Invitation for Funding Community-Based Serious Illness Care Programs

Does your organization serve Black, Chinese, or Latino people with serious illness in Alameda or San Francisco Counties?

 

Stupski Foundation is looking to support organizations that provide community-based serious illness care to Black, Chinese,1 or Latino people living in Alameda and/or San Francisco Counties. Community-based services helpful to those with serious illness include advance care planning, caregiver support, spiritual and emotional support, health system navigation, linkages to palliative care, and social services.    

Apply with a two-page concept note for up to $600,000 by Oct. 8, 2021.
Some organizations will be selected to submit a full proposal due Dec. 17, 2021.

Full details below.

 

What Is a Serious Illness?

A serious illness is a condition that carries a high risk of mortality and often negatively impacts quality of life and creates caregiver stress. Examples of serious illness include metastatic cancer, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and dementia. 

 

What Is Community-based Serious Illness Care?

Community-based serious illness care are services that organizations in the community deliver outside the traditional health care system. Community-based services helpful to those with serious illness include advance care planning, caregiver support, spiritual and emotional support, health system navigation, linkages to palliative care, and social services.  

 

Why is the Foundation interested in funding Community-based Serious Illness Care?

Community-based serious illness care is a strategy within Stupski’s larger serious illness care portfolio. The portfolio’s goal is to ensure people with serious illness receive care that maximizes their quality of life for as long as possible. Research has shown that many people are more comfortable seeking services in their community delivered by community members. Learn more about Stupski’s serious illness care work. 

 

Why is the Foundation interested in funding Serious Illness Care in the Black, Chinese, and Latino communities?

While our goal is to improve care for all people with serious illness, there is an even greater need for people of color. For example, compared to white Americans, Black, Asian, and Latino people have a lower use of hospice and higher use of the intensive care unit in the last days of life. They also are less likely to have talked to a decision-maker about the medical care they would want at the end of life or to have documented their wishes.

 

What kind of Community-based Serious Illness Care programs will the Foundation fund?

To be funded,  programs must serve the Black, Chinese, and/or Latino communities in Alameda and/or San Francisco Counties.  

Additionally, although we are open to considering any innovative ideas and configurations, we are currently envisioning funding programs that:  

  • Provide multiple serious illness care services under one program such as advance care planning, caregiver support, spiritual and emotional support, health system navigation, linkages to palliative care, and social services
  • Will reside within an existing organization (s) that has trust-based relationships with community members, instead of creating a new organization 
  • Have significant and multiple touch points with people living with serious illness and their caregivers 
  • Employ people who share a cultural and linguistic background with people with serious illness and their families/caregivers
  • Are willing to partner with or refer to health systems and clinics but do not necessarily provide medical services directly (e.g., they do not have to provide disease care or specialty palliative care)
  • Desire to scale and become a self-sustaining program within six to eight years (e.g., health plan or city and county supported)

 

Who should apply?

Any organization that feels it can provide substantial, ongoing, community-based serious illness care to Black, Chinese, and/or Latino communities in Alameda and/or San Francisco Counties is invited to apply. Additionally, if helpful to deliver the programing, we welcome multiple organizations partnering together to apply jointly.  

Organizations must have nonprofit status to apply.

Note: For organizations that are interested in promoting serious illness care but for which delivering a full community-based serious illness care program is not a good fit, the Stupski Foundation also supports community organizations to promote education, awareness, and acceptance of serious illness care services. That separate strategy is designed to support community organizations that have high trust levels with communities of color to deliver lighter-touch programming such as advance care planning workshops, testimonials from community members on the benefits of accepting palliative care, and referrals into community-based serious illness care. If your organization is better positioned to offer those kinds of services, please contact  loren@transformingcarepartners.com.

 

How do I apply?

Please submit a two-page concept paper that includes:

  • Current work within the Black, Chinese, and/or Latino communities and why your organization is well positioned to deliver community-based serious illness care services
  • A brief overview of the proposed serious illness care program that includes:
    • A description of envisioned services
    • Potential partners
    • Proposed staffing
  • Potential sources of long-term funding (health plan, government, potential for the program to be incorporated into a larger organizational budget) 
  • Estimated grant budget, not to exceed $600,000 over two to three years 

The concept paper is due by Oct. 8, 2021. 

Please email your completed application to Dan Tuttle, director of health (dan@stupski.org), and Loren Pogir, strategic advisor (loren@transformingcarepartners.com).

 

When will I hear?

We aim to select and notify a small subset of applicants by Oct. 22, 2021. Those selected will be invited to submit a proposal for a potential grant of up to $600,000.    

 

If I am invited to submit a proposal, what happens next?

If you are invited to submit a proposal, you will receive a request for proposal document outlining the requirements for the proposal, which will request more detailed information on the program elements, budget, evaluation metrics, milestones, etc. The proposal will be due Dec. 17, 2021. Please note that an invitation to submit a proposal is not a guarantee of funding.   

 

Whom do I reach out to with questions?

Please reach out to Loren Pogir, strategic advisor (loren@transformingcarepartners.com), with any questions.

 

 

  1. Alameda and San Francisco Counties are home to a wide range of Asian American Pacific Islander communities who each have their own unique history, culture, language, and traditions. Currently, we are focusing on community-based serious illness care services that serve the large population of Chinese Americans who experience disparities in serious illness care across our communities. At Stupski Foundation, we are working with community partners to understand the different needs and opportunities of each group within the Asian American community, and we will use that information to direct our future grantmaking.