The California Wellness Foundation supports the ecosystem of community health centers and clinics providing safety net primary care services for low-income individuals in the state.
Donor Name: The California Wellness Foundation
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/30/2025
Size of the Grant: Not Available
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
All Californians should have the ability to see a medical provider when and how they need to. That’s why they support policy, advocacy, organizing, and other efforts to expand and improve the Medi-Cal program. But laws and policies don’t implement themselves. It takes a lot more work to make these rights real. If people without health insurance don’t know they are eligible for health coverage programs, or how to sign up or use their benefits, they are not making progress on universal coverage and access to care. That’s why they invest in organizations that reach out to communities to both educate and help eligible people sign up for health insurance, help patients retain coverage from year to year, and facilitate full use of benefits. But there are still other barriers in place that make it difficult for people of color and immigrants to access needed high-quality health care. Making health care rights real also means having the access to comprehensive services for staying healthy, such as oral and behavioral health services, as well as having medical providers close by. It also means having providers that understand ones’s language and culture. They also provide funding to non-nonprofit organizations supporting community health centers and clinics through technical assistance, capacity building, and other services.
The universal coverage and access to care goal area only provides funding for the following types of organizations and work:
- Core or project support grants for public policy, research, organizing, and communications efforts to supporting expansion or improvement of health coverage programs (including oral health care services) such as Medi-Cal or Covered California).
- Core or project grants for nonprofit organizations focused on providing outreach and enrollment services for health coverage programs like Medi-Cal or Covered California (also post-enrollment support for retention and utilization of coverage).
- Community health centers and clinics providing a range of primary care services such as federally qualified health centers, FQHC Look-Alike clinics, rural health clinics, and free clinics with established sites and regular hours.
- For smaller and mid-sized clinics, they generally provide core operating grants to sustain services or build organizational capacity.
- For larger clinics, they generally provide project support grants to address health-related social needs of patients.
- Core or project support grants for community health centers and clinics providing oral health care services and serving as a dental home for low-income adults and seniors (can be dental-only clinics or primary care clinics that offer dental services).
- Core or project support for other nonprofit organizations providing support for community health centers and clinics such as statewide and regional clinic consortia.
Eligibility Criteria
- Your organization must be a nonprofit public agency, religious organization or tribal government. Cal Wellness does not fund individuals seeking funding.
- You must have Section 501(c)(3) status and be classified as a public charity.
- Your organization can’t discriminate by race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation or national origin.
- Your application is not for an annual fund drive, building campaign, major equipment or biomedical research.
- Your proposal would benefit those living in California. Cal Wellness does not provide international funding or fund organizations located outside the United States.
Ineligibility
CWF recognizes that there are many types of organizations providing important safety net health care services. However, they are simply not able to fund all of these worthwhile organizations.
- Organizations other than community health centers and clinics that provide health care services.
- Specialized clinics or other organizations such as those that focus on mental health, substance use disorder treatment, vision care, or on specific diseases or conditions (such as cancer).
- General health education on chronic diseases or conditions such as diabetes, heart disease.
- Dental clinics or programs that focus solely or predominantly on children/pediatric dentistry, unless they seek to expand their capacity to serve low-income adults and seniors.
- Organizations providing general health system navigation assistance and services, unless the organization also has a substantial program focused on outreach and enrollment into Medi-Cal or Covered California or other health coverage programs.
For more information, visit CWF.
