Community Engagement Grants

Program Overview:
The Community Engagement Grants program supports PKD Centers of Excellence in implementing community-level initiatives, programs, and events that educate and spread awareness of PKD. In 2023, the PKD Foundation awarded $40,000 in community grants.

Mission and Goals

Built upon the belief that the best way to provide PKD-centered care is through patient-focused, comprehensive care with coordination and support of an integrated care team guided by patient navigation services. The program's mission stands on three pillars:

• Understanding PKD through research
• Ensuring better care for all individuals with PKD
• Educating and empowering the community

Award Details

• Funding Amount: Up to $6,000 per grant for one year
• Funding Contingent: Upon designation in the PKD Center of Excellence program

Eligible Project Types

The community grant cycle solicits applications in the following areas:

• Host a patient educational or awareness seminar
• Improve underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of PKD among the general chronic kidney disease community
• Encourage primary care and non-specialized clinicians to refer patients with PKD to specialists at the PKD Foundation Centers of Excellence and Partner Clinics
• Collect and address challenges from patients in your community around barriers to accessing local care
• Support shared decision-making around dialysis modalities and related barriers
• Improve support of preparations for transplant, including early education and the transplant evaluation process, especially for those candidates affected by the race-based calculation to estimate eGFR
• Training in diversity, cultural sensitivity, and working with underrepresented groups within the ADPKD community (individuals with disabilities, people of color, individuals who speak a non-English language)
• Active outreach initiatives to underrepresented groups within the ADPKD community
• Identify the social determinants of health that affect your community and identify a plan to assist patients in overcoming those barriers
• Note: Proposal topics are not limited to the above suggestions

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants must be team members in the PKD Foundation's Centers of Excellence program
• Grants do NOT support:
  • Indirect costs
  • Salary costs for individuals employed on the project
  • Capital expenses (computers, furniture, building fixtures)
• Requests for funds can support:
  • Participant costs
  • Facilitator/instructor expenses (person providing direct service to participants)
• Grants require at least two investigators:
  1. Clinician, nurse practitioner, patient navigator, or other care team member
  2. A patient stakeholder
• PKD Foundation encouraged including members of the center's Patient Advisory Panel in the initiative planning process

Project Requirements

• All funded organizations and institutions must demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion
• Projects should be impactful, measurable, and have potential to be sustainable and scalable through future support
• Projects can be new or existing grant-supported areas and/or pilot initiatives

Review and Award Process

• Review conducted by the PKD Foundation's COE Advisory Panel review committee
• Award amounts are justified in each proposal
• Each grant is funded for one year
• Funds must be used solely for purposes specified in the approved proposal

Reporting Requirements

• Grantees must submit a final Progress and Financial Report
• Grantees are encouraged to present results at PKD Foundation's annual Centers of Excellence or PKD Connect Conferences
• Attribution required: Awardees must provide appropriate attribution of the PKD Foundation in any publication, news release, or presentation resulting from the funded work
• Suggested attribution language: "This project was partially funded by a grant from the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation, pkdcure.org. The Foundation had no role in care team design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the communication for publication."
• PKD Foundation must receive a copy of any publication and/or news release

Liability and Responsibility

• The PKD Foundation serves as a grantor, not a sponsor
• Responsibility for liability issues and all reporting requirements (local, state, and federal regulations) resides with the employment institution, not the PKD Foundation

Geographic Scope: United States (PKD Centers of Excellence and Partner Clinics)

Application Process

Detailed application procedures are not fully specified in the provided materials. However, based on the program information:

1. Eligibility Verification
   • Confirm your institution is designated as a PKD Center of Excellence, Partner Clinic, Pediatric Center of Excellence, or Pediatric Clinic
2. Team Assembly
   • Assemble required team of at least two investigators:
   • One clinician, nurse practitioner, patient navigator, or other care team member
   • One patient stakeholder
   • Consider including members of your center's Patient Advisory Panel
3. Project Development
   • Select project focus from eligible areas listed
   • Develop measurable, impactful project plan with sustainability potential
   • Ensure commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion
   • Prepare detailed budget (participant costs and facilitator/instructor expenses only)
4. Application Submission
   • Submit application with detailed project proposal and budget
   • Justify award amounts requested
   • Provide justification for how the project aligns with program pillars
5. Review Process
   • Applications reviewed by PKD Foundation's COE Advisory Panel review committee
   • Funding decisions based on committee recommendations
6. Post-Award Requirements
   • Submit final Progress and Financial Report
   • Present results at PKD Foundation's annual Centers of Excellence or PKD Connect Conferences (encouraged)
   • Provide appropriate attribution to PKD Foundation in all publications and presentations
   • Submit copies of publications and news releases to PKD Foundation

Note: Specific application portal, forms, and detailed submission instructions should be obtained directly from the PKD Foundation or your Center of Excellence program office.