Grants & PRIS: Requests For Proposals

Health Screenings and Vaccinations

Overview

The Background

During the past two years, thousands of individuals in the region were either unable to attend or cancelled routine health screenings. The data from the Centers for Disease Control, life insurance companies, and other sources at the national level is beginning to reveal how the lack of routine screenings during Covid-19 has translated into higher mortality rates for cancer, stroke, heart disease, substance use, and other chronic diseases. The death rate for several of those diseases has also been more pronounced along racial and ethnic lines. As a result of vaccine hesitancy during Covid-19, many parents have also forgone immunizing their children for preventable diseases such as measles.

Examples

To offer a few examples:

  1. In 2020, mortality rates for heart disease and stroke increased 4.3% and 6.4%, respectively.
  2. The number of alcohol-related deaths increased 25%, outpacing the increase among all other causes of death. More individuals below the age of 65 died from alcohol-related causes than they did Covid-19 
  3. During the past two years, more than 22 million infants missed their first dose of measles vaccine, or 3 million more than in 2019 and the largest annual increase in over 20 years

The reduction in health screenings and vaccinations likely correlates with other factors at the community level, including behavior changes resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic that will require more data and analysis.

Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The Foundation’s general eligibility criteria apply to the RFP. Please review the Funding Policies on the Apply page of the Foundation’s website and the General FAQs found on the Foundation’s Nonprofit and Public Sector Partners webpage.

Guidelines

Funding Guidelines

The Foundation expects to provide two types of support through this RFP.

Planning and Innovation grants:

  • Focus on experimentation and the development of new ideas.
  • Will provide up to $250,000 and funded activities should be completed within 12 to 18 months after the grant award

Scalability grants:

  • Sustain and expand promising, evidence-informed initiatives.
  • Will provide up to $400,000 and funded activities should be completed within 24 months after the grant award

Grant funds awarded through this RFP may be used for a variety of expenses such as program and service delivery, consultant fees, evaluation, or “overhead” or administrative expenses. A limited amount of capital expenditures for equipment and lab infrastructure that are essential to accomplish the outcomes of the proposal may be included. 

If an application is truly exceptional, the Foundation may consider providing more than $250,000 for Planning and Innovation grants or more than $400,000 for Scalability grants. Successful grantees may be invited to apply for follow-on funding or additional capacity-building funding opportunities at the conclusion of the grant.

What the Foundation Will Not Fund

The Foundation will not fund the following through this RFP:

  • Endowments
  • Advocacy, political causes, or events
  • Existing deficits or retroactive funding
  • Event sponsorships
Deadlines

Timeline

  • Applications submitted – Friday, September 9, 2022 Noon (12:00 PM) EST.
  • Funding Status Notification – October 14, 2022
  • Funds Issued for Awarded Grants – October 28, 2022

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ: Request For Proposals

We encourage you to prioritize carefully with your organization, and we recommend that an organization submit one proposal to each RFP. However, the logic model describing the proposed initiative may contain several types of activities that are critical for the project’s success.  

If you are submitting a proposal as part of a large regional research, university, or healthcare institution, we will consider ideas from multiple divisions within the institution. You should coordinate with your institution’s development office before responding to an RFP or completing the General Application to the Foundation.

It is unlikely that you can meet with a program officer before submitting. In general, program officers are not available for a discussion until after a proposal has been submitted. You can also email [email protected] with questions.

You will immediately receive an email confirming that your application was successfully submitted. There are not specific timelines associated with the review of a funding application.

The Foundation normally has Board meetings in the Spring, Summer and Winter.

Questions about a declined application may be submitted via email to [email protected]. The Foundation aspires to reply to all inquiries but, given the volume of applications the Foundation receives, we cannot commit to answering every such inquiry.

The Foundation is generally not providing multi-year grants at this time. The majority of our grants are twelve to eighteen months.

Yes, the Foundation provides general operating support for organizations that are not postsecondary institutions or research institutions.

In the application, you will encounter a question about the type of support that you are seeking. You can select from the following options: Capital Support; General Operating Support; Land Acquisition; Project Support.

Yes, you can include indirect expenses in your proposed budget if your organization is not a postsecondary or research institution.

We define indirect expenses as those expenses categorized as “Management and General;” “Administrative and Management;” or “Fundraising” according to the IRS and FASB functional expense allocation guidelines.

For organizations that are eligible to receive support for indirect expenses, we do not have a recommended ratio.

The Foundation will not fund ideas that include regranting to individuals. The Foundation may fund applications that include regranting from a lead agency to other agencies who are identified in the submission as participants in a collaboration. In this case, the regranted funds are solely to support the collaborative activities described in the submission. We will consider ideas in which organizations provide technical assistance in areas where they have expertise or are working with pre-identified partners, who will then assist with the implementation of the proposed project. 

Yes, we consider applications from organizations that are not based in Allegheny or Westmoreland counties. In your application, you should be clear about why and in what ways the project will serve economic development in these counties.   

The primary goal of a PRI is to achieve charitable benefit. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service allows a foundation to provide a PRI if the investment fulfills all three of the following criteria: 

  • The primary purpose is to accomplish one or more of the foundation’s exempt purposes
  • Production of income or appreciation of property is not a significant purpose, and 
  • Influencing legislation or taking part in political campaigns on behalf of candidates is not a purpose. 

The IRS provides additional guidance that further clarifies each of these criterion. We encourage you to consult with your legal counsel and review the IRS guidance and other resources about philanthropic PRIs before you submit an application.

Yes. You may submit an application if your company is based anywhere in the United States. Unfortunately, we are not able to entertain applications from companies not incorporated in the United States. For ideas focused on Economic Mobility, Economic Development, or Health & Well-Being, if your company is located outside the Pittsburgh region, please be sure to address within the application how your idea will positively impact Allegheny and/or Westmoreland counties. If your proposal is related to our Conservation program area, the positive impact you seek to generate can be anywhere in the United States. 

Any questions about the application may be submitted via email to [email protected]. We will be responsive to all thoughtful inquiries. 

Nonprofit and public sector applicants can submit different proposals to any of the RFPs at the same time.  

For-profit companies and entrepreneurs are only able to submit a proposal to the Employment in the New Economy: Supporting Disconnected and Gig Economy Workers RFP

Have a Question?

Please contact [email protected] at the Foundation to discuss questions regarding this RFP.