Grants

How we fund

At Health Forward, we seek to be transparent while living our core values of trust, partnership, learning, equity, inclusion, antiracism, and stewardship.

Open funding

Throughout the year, we offer open funding opportunities. We set funding criteria, release a call for applications, and organizations can choose to apply. These opportunities are instrumental in achieving specific outcomes within our purpose areas.

Invitation-based funding

Some of our funding opportunities are by invitation. This is a different approach than we took during our initial years of grantmaking.

Philanthropy has a poor track record of addressing racial bias, both conscious and unconscious, that has crept into funding processes. And philanthropy has historically made it difficult for some nonprofits serving our communities of focus to access funding. We want to be different.

To ensure our funding is equitable, we invite organizations whose body of work is vital in achieving the intended impact of our purpose plan.

Invitation-based funding opportunities also allow us to streamline our process and reduce application burden.

Responsive funding

Health Forward welcomes and encourages conversations to learn more about your organization, your work, or an idea that may align with our strategic purpose areas — People, Power, Place, and Platform. Responsive dollars will be available throughout the year to support opportunities that come to us from the community.

While we welcome conversations on potential funding ideas, our ability to fund projects and organizations is limited by funding availability and priorities.