Deadline: 5 June 2020
The Matching Assets To Community Health (MATCH) grant program is a challenge grant designed to bring other funders together to support community health projects needing potentially higher levels of funding and collaboration.
The Wellmark Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation created in 1991, by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa.
The mission of the Wellmark Foundation is to fund initiatives that positively impact the well-being of Iowans and South Dakotans.
Funding Information
- Small MATCH Grant requests up to $25,000.
- Each Small MATCH grant awarded in 2020 will be a maximum of $25,000, and the project must be completed in one year. The grant must be matched 50 percent with cash or in-kind contributions. At least one-half of the matching support must be cash.
The Wellmark Foundation will not award grants for:
- Biomedical research that will not impact local residents in the immediate future or that does not have a direct application to implementing a community-driven health intervention
- Uncompensated care for direct clinical services or services that are billable for third-party reimbursement
- Disease management programs or projects focused on patient populations with specific diagnosis
- Organizational indirect costs
- Programs operated by or for the benefit of for-profit organizations
- Debt retirement
- Annual fund drives or campaigns
- Fundraising events
- Endowments
- Reimbursement for cost of projects already completed or underway before grant is approved
Favorable Initiatives
- Edible orchards
- Community gardens and greenhouses
- Food preparation methods
- Farm/field/garden-to-table projects, including education
- Policies or councils working to create access to healthy foods and nutrition education
- Public playground structures and spaces
- Outdoor recreation and sport courts or fields
- Swimming pools, splash pads or aquatic centers with open access to the public
- Trails, including links, spurs and connectors
- Safe Routes to School plans and infrastructure
- Accessible and safe walking paths or routes
- Share-the-road plans and infrastructure
- Bike-share program infrastructure
Less than Favorable Initiatives
- Ongoing food assistance
- Emergency food assistance
- Fee-based facilities
- Fee-based programming
- Projects solely for the construction or renovation of restrooms, parking lots, shelter houses
- Community recreation centers requiring an ongoing membership or fee
- Construction of a recreation center or community center
- Ongoing programming
- Salaries for staff
- Sporting events, such as tournaments
- In-direct expenses, such as volunteer software or marketing expenses
- One-time speaker series or educational sessions
- Projects that support a limited audience
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to apply for a grant from the Wellmark Foundation, the primary applicant (fiscal agent) must meet all the following requirements:
- Must be classified as a Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Code or a governmental entity.
- Must be an organization within the states of either Iowa or South Dakota or seeking funding support for grant funding restricted for use in Iowa or South Dakota.
- Cannot have a contractual relationship with Wellmark, Inc., doing business as Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, Wellmark of South Dakota, Inc., doing business as Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Dakota, Wellmark Health Plan of Iowa, Inc., Wellmark Value Health Plan, or Wellmark Synergy Health, Inc. This does not include having health insurance coverage through Wellmark.
Criteria
For a grant to be considered, the following criteria must be met:
- Alignment: The project clearly aligns with one of The Wellmark Foundation grant-making areas of focus — increasing access to and consumption of healthy foods or creating safe environments in which to be active.
- Sustainable: The project is sustainable. What does this mean? The Foundation defines sustainable initiatives as: Projects that a community has been able to implement and will be able to maintain over the long term, resulting in the project continuing to thrive long after The Wellmark Foundation grant funds have been used.
- Priority: The project is a demonstrated priority by the community.
- Available: The project is available to all community members. It cannot be restricted to individuals who pay a fee for ongoing participation.
- Resources: The project leverages private, public and/or community resources and maximizes collaboration with stakeholders throughout the community.
- Evidence-Based: The project aligns with evidence-based, best practices and/or principles.
- Evaluation: The outcomes are clearly stated and measureable and have a sound evaluation process. ATTAINABLE: The project must be able to be completed within the required time frame of the grant.
For more information, visit https://www.wellmark.com/foundation/rfps.html