Each grant made from our Cultivating Health Grant Program is different. Some grants are unrestricted and multi-year, some are restricted and limited to one year. When feasible, we look to provide flexible multi-year funding. We do not have minimum or maximum grant amounts with this program, grant amounts are determined by weighing the scope of the initiative in relation to our strategic priorities. Because we work closely with each prospective grantee and aim to communicate clearly and timely about the likelihood of funding, most applications to the Cultivating Health Grant Program are approved. Our two-stage application process also ensures that we’re only asking questions that strongly influence our funding decisions.
Seeking support for your nonprofit?
For capacity building or other similar requests above $30,000 FCH will consider requests for technical assistance related to:
- Partnerships, Mergers, or Acquisitions
- Strategic Planning
- Organization-wide Evaluation
- Financial Infrastructure Assessment, Cash Flow Analysis, Cost Accounting
Seeking support for your town or school?
We are particularly interested in funding requests that:
- Significantly increase a municipality’s capacity to support, build, and strengthen school/town-sponsored committees or boards
- Support professional development or educational opportunities for school/town-sponsored committees or boards
- Strengthen coordination between towns with shared goals and objectives
- Support strategic communication efforts with the public
Proposals will need to demonstrate how the request specifically improves any of the living conditions required for health and well-being.
Seeking support to improve community-level infrastructure in your town or region?
We are especially interested in funding requests from nonprofits or towns which aim to:
- Plan, create, or increase access to any community-level infrastructure that has the potential to improve health outcomes.
We define community infrastructure as any community-level resource that shapes the conditions experienced by community members. We will give priority to initiatives related to food (access, procurement, distribution), housing, and broadband OR initiatives that will contribute directly to community health access.
Photo by Sarah Kenyon.
Connect with Natashea
Have an idea? Unsure if your initiative is aligned with our funding priorities? We want to hear from you.
Preparing Your Application
Our Cultivating Health Grant Program utilizes a two-stage process for most requests for funding; in Stage 1 applicants submit brief information about their concept or idea. Once reviewed and approved applicants will then be invited to complete Stage 2 and share full proposal information. For approved Stage 1 requests at or below $15,000, the foundation will accept Stage 1 as the complete application. If there is another proposal that has been developed for another funder, we will also accept this in lieu of our application.
Key information about the organization or fiscal sponsor, including:
- Contact Information
- Organization Status
Basic information about the project, including:
- Project Name
- Project Period
- Project Purpose (400 words or less): what the work entails and if applicable, how the proposed project would improve living conditions required for health and well-being
- Budgetary information about the project, including:
- Requested amount
- Estimated Project Budget (not exclusive to FCH Funding Request)
- Descriptive information about what funds would be used towards (e.g. supplies, consultant, personnel)
FCH staff works with all prospective grantees of the foundation to determine application requirements for this stage. The following outlines both the minimum and potential supplemental materials that may be requested. We do this to right-size our application requirements, so our request related to your proposal is proportionate to the scope of the project.
Minimum Requirements:
- If there is not publicly available information detailing the organization’s work and mission, we ask prospective grantees for an overview of the organization, long-range plans, and accomplishments most related to the proposed project
- The organization’s budget or if a large organization, the department budget affiliated with the project
- A statement detailing the demonstrated need for the project, program or initiative
- A narrative describing the opportunity
Potential Supplemental Information & Materials:
- A logic model for the project, which will ask about the project’s objective, activities and anticipated outputs and outcomes OR an existing work plan for the project
- A timeline that details key events, milestones or activities that will take place during the project period
- Details about the project’s evaluation plan, including what impact, at the time of application, it is believed the project will have, and how results of the project will be used
- Complete budget information, accounting for all expenses and relevant revenue for the proposed project
- Supplemental budgetary information such as pending or anticipated funding requests, as well as plans to sustain the project at the conclusion of the grant
- For projects that rely significantly on partners the foundation requests a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and/or Scope of Work as appropriate, for each involved
As part of our due diligence, FCH will obtain copies of your organization’s 501(c)3 designation letter and a recent 990. However, if these cannot be accessed through publicly available resources, FCH staff will reach out to obtain these directly from prospective grantees.