Focus Area Overview

Rising unemployment, loss of insurance coverage and increases in chronic disease and mortality have converged with government spending cuts and shortages of primary care physicians and clinics to produce wide gaps in access to and quality of health care among all groups in the United States. For low-income, minority communities this situation is particularly acute, because evidence indicates that this population has historically received a substandard quality of care.

This focus area is designed to complement the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We fund innovative practices that serve vulnerable populations by increasing access and lowering costs of preventive and primary care. We also support methods for improving the quality of care.

This focus area supports four initiatives:

• Community health hub investment initiative is designed to help meet the nation’s increased demand for high-quality, community-based primary care services resulting from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We fund federally qualified health centers that are advancing new methods for reaching vulnerable populations and achieving better health outcomes within this population, including management of risk factors and disease. Innovations that yield operating efficiencies for health centers and savings to the overall health care system also are supported. The work is being accomplished with an integrated investment strategy that couples grantmaking with below-market-rate loans, loan guarantees and other alternative-financing tools to spur the growth and sustainability of community health centers.
   
• Safety-net enhancement initiative entered its demonstration phase in January 2011. This four-year, two-part opportunity was introduced in 2009 to strengthen cross-sector collaboration among community-based health care agencies that serve needy populations. In February 2010, $900,000 in part-one grants was awarded to 12 public health agencies and community nonprofit organizations in 11 states for the planning and design of innovative health care delivery models. In December 2010, part-two grants totaling $6 million were given to eight of those 12 grantees for the development of their proposed models. This initiative is closed to new grant applicants.
   
• Health clinic opportunity fund, a two-year 2009-2012 national grant program that is building the operational capacity of charitable health clinics, public health clinics and those designated as federally qualified health-center look-alikes. This fund is closed to new grant applicants.
   
• Safety-net facility improvement fund utilizes Kresge’s traditional challenge-grant approach in supporting clinic and hospital capital improvements designed to increase access to and enhance the quality of medical services for underserved populations. This initiative is closed until further notice.

Eligibility

Grants are made on an invitation-only basis to nonprofits that are 501(C)(3) organizations, based in the United States and not classified as private foundations.

Application Process

We do not accept unsolicited grant applications.

A limited number of applications are invited each year from organizations that seek to engage underserved people and communities in increasing access to high-quality care.

An invited application has two parts:

1. Part 1 contains a data-entry component and several attachments, including a narrative.
2. If a program officer determines your request has potential for funding, he or she will ask you to provide additional information. This will constitute Part 2 of the application process. 

Final grant decisions are made after review of the two-part application.