Alliance Healthcare Foundation Awards $2.7 Million in Mission Support Grants to San Diego Nonprofits

San Diego, CA. January 15, 2021. Breaking tradition from the past 11 years of Mission Support funding, this year Alliance Healthcare Foundation (Alliance) transformed its core operating grant program into a multi-year grant cycle with $2.7 million invested over three years, and refreshed the evaluation criteria using an explicit racial equity lens. The 31 San Diego recipients of the multi-year grant were selected December 18, 2020, after an inclusive and detailed process that began earlier this past year, starting with a survey of past grant recipients and stakeholders. We are grateful for the significant community feedback from well over 100 non-profit partners who provided input that helped shape the shifts in our practice.

Fundamentally, the principles behind the Mission Support program have remained the same: Alliance aims to provide flexible, core operating funding to organizations that advance health and wellness for our communities. However, in light of Covid-19 and the long-standing structural inequities it continues to highlight, coupled with renewed racial reckoning on a national scale, this year’s funding intentionally prioritized communities that continue to be disproportionately impacted by the dual pandemics.

Grants were awarded to nonprofits in San Diego who are closest to the communities most impacted by these inequities. Grant amounts range from $25,000 to $50,000 per recipient per year, totaling $900,000 annually and $2.7 million over three years. Organizations may use the funding as they determine, understanding that they know the best way to utilize resources to advance health and wellness in our region.

Of the 170 applications received this year, 44% of the applications were repeat submissions from the prior year. While there is geographic diversity across the County, the 31 grant recipients are predominantly located in central, south and east San Diego County, and among all awarded grantees, 73.1% of populations served are Black-Indigenous-People-of-Color (BIPOC). Each individual organization serves a minimum of 50% BIPOC constituents. Organizations funded also range in size, although awarded grantees skewed slightly smaller in terms of annual operating revenues, reflecting the grassroots and concentrated cultural sensitivity of many of the grantees.

This map shows the number of people served in each region by our awarded applicants. Central San Diego has the greatest number of people served followed by East and South regions.

 

 

This year’s San Diego Mission Support decision making process involved a comprehensive analysis by our staff which assessed applications for:

• Mission alignment;
• Ability to deliver and measure meaningful impact;
• Focus on systems-change approach and/or social determinants of health;
• Clear commitment to equity, and demonstration of efforts toward advancing an anti-racist journey, and
• Support of communities historically and currently experiencing health inequities.

Members of the Alliance Program Committee worked diligently to review and enhance staff funding recommendations. A recommendation was made to the Alliance Board of Trustees, who ultimately made the final funding determinations.

“With nearly 200 applicants from incredible non-profits in the San Diego community working diligently to address complex social and health issues, it’s a difficult task to narrow down to the small fraction of applicants we have the resources to fund,” said Sarah Lyman, Alliance’s Executive Director. “That being the case, we are honored to provide multi-year support to these incredible grantees, and are immensely grateful for their impact. Over the coming months, we are excited to lift up some of their important work.”

Min Kim, Alliance Program Officer shared, “we are extremely excited about this cycle of grantees, specifically because we made adjustments to our historical process and requirements based on community feedback. Alliance is unable to achieve our mission and vision without being anti-racist allies and this grant cycle allows us to work towards that. We look forward to working diligently towards sustainable systems change that works in the best interest of our most resilient communities.”

We are proud to support the following 31 nonprofits in San Diego County:

Alliance Health Clinic   |   Angels Foster Family Agency   |   Boys & Girls Club of San Marcos  | Cesar Chavez Service Clubs  |  Champions for Health    |    CEO Opportunities    |  Free to Thrive   |   Home Start, Inc.   |  Interfaith Shelter Network   |   Just in Time for Foster Youth  |   Kitchens for Good   |    License to Freedom | March for Black Womxn San Diego   |   Mental Health America |  Mid-City CAN   |   Monarch School   |   Neighborhood House Association   |   Paving Great Futures   |   North County LGBTQ Resource Center  |   Reality Changers   |   Rise Up Industries    |    SD American Indian Health Center   |   SD Rapid Response Network   |   SD Rescue Mission   |  SAY San Diego    |    Serving Seniors   |   Somali Bantu Association   |    Somali Family Service   |   UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic     |    United Women of East Africa   |   Urban Corps San Diego County

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