Each spring, Healthcare Initiative Foundation (HIF) identifies one to two nonprofits who exemplify volunteer service in the health and wellness space in Montgomery County. In the last two and a half years, our community has seen the tremendous impact of volunteers through vaccination clinics, food distributions, health clinics, and more.
In June 2022, HIF had the privilege of bestowing the Brooks Saltsman Award to Guru Gobind Singh Foundation and A Place of Hope. Both organizations received an investment of $2,500 to support their health and wellness programming. Brooks Johnstone Saltsman was a former HIF Trustee who dedicated her life to volunteerism. This award recognizing an outstanding nonprofit was created to honor her legacy.
Guru Gobind Singh Foundation launched into the nonprofit service space in March 2020, putting their Sikh principles into practice to help their community as the pandemic surged. Since this time, using more than #100,000 volunteer hours with #400 volunteers, Guru Gobind Singh Foundation has provided hundreds of bags of produce and non-perishable goods, and more than #345,000 vegetarian prepared meals. The Foundation continues to serve knowing that their community has ongoing food insecurity challenges. With this award and its investment, the Foundation intends to provide healthy meals and food to #500 community members while also helping to ensure their access to local medical providers for ongoing health services. To learn more, visit their website.
A Place of Hope is a new and mighty community service provider. A Place of Hope is also dedicated to addressing food insecurity issues in Montgomery County and committed to building a culturally competent healthcare workforce. Since their inception, they have provided meals to #2,000 members of our community while also offering care coordination of resources, training and employment supports, and vaccine administration. With this award and investment, , A Place of Hope will be able to offer Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) or Geriatric Nursing Assistant (GNA) training to #2 individuals from the black and brown communities in Montgomery County effort to address the growing demand for culturally competent healthcare workers! Follow their work on their Facebook page.
“The goal of this platform is to direct attention to specific health issues, educate the public around health, and support the work of local healthcare providers and organizations,” according to My MCM.
HIF invested in My MCM through our FY22 Capacity cycle to build this program to ensure that Montgomery County community members are aware of health and wellness news and programs relevant to them!
Throughout fiscal year 2022, the Healthcare Initiative Foundation (HIF) invested $75,000 in small grants to #17 Montgomery County, MD nonprofits to improve and build equitable access to high-quality and comprehensive health and wellness services and programs.
Through the Foundation’s Small Grant cycle, HIF is partnering with #17 nonprofits to serve members of our community on programming for: children in the foster care system; young adults seeking careers in healthcare; pediatric care for Upcounty youth and families; mentorship programs offering haven for youth; and peer support and trainings for the LGBT+ community.
Over the course of the next year, more than #3,000 members of our community will be served with 61% percent of the awards being invested in youth and family services and 41% supporting behavioral health programming.
Two of the nonprofits, Guru Gobind Singh Foundation and A Place of Hope, Inc., were selected for the Brooks Saltsman’s Award for their dedication to volunteer service and healthcare access.
We look forward to partnering with these amazing nonprofits!
If you were unable to join the two-part virtual workshop series hosted June 14 and 16 or wanted to re-watch the sessions to recapture the information shared, the recordings are now available.
To view the June 14th session featuring Maryland Nonprofits and Nonprofit Montgomery, click here. Maryland Nonprofits has also made available their PowerPoint Presentation here.
The June 16th session featuring Institute for Public Health Innovation, Montgomery County Food Council, and Montgomery County Volunteer Center will be posted shortly.
Healthcare Initiative Foundation (HIF) is honored to announce our recent investment of $1.02M to #34 nonprofits serving Montgomery County residents through the FY22 Nonprofit Capacity Building Grant Cycle. These community investments will continue to lift-up the work of our nonprofit partners who remain vigilant in their response to the ongoing health, social, and economic crises wrought by the pandemic, as well as promote recovery efforts focused on community health and wellness and the healthcare workforce.
Congratulations to this year’s HIF grantees! Through our collaborative efforts this year’s recipients are projecting to serve more than #121,800 Montgomery County residents through: Healthcare Access and Behavioral Health Services, Food Security and Hub Distribution Centers, Healthcare Workforce and Education, and Nonprofit Capacity Building.
Our FY22 Capacity Building Cycle prioritized projects that:
Advance High-quality health and wellness services that are culturally and linguistically accessible: $404K;
Address the social determinants of health and the root causes impacting our community’s disparate health outcomes: $545K; and
Support nonprofit infrastructure to respond to the community and advance organizational leadership to build a healthier Montgomery County: $70K.
Accessibility to the Foundation’s investments is paramount and HIF is committed to ensuring that nonprofits whose work aligns with our mission can successfully navigate the grant process. The number of new profits successfully accessing grants, along with number of BIPOC-led organizations, are some of the metrics HIF is monitoring.
HIF is pleased to announce that 29% of the nonprofits awarded are receiving HIF’s Capacity Building grant for the first time and 38% are BIPOC-led organizations.
HIF strives to apply an equity lens in all aspects of our grant-making process by:
Offering opportunities for our nonprofit partners to provide input on our grant application and processes.
Incorporating diversity, inclusion, and equity in our grant review matrix along with analysis of how community voice will be engaged with the delivery of services in the application; and
Assessing with who, in what, and where the Foundation is making its investments.
We are elated to report that 99% of the capacity building investments are going to our priority zip code areas; reaching communities with the lowest life expectancy in the County that have historically been under-invested in and served.
We look forward to partnering with each of these nonprofit organizations for a stronger and healthier Montgomery County.
