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The Health Insurance Literacy funding opportunity is designed to support organizations seeking to improve health insurance literacy* for all Coloradans. We seek to achieve this by increasing opportunities for individuals to learn how to better understand and use health insurance. This funding opportunity is not designed to support health insurance enrollment. Instead, the goal of this initiative is to be responsive to community need, while informing the Foundation as to how to best impact Coloradans’ health insurance literacy.
*Health insurance literacy, as defined by the Consumers Union’s health insurance literacy expert roundtable, is the capacity to find and evaluate information about health plans, select the best plan given financial and health circumstances and use the plan once enrolled.
Grant Deadline: Not accepting applications at this time. This work is in progress.
Criteria
The Foundation seeks applications focused on:
- Community-identified target populations with a demonstrated need, including low income (generally below 200 percent of the federal poverty level); low education (a high school degree, equivalent, or less); “young invincibles” (18 to 34 years of age); and those speaking languages other than English
- Providing the right tools at the right time for the right people. For example, creating online modules that teach a targeted population about health insurance at the best time for the subject to be learned.
- Using and connecting networks to deliver health insurance literacy. For example, adapting an existing enrollment referral network to provide health insurance literacy more effectively.
- New and innovative projects that align with the goals of the funding opportunity. Priority consideration will be given to projects that successfully demonstrate the ability to be flexible and adaptive to the current and changing health insurance environment.
Projects will be required to evaluate the expected short- and medium- term impact on their target as well as a method for measuring behavior change and impact on health outcomes (if possible).
The Foundation aims to create a portfolio of work that serves the needs of diverse populations, geographies and new or existing efforts. Projects must directly impact or be conducted within the state. Organizations without a previous funding history with the Foundation are encouraged to apply.
Priority will be given to projects that:
- Demonstrate local- or community-level partnerships with appropriate health care, coverage or insurance organizations
- Demonstrate a pathway to sustainability, such as those with a business plan
- Show the potential to achieve effectiveness with one or more target populations or communities
Types of projects that will be considered:
- Current activities—either locally or nationally—that can be expanded or enhanced and have been shown to achieve the intended outcomes. Funding cannot be used to supplant or replace existing funding sources or to offset expected reductions in funding.
- Primary focus on communication, evaluation or private sector investments
- New and innovative projects
Examples of projects we are looking for:
- ‘Train the trainer’ health literacy programs
- Community health navigator (or similar) projects with a primary focus on improving health insurance literacy
- Webinars or online curricula focused on health insurance literacy
- Online or digital tools relating to health insurance literacy on topics such as choice/decision making, utilization or accessing care
- In-person health insurance literacy training or curricula
- Print or electronic health insurance literacy messaging efforts such as a YouTube video series, text messaging programs, 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.