Greater Rochester Health Foundation
Contact information:
150 State St
Rochester, NY 14614
Phone: 585-258-1799
Fax: 585-258-1711
Website: http://www.thegrhf.org/
Type of foundation: Independent
Types of grants: Program, capital (when associated with a program request)
Description: The Greater Rochester Health Foundation is a health conversion foundation, created when the not-for-profit MVP Health Plan acquired Preferred Care in 2006. It functions as an independent foundation governed by a community-based board of directors and managed by a professional staff. It is designed as a sustainable source of funding to encourage local organizations to replicate the best evidence-based practices in community health, and to make it possible for the Greater Rochester area to improve community health. The Foundation considers requests for funding in the areas of health care delivery, neighborhood health status improvement and prevention.
The Foundation issues a Request for Proposal annually for its Opportunity Grants program. These grants fund improvements in health care delivery and prevention. Opportunity Grants do not include Childhood Healthy Weight grants, which have their own cycle. The application process for Opportunity Grants is usually announced in the spring for submission in the fall of that year. Grants have ranged from less than $26,000 for a one-year program to $800,000 for a three-year initiative.
Opportunity Grants support such projects as:
- Interventions that permanently solve a community health problem.
- Activities that significantly enhance an existing and successful community initiative.
- Investments that will strengthen a valuable community organization’s ability to be sustainable in the future.
- Programs that apply evidence-based or recognized ‘best practice’ interventions to address a community health problem.
Through a separate program, the Foundation makes grants in the area of childhood obesity prevention. These grants go directly to schools (up to $10,000) or to community groups (up to $7,500).
Sample grants (Opportunity Grants):
- $582,934 to the Ibero-American Action League, PRYD Youth Division to implement a culturally relevant program to encourage youth to make healthy choices to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancy in students in 7th - 12th grades. In addition to the Rochester City School District, Ibero/PRYD will work with the Metro Council for Teen Potential and the Children's Institute. The schools involved in the project are Franklin, Monroe, Edison, East and Jefferson (2011).
- $562,159 to the Visiting Nurse Telemedicine Program to expand its program designed to monitor patient's vital signs and symptoms using in-home monitoring equipment. This two-year grant is a collaborative relationship between Visiting Nurse Service of Rochester and Monroe County, Finger Lakes Visiting Nurse Service, MVP Health Care and the Anthony L. Jordan Health Center (2011).
- $500,000 to the YMCA of Greater Rochester to make the Maplewood Y the center of neighborhood activity with programs and services that support youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. The grant will also enable the Y to simplify its financial assistance program to be more culturally sensitive to ensure that programs are accessible to everyone in the northwest quadrant. The Y also will develop preventive and chronic disease-specific programming to meet the health needs of local residents (2011).
The full list of Opportunity Grant recipients from 2010-2011 is available here.
Fit for public broadcasting: The Foundation is explicitly interested in initiatives that improve the health of people in the Greater Rochester area. Several public radio and television stations nationwide have had success in securing grants from health conversion foundations with similar missions (e.g., The Colorado Trust has given grants to Colorado Public Television and Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting; The California Endowment has made grants to WETA, Radio Bilingue, Southern California Public Radio, KQED and KCET; Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky has made grants to Kentucky Educational Television). This Foundation may be a candidate for public media, especially in collaboration with health-focused community organizations or health care providers.
Eligibility: Grants will be awarded to organizations in Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates Counties with projects or initiatives of 1-3 years in duration. The Foundation will consider paying indirect costs up to 15% of a total grant's direct costs. The 2013 Opportunity Grants will NOT support projects focusing on childhood obesity prevention and treatment, Neighborhood Health Status improvement, provision of insurance for the uninsured, or research. Opportunity Grants will NOT go to projects that are educational only.
Deadline: A letter of intent is required and due by August 6, 2012 for Opportunity Grants. The proposal deadline for the 2013 Opportunity Grant program is September 7, 2012.
How to apply: Detailed guidelines and application information for the 2013 Opportunity Grants are available here. A letter of intent is required and due by August 6, 2012. The letter of intent form should be downloaded from the Foundation website and e-mailed to Sharon Legette-Sobers (slegette-sobers@thegrhf.org) by 5:00 p.m. on August 6, 2012. An informational teleconference for interested applicants will be held on July 17 at 3:00 p.m. Meetings with the Program Officer may be requested, but are not required. Full proposals must be completed and submitted using the Foundation’s online system.
Giving range: Opportunity Grants typically range from $50,000 - $200,000 annually for up to three years. All applicants who submit proposals with total funding requests over $200,000 will be expected to engage an evaluator. Total cost of evaluation should not exceed 15% of direct project costs. A total of five to ten Opportunity Grants will be awarded in the 2013 cycle.
Assets: $191,633,738 (year ending December 31, 2010).
Total giving: $4,330,637 (year ending December 31, 2010).
