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Grant Application Guidelines

Grant Strategy and Plan

Since 2024, Grant Healthcare Foundation (GHF) has been engaged in a review of our current grant strategy and organizational plan - all in an effort to develop our new (and hopefully improved) vision for our work and subsequent grant focus for now and into the future. Our history of grantmaking has been mainly providing one-year grants to organizations dedicated to providing direct services within the areas of primary care, reproductive health and behavioral health. While this strategy has served the foundation well over its near 30-year life span, the board and staff agreed it was time to go deeper in both our knowledge of and commitment to Chicago neighborhoods with the greatest health disparities.  As such, we will eventually be migrating a majority of our grantees into two issue area cohorts.  Our first cohort which began in January 2025 is comprised of grantee partners who have an organizational commitment to addressing Youth Mental Health, with an emphasis on providing services to students and families within the Chicago Public School system and within the communities they serve. (Go to Our Grantees to learn more about GHF's inaugural Youth Mental Health Cohort.) Next year (January, 2026), a second cohort will begin in the area of Reproductive/Maternal Health with more specific guidelines to be released in the Spring of 2025 in time for interested/applicable organizations to submit their LOI’s by May 9, 2025.  Organizations who are chosen for either the Youth Mental Health or Reproductive/Maternal Health Cohorts will receive 3 years of general operating support.  Ideally, organizations within each cohort will mirror and support GHF’s values of: 

  • centering health and racial equity within its scope of work, operations and mission.

  • demonstrating flexibility and striving to be nimble and adaptive to changing environments and new information.

  • willing to work in collaboration with their cohort of fellow grantees, GHF and the communities they serve knowing that we will be more successful and impactful when we work shoulder to shoulder with each other toward similar end goals.

  • a commitment to the community that is being served and belief in the wisdom and strength of its residents.

  • building strong, trusting relationships with GHF, fellow cohort members and the communities being served.

As far as geographic focus is concerned, we will continue to concentrate our support to organizations serving (and ideally residing in) the south and west sides of Chicago.  Furthermore, we will pay particular attention to those neighborhoods where historical disinvestment and systemic racism have exacerbated persistently poor youth mental health and reproductive/maternal health outcomes based on data.  As our new vision states, GHF envisions a future in which health outcomes for Chicagoans are no longer determined by race or zip code.
 

While we will still provide annual grant opportunities each year outside of the grantee cohorts, those dollars will more than likely be directed to organizations whose missions are associated with addressing Youth Mental Health and Reproductive/Maternal Health on the south and west sides of Chicago.  As well, these annual grants will be mostly project-specific with one year time frames. 

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Criteria For Application Review
To be considered for funding an organization must be designated as tax-exempt under Section 501(c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Grant Healthcare Foundation will accept proposals only for programs to be conducted within the Chicago area. Aside from the grants made within the Youth Mental Health and Reproductive/Maternal Health Cohorts, most grants are for a term of one year. 

 

Grant Healthcare Foundation is most interested in:

  • Programs that provide direct health services within Chicago's south and west side communities

  • Programs that increase access to care for individuals and families where there are historical barriers 

  • Programs addressing Youth Mental Health in Chicago Public School System and communities on the south and west side of Chicago

  • Programs addressing Reproductive/Maternal Health on the south and west side of Chicago

  • Innovative models that have meaningful outcome measures in place to better understand the program's effectiveness

  • Organizations with strong leadership and a broad base of support in the communities they serve

  • Organizations that collaborate with other like-minded community organizations to leverage their work

 

Grant Healthcare Foundation does not fund:​

  • Individuals

  • Organizations that discriminate on the basis of race, sexual orientation, creed, age or national origin

  • Religious purposes or religious organizations whose services are limited to any one sectarian group

  • Political activity or lobbying

  • Fundraising events

  • Endowments

 

Please visit the Application Process section to access the link to our online grant process.

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