field.

Contact: Molly McKinney at 617-243-9950 or molly@ballcg.com.

UniHealth Foundation (Glendale, CA)

The UniHealth Foundation board of directors approved an additional $600,000 in recovery funding to address the ongoing needs facing Los Angeles County in California after the Eaton and Palisades Fires. The funding continues to address both immediate relief needs, as well longer term recovery and rebuilding for survivors.

The foundation identified four categories as immediate needs: Food Collection and Distribution, Mental Health Services and Support, Environmental Health Impact, and First Responder Health and Legal and Other Support Services. It selected 26 grantees for its first round of Los Angeles County Wildfire Response and Relief grants.

  • AltaMed
  • Amanecer Community Counseling Service
  • Amigos de los Rios
  • Anti-Recidivism Coalition
  • Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights
  • Day One
  • Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services
  • Direct Relief, California Fire Relief
  • Five Acres – The Boys & Girls Aid Society of LA County
  • Foothill Family
  • Hollywood Food Coalition
  • Hope Crisis Response Network
  • Inner City Law
  • International Medical Corps
  • LeadingAge California
  • Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
  • Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County
  • Neighborhood Legal Services of LA County
  • Pacific Clinics
  • Pasadena Community Foundation
  • Public Counsel
  • UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
  • Villa Esperanza Services
  • World Central Kitchen
  • YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles
  • YWCA of San Gabriel Valley

Washington Square Health Foundation (Chicago, IL)

The Washington Square Health Foundation awarded a total of $225,000 in grants in August 2025 to promote and maintain access to adequate health care for all people in the Chicagoland area regardless of race, sex, creed, or financial need.

Grant highlights include:

  • Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago—to improve pediatric emergency readiness of multiple area hospitals through simulation training for health care providers which employs a newly developed multi-modal approach providing training of critical knowledge and skills.
  • Shirley Ryan AbilityLab—to support cutting edge research for a new approach to non-surgically treat muscle contractures for patients with Cerebral Palsy.
  • Cornerstone Community Outreach—to build out a fully-outfitted medical exam room within a homeless shelter and fund a Medical Coordinator, who will schedule therapy, pediatric, and specialty appointments, and accompany clients to off-site appointments.
  • Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science—to provide scholarships for advanced practice nursing students from the Chicago region who have committed to working locally in underserved areas after graduation.
  • Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance–to expand free access to peer-support meetings in the Chicagoland area for individuals with mood disorders to improve wellness and access to mental health services and care.
  • Center on Halsted—to expand testing, education, and support services for HIV in underserved communities on Chicago’s South and West sides, which experience higher rates of HIV infection and economic hardship.
  • The Night Ministry—to expand their mobile outreach bus program for the homeless by targeting high need areas, such as tent encampments and informal shelter locations, to deliver critical resources, such as food, health services, case management, and housing connections, directly to where they are most urgently needed.
  • CommunityHealth—to launch a community engagement program to spread awareness of the clinic’s primary and specialty care, medications, lab testing, mental health services, and health education that are available with no charge to low-income, uninsured and underinsured adults in Chicago.
  • Gilda’s Club Chicago—to provide funding for a new position to expand programs to connect individuals and families who are dealing with impacts of a cancer diagnosis with support groups, healthy lifestyle classes, children’s activities, social activities and events.
  • North Shore Hospitals Foundation—to provide young women ages 20–21 with no-cost access to doula care, including prenatal education, continuous in-hospital labor support, postpartum home visits, and monthly group sessions with other young women to foster community, ultimately improving patient pregnancy outcomes.
  • Chesed Chicago—to remodel their facility into a food pantry annex to ensure clean, efficient, and organized operations that will meet the rising need for food assistance and growing number of clients.
  • Bubby Fira’s Food Bank—to expand its home-delivered meal service to provide nutritious home-cooked meals to underserved areas experiencing increasing need.

Contact: Catherine Kapella at 312.664.6488 or kapella@wshf.org.

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