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Public policy decisions have long favored individuals, communities and institutions that have traditionally had power, privilege and the resources needed to make their interests heard by policymakers. In contrast, communities of color, people who have low income and advocacy organizations working to achieve health equity have traditionally had fewer resources and less capacity available to engage in advocacy and have their voices heard too.
Our Amplifying Health Advocacy funding opportunity will support a range of advocacy tactics across the state of Colorado that will enable all Coloradans to live their healthiest lives. Through providing general operating support, technical assistance and opportunities for convening, the Foundation seeks to contribute to a stronger and more interconnected ecosystem of advocates across the state who are working to advance health equity in Colorado.
A strong ecosystem of diverse health advocates can support the adoption and implementation of policies that address health equity and work to bring health in reach for low-income Coloradans and communities of color. Organizations that represent a wide range of organizational sizes, areas of priority, and types of advocacy will be funded as part of this ecosystem. They will include grassroots organizations, those who work primarily at the state legislature, and other types of advocacy.
Grant funding is open for general operating support and will be highly competitive among the pool of applicants. Typically, funding will range from $50,000 to $200,000 annually and will be available for two to three years. As a part of this funding opportunity, grantees will be asked to actively participate in and co-design grantee convenings twice a year.
Proposed advocacy work must reflect the Foundation’s cornerstones, as our work is grounded in serving Coloradans who have low income and historically have had less power or privilege, putting the creation of health equity at the center of everything we do, and being informed by the community and those we exist to serve.
Have questions? We’re here to talk through your ideas and encourage you to connect with us before applying for funding. If you don’t already work with a program officer, please reach out to us by email or by phone at 303-953-3600, and be sure to note the county you work in and area of interest.
Read below for more detail on criteria and access to our webinar.
Criteria
Grant applications should seek to support advocacy work that meet the following criteria:
1. Include each of the following features:
- Foundation Alignment: Aligns with and advances the Foundation’s cornerstones in service to our mission.
- Advocacy Focus: Focuses on advocacy related to public policies at the local, state and/or federal level. Activities that address changing individual behaviors or providing direct services will not receive consideration.
- Community Support: Reflects the interests of community members most impacted by health inequities; this should go beyond demonstrating support of the sponsoring organization or group and instead show authentic engagement of and/or with community members.
- Impact: Describes how the work will lead to the intended impact on public policy at the local, state and/or federal level related to the above priorities, as well as how activities undertaken will contribute to bringing health in reach for communities experiencing health inequities.
- Right Group: Reflects why your organization is the appropriate group to conduct the work, including expertise in the proposed approach to advocacy, understanding of the issues you seek to address, responsiveness to and connection with the community you are seeking to serve and trust from the community, other advocates and policymakers.
2. Seeks to ensure low-income Coloradans’ interests and priorities are front and center in shaping public policy decisions that impact health. This will include one or more of the following:
- Advocating for public policy changes at the local, state and/or federal level
- Protecting existing local, state and/or federal policies that are contributing to health equity
- Improving or supporting equitable implementation of existing local, state or federal policies
- Building political will to support public policies that advance health equity
3. Focuses on advocacy opportunities that align with one or more of the Foundation's priorities:
- Primary Care: Creating equity in access to and use of high-quality, comprehensive primary care.
- Children Move More: Supporting children to move their bodies safely and conveniently on a daily basis.
- Early Childhood Social-Emotional Development: Enhancing services and supports that foster social-emotional development and resiliency of young children.
- Youth and Young Adult Resiliency: Ensuring teens and young adults have access to the resources they need to support healthy minds.
- Adult Recovery: Ensuring adults have access to local recovery resources that promote healthy minds and productive lives.
- Food Access and Security: Ensuring Coloradans have enough affordable, nutritious food.
- Affordable Housing: Supporting access to affordable, safe and high-quality housing options.
Note: Applicants should directly address each of the above criteria in their grant application and indicate how their advocacy work aims to advance health equity in Colorado.
Eligibility
Note: Current advocacy grantees, whose grants are still active and are scheduled to end after Feb. 1, 2021, are not eligible to apply.
Grants from the Foundation can be used to support the full range of advocacy tactics that are legally permissible for 501(c)(3) organizations. These include, but are not limited to:
- Coalition building, management and facilitation
- Community organizing, base-building and mobilization
- Educating policymakers, people and groups who influence policy about policy issues and solutions
- Issue education, framing and communications
- Media advocacy
- Litigation and legal advocacy
- Policy and legal analysis
- Drafting model policy
- Policymaker accountability
- Engaging candidates for public office
- Regulatory advocacy
- Voter engagement
The Foundation will not fund advocacy tactics that involve partisan political activities or any activities that are prohibited for 501(c)(3) organizations. Information about advocacy activities that are permissible for 501(c)(3) organizations is available here.
Evaluation Activities
As part of this funding opportunity, the Foundation will partner with an external evaluator, and grantees will need to participate in activities related to this evaluation. The specific approach to the evaluation is still being determined, but we anticipate that each year we will ask for a few hours of grantees’ time to participate in evaluation activities such as evaluation design, interviews, surveys, etc.
We often partner with third-party evaluators, contractors and other organizations over the course of our work with applicants and grantees. Your application and its attachments may be shared with these individuals or entities during the review process and grant cycle. All third-party organizations partnering with the Foundation have signed a confidentiality agreement and will not use or share the information for purposes outside of the scope of work specific to the grant application or grant award. If you have any concerns or would like additional information, please email [email protected] or call our senior director of Grantmaking Operations at 303-953-3600.
Other Advocacy Funding Available
Different from our Amplifying Health Advocacy funding opportunity, our Advocacy Rapid Response funding has no deadline. Applications are accepted for time-sensitive advocacy projects at any time. Learn more about the Advocacy Rapid Response funding.
We encourage all applicants to sign up in our grants portal to confirm registration is complete at least a week in advance of submitting a grant application. Apply for funding by June 15, 2020.