Washington Square Health Foundation Grants: Direct Health Care Services Category

The Washington Square Health Foundation provides grants for direct health care services aimed at improving health outcomes for underserved populations. Priorities include senior care, compliance with medication plans, and enhancing access to specialty care. The foundation encourages innovative solutions that effectively address the health needs of high-risk individuals, particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS. Projects must demonstrate community support and sustainable impact, aligning with the foundation’s mission of filling critical gaps in health services.

Grant Guidelines
The Washington Square Health Foundation grant making process is conducted by the Board of Directors in an impartial manner based upon an evaluation of each project request. Therefore, solicitation of individual members of the Washington Square Health Foundation, Inc. Board of Directors by potential recipients for specific Washington Square Health Foundation, Inc. grant requests is discouraged. Priorities for funding will vary from time to time. Even though a project meets established criteria, it may not be adopted because of limited funds or other priorities.
Washington Square Health Foundation, Inc. Grants do not merely provide funds to an existing project, however worthy. They must be designed to provide significant health related benefits.
At the February 2013 Board Retreat, the following broad categories were identified for consideration of future service and funding needs of grantees by “filling the gaps” of ACA:
Senior home care, including visits and services;Senior medication and care plan compliance;Improving the discharge planning process;Additional resources needed for specialty care for Medicaid and ACA Exchange insured populations;Enhanced funding for social services that are not funded through the ACA;The need to maintain current level of competency of health care providers and expansion of scopes of practice only when appropriate based on education and experience;Enhanced cooperation and communication between local health care providers and public health services, both state and local;Support for enrolling currently non-covered populations in the ACA exchanges;Funding for specific health care and related social services not funded or adequately funded by the ACA;Reconsider the foundation’s role in playing a lead role in major disease focused projects; andConsider as funding priorities, health care facilities and services not otherwise receiving significant government and third party reimbursement.
Within the above framework, the following criteria have been established by the Board of Directors of the Washington Square Health Foundation.
Guidelines for funding HIV/AIDS Projects
The following guidelines should be used as a way to focus grant funding on areas where the foundation can have a significant impact given the changing face of the epidemic, the multiple providers and funders involved, and the broad range of needs. These guidelines represent overall priorities for funding, not absolute rules about what can and cannot be funded. Extraordinary circumstances and/or an extraordinary grant proposal, for example, might result in funding a non-priority activity. The guidelines should be reexamined on an annual basis to assess their match with current needs.
New funding should address the needs of high risk and underserved populations where current HIV/AIDS transmission is concentrated. These include women, adolescents, undocumented immigrants, and men of color who have sex with men. Program strategies to address these priority populations should represent interventions that are accessible, acceptable and effective within these cultures. Applicant organizations should demonstrate that they have experience working with these populations and legitimacy within the high-risk communities.Projects requesting funding for direct health care should be considered, especially for the priority populations described above. Direct health care includes primary medical care, home care, hospice care in residences, mental health services, nutritional care, dentistry, day health care, and ancillary health care services such as physical therapy. Case management services should not be a priority, first because of the support of these services by the AIDs Foundation, and second because of the lack of consensus about their scope. .,M.D.Projects requesting funding for supportive services such as peer support should be considered, especially for the priority populations. Homemaker and transportation services are not a priority.Volunteer programs should be funded only on a limited basis and only when they meet one or more of the following criteria:represent consolidation of volunteer services across agenciesdemonstrate cost-effective delivery of care including adequate recruitment and retention of volunteersserve a priority populationdemonstrate an innovative use of volunteersprovide material support such as food for a food pantry within an already existing programProjects with alternative therapies should be considered only if they have a strong research/evaluation component that could produce evidence of impact on health status and/or quality of life outcomes.All projects should have clearly stated and measurable objectives for which monitoring data can be collected over the course of the project regarding attainment of these objectives.

Eligibility

Projects must have the support of appropriate organizations and/or governmental units in the community where the project is to be carried out. To be eligible for consideration, projects must be efforts involving a not for profit tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization or association as a sponsor. The grant request must be submitted by an organization exempt from income tax under sec. 501 (c)(3), and designated as a public charity under section 509(a)(1) or 509(a)(2), of the Internal Revenue Code.  In the Direct Health Care Services Category, the grant/project must:be applicable to one of the following categories: Direct Health Care Services.reasonably ensure continued support after involvement by the Washington Square Health Foundation is discontinued.involve active participation by the sponsor which must be a not for profit tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization, institution, or association.demonstrably benefit others beyond the individual organization recipient of the grant.be located in the Chicago Metropolitan area or impact or be “linked” to the Chicago Metropolitan Area.have an up-to-date annual community health care report for the Principles for Community Health Care submitted with your grant application to the Washington Square Health Foundation and posted on your organization’s website for public viewing. The link from your organization’s website must also be submitted to the Washington Square Health Foundation to be posted on our website in our Annual Report.

Ineligibility

Washington Square Health Foundation does not provide grants to section 509(a)(3) “supporting organizations.”The grant/project must not: involve liability to the Washington Square Health Foundation except to provide the amount of the grantbenefit a Washington Square Health Foundation Director; an employee of Washington Square Health Foundation; or a spouse, a lineal descendant (child or grandchild by blood or any legally adopted child), a spouse of a lineal descendant, or an ancestor (parent or grandparent by blood) of any living Washington Square Health Foundation Director or Washington Square Health Foundation employee.duplicate any existing Foundation grant.involve the purchase of land or the payment of general administration costs for the sponsoring organization.involve the establishment of a permanent foundation or trust or a permanent interest-bearing account, or involve support for the general operating costs of any organization.involve any of the following:carrying on propaganda or otherwise attempt to influence legislation.restrict the services or facilities or employment provided by the grant to individuals based on race, creed, color, sex or national origin.involve construction or capital fundraising campaigns.Washington Square Health Foundation, Inc. funds may not be used to pay for any operating and/or administrative expenses including but not limited to fringe benefits, office furniture and computer equipment utilized for administrative record keeping, etcGuidelines for HIV/AIDS Projects:The following types of projects are not recommended for current funding consideration:Clinical and biomedical research regarding HIV/AIDs because of the availability of federal and pharmaceutical fundingPrevention programs because of the availability of state, local and other foundation fundingHealth services research/policy questions such as HIV/AIDS within managed care because of national projects already underway in this areaMedication coverage for patients because of the enormous cost per patient ($9-12,000 per year)