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Call for Applicants: Spring Round Community Investment Technical Assistance Mini Grants

The City of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health and its Division of Maternal, Child, and Family Health (MCFH) continues its mini grant program with a Spring 2024 cycle to support the technical assistance needs of small, Black-led community-based organizations (“CBOs”) and businesses focused on advancing maternal health in Philadelphia. This mini grant program focuses on needs that reach beyond an organization’s ongoing work to build the organization’s internal capacity.

Mini grants of $1,000–$2,500 will be awarded to eligible organizations to cover the costs associated with building organizational capacity, such as conferences, training and certification, professional services, and organizational development (defined further below).

 

Background

The Organized Voices for Action (The OVA) is a multi-sector action team that includes representatives from the City’s Department of Public Health, Maternal, Child, and Family Health Division. The goal of the OVA is to implement and support innovative citywide interventions that specifically address the leading contributors to maternal mortality in Philadelphia, as identified by Philadelphia’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC). The OVA builds upon existing collaboratives focused on target areas, infuses funding into pilot projects with the potential to improve maternal health, and works across sectors to integrate community voices and solutions into policies and programs.

The first recommendation of the MMRC 2020 report is to “address root causes of health inequity in the health care system.” CBOs have been key in advancing maternal health equity and reducing health disparities. Thus, the Community Investment implementation team was formed to address this recommendation, which has a goal of investing in community-based organizations led by women of color. Feedback received from focus groups conducted in early 2022 with Black-led maternal health CBOs and birth workers inspired this project to launch a mini-grant program to provide flexible access to technical assistance funding to support capacity building. This funding is critical to amplifying CBOs autonomy to operate based on their expertise as lived experience practitioners. This mini grant project, funded by the Philadelphia City Fund’s Innovation Fund, seeks to fill a gap by providing funds that CBOs currently lack to grow their capacity to address maternal health needs while ensuring their organizations are sustainable.

 

Eligibility Criteria

Applicant must:

  • have a current 501(c)(3) or LLC designation;
  • serve Philadelphia residents and have a maternal health focus;
  • be Black-led; and
  • have an annual operating budget of less than $500,000.

 

Please note mini grants cannot fund:

  • Individuals
  • Schools
  • Formation of a new organization
  • Expenses incurred before January 1, 2024

 

Allowable Expenses to include but not limited to:

  • Conferences (registration fees and access to CEUs)
  • Training and certification (examples: Certified Lactation Counselor, Perinatal Mental Health Certificate, training opportunities for staff/boards etc.)
  • Professional services (legal, tax services, web development, consulting, mentoring, marketing, financial management, data systems, grant writing, etc.)
  • Organizational development/ strategic planning
  • Requests for expenses incurred prior to the application announcement (no earlier than January 1, 2024) will be accepted but applicant must submit proof of payment

 

Timeline and How to Apply

Applications will be accepted via the application form from Monday, February 26, 2024, thru Sunday, March 24, 2024 at 11:59pm EST. To apply, please complete the application and upload any requested materials at the link below.

Questions about this opportunity should be submitted by March 15, 2024 via email to: mara.pliskin@phila.gov, haley.widom@phila.gov, and cityfund@phila.gov.

Final decision notifications will go out by Monday, April 1 via email.

This initiative is administered by the Philadelphia City Fund. All selected grantees will receive grant funding directly from the Philadelphia City Fund.