Investing in Innovative & Disruptive Models that Increase the Economic Mobility
and/or the Community Wealth of DC’s Most Marginalized Populations & Communities

Achieving health equity requires more than improving individual health outcomes and expanding access to services. A vision for health equity demands that we directly engage the social determinants of health —societal factors that have been shaped by centuries of laws, public policies, behaviors, and practices that have worked together to produce the disparate outcomes we see today.

The Health Equity Fund will offer grant opportunities for demonstration projects that provide proof of concept and determine potential for scalability. The projects must consist of two or more partner organizations working collaboratively in a new and targeted way to implement economic mobility models that increase strategic economic participation and build community wealth for people and communities with the greatest economic and health disparities.

Grants will be awarded to select partner organizations that meet the following minimum eligibility criteria:

• At least two partner organizations must work together to execute the proposed project.

• All members of the partnership (defined as the organizations that will receive a grant agreement and funds, if awarded) must have current status as a 501(c)(3) public charity designation. Organizations that have not yet received a 501(c)(3) designation must have a fiscal sponsor (an entity will need to have an EIN or the EIN of their fiscal sponsor in order to access the application in the online portal). The fiscal sponsor must meet all eligibility requirements at the time of submission. For profit entities such as LLCs and sole proprietorships are not eligible to apply for funding.

• Each partner organization must not be listed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals or the Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Group lists.

• Each partner organization must be both based in and primarily implementing in the District of Columbia.

• Each partner organization should approach their work through a racial equity lens.

• Each partner organization’s staff and board leadership should reflect the communities served by the organization and have a demonstrated track record of community engagement as demonstrated by the existence of community advisory boards, community listening sessions, community representation on the board of directors, or other measures defined by the organization.

• If previous funding has been received from The Community Foundation, each partner organization must be current in reporting to The Community Foundation as specified in the grant agreement. 

Organizations who have previously received a Health Equity Fund grant cannot submit an LOI in the same year an initial award was made.

Qualified respondents are invited to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) until March 2026 (or until funds have been exhausted). All respondents are strongly encouraged to watch the recording of the FAQ webinar held on October 10, 2023.

For additional information, please review the LOI Guidelines below, as well as the Health Equity Fund webpage.