We fund new or existing program and project requests that work to advance our mission as stated above through our strategic plan priorities. Our strategic plan was informed by the 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) conducted in collaboration with the Community Health Partnership of Marinette/Menominee Counties and included feedback from over 1000 residents and 70 leaders.

We fund to address the top health improvement priorities from the CHNA. Those are:

• Substance Misuse

• Mental Health

• Childhood Obesity reduction through healthy eating and active living

• Equitable Access to Care

We fund requests that address these through a prevention or promotion approach as opposed to treatment or recovery. We also fund requests that address social determinants of health with the goal of improving these health behaviors in our community. We prefer systemic approaches to improving the community conditions that allow the healthy choice to be accessible and attainable for all. We also prefer requests that seek to advance health equity. The CDC defines health equity as, “the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health.”

Our funding can only be used to support requests that serve the people of Marinette County, WI and/or Menominee County, MI. We will fund staffing components of a program/project request. We may fund marketing components of a program request, but only in conjunction with a review from Provident or another marketing professional.

We will consider grants to organizations that meet the following criteria:

• Service to residents of Marinette, WI and/or Menominee, MI counties

• Exempt from Federal Income taxes under section 501(c)3

• City, county, state, or federal governmental units

• School systems, public or private

Funding will not be considered for organizations that:

• Discriminate on the basis of any federally protected class

• Compete directly with Advocate Aurora Health

Provident will not entertain requests for:

• Advertising publications

• Annual appeals, fundraising campaigns, or membership drives

• Capital/Building Campaigns (brick & mortar)

• Equipment not considered program supplies (e.g. playground equipment, industrial refrigeration, etc.)

• Endowments or other discretionary funding pools

• Debt retirement

• Pass-through grant support through a third party

• Scholarships, fellowships, or direct financial assistance to individuals.

• Treatment and/or recovery programs

Provident recently completed its three-year strategic planning, and as a result, more changes are coming to this grant cycle than before. Provident is holding an event on February 3rd and will update the website with those changes on the Our Approach page.

New in 2026, we are implementing a required Concept Call before releasing the application access code. The purpose of this is to save applicants’ time, help strengthen the application idea, and start them thinking through the questions we will ask on our grant application. To schedule a concept call, visit https://calendly.com/madarling-providenthealth/concept-video-call-meeting

The Spring 2026 Grant Cycle opens February 4, 2026 and closes March 16, 2026 with decisions announced in May 2026.

During 2026, we will have a Spring grant cycle and then determine how the rest of the year will proceed.

Provident is committed to maintaining our initial community health improvement funding in perpetuity and will grant only investment earnings. Fund availability is subject to change over time. Provident has awarded an average of $488,000 in grants each year since 2023.

Program/project grants are considered on a year-to-year basis. Multi-year program grant commitments will not be made during this grant cycle, but may be considered in the future.

Yes, organizations may apply for more than one grant in the grant cycle, and each grant will be considered on its own merit. In the Spring 2024 grant cycle, one organization applied for three grants, and all three grants were approved. Another nonprofit applied for three grant applications and two were approved while one was denied.

Potentially! Depending on the circumstances of your denial, we might recommend you do or don‘t reapply. This will be something to cover in the Concept Call if you are interested in reapplying.

We have a few different resources to support first-time (and even seasoned) grant applicants. Provident has held a “How to Write a Convincing Grant Application” event for the past few years. We’ve turned our presentation into a written guide available on our website under the “Grant Application” tab. We also encourage you to reach out to us! We can talk with you and help you get started.

Although there are many opportunities to improve local health through treatment and recovery, we have decided that the majority of our grant-making will go towards building the foundation for a healthy life. We will do this by primarily investing in evidence-based/informed programs that promote health and well-being with programs directly impacting Marinette & Menominee residents aged 0-18, as well as prevention strategies that empower them to make better health decisions.

Provident recognizes and focuses on a broad definition of health. We believe there is much more to health than health care. Health is influenced by many factors, including the community conditions, social and economic factors, the physical environment, health infrastructure, and more. The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute Model of Health expresses this concept.

Systemic Interventions - Provident aims to fund more systemically. We’ll be moving more upstream with our funding to create stronger institutional systems conducive to a healthier community, rather than focusing solely on downstream individual interventions. As highlighted in the 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment results, collaborative solutions that address the systemic conditions and health factors of our community will be vital to make a tangible and significant impact on these big health and social determinants of health conditions in Marinette and Menominee.

Social Determinants of Health - Provident will be directing more funding focus to address the social determinants of health that impact the four focus areas we have. For example, a lack of social connectedness and belonging is shown to exacerbate substance abuse and mental health, so an initiative that improves that social connectedness (e.g. the HYC Sober Parties that Provident has funded) results in less youth alcohol and drug consumption as well as improved mental health.

In the quest to strengthen our measurement efforts and use of data in granted programming, we engaged Delaney Data Empowerment, who directed us to the Theory of Change. We are finalizing our organization’s Theory of Change and, in that process, identified six key priorities, which we are calling Levers of Change. These Levers of Change represent the activities to drive the desired impact we work to have as a Foundation. These Levers support our vision of growing a high-functioning local nonprofit infrastructure that aligns with and achieves our mission.

Take a look at our 2026-2028 Strategic Plan to learn more.

We will use the focus areas and approaches previously established by the Board as our key requirements, but will allow consideration for those areas that meet our broader mission.

Grant applications will first be reviewed by Provident staff members to ensure they are complete and ready for Board review. Staff may call, email, or meet with applicants if there is anything confusing or absent from their application. Staff members will then send applications to the Board for their review.

All Board members will have the opportunity to be part of the evaluation process. All grant awards will be determined by the full Board.

There may be requests for additional or clarifying information before a decision is made. We may require greater proposal detail and/or personal interviews on any request.

We don’t have a set range to ask within, rather, we ask that you request the amount needed to execute what you’re promising to deliver in the grant application. If you have questions, please reach out!

We may decide to make some partial awards. During the Spring 2024 cycle, 17 of the 19 awarded grants were done at the fully requested level and 2 were awarded at less than the requested level.

Awards may be made in a single payment or installment payments, depending on the size of the grant award and the needs of the program. We use ACH to make grant payments. If you don’t currently use ACH, we will help you get set up.

Yes, we do! It‘s an IRS-recommended best practice for Foundations like ours to implement a Grant Agreement. If your application is approved, we‘ll send you a Grant Agreement to sign in the Grant Software, Foundant. Grant payments will not be made until this is signed and returned to us. Modifications to the grant agreement may be requested.

Awardees will sign a Grant Agreement ahead of the first check and will make at least one progress report during the life of the grant. Reporting may be done via meeting or phone call. Larger grants may require more reporting.

While we will appreciate any public acknowledgment of our collaboration with you, it is not a requirement to receive the funding. Provident will be managing the public release of information about the grants. If you need assistance with graphics or approved verbiage, please see our Style Guide available on our website. We do ask that you check with us before using our logo on any printed or digial materials by emailing madarling@providenthealth.org.

Check out the Grants Given page to see all of the grants we’ve given. You can also see them on our 990PFs, found at the bottom of our Board & Leadership Page.

Yes, but not with our grant application. Provident does consider support for individual fundraising events through modest sponsorships. An application for sponsorships is in Foundant, our grant software. Our decision to fund them will follow our general granting guidelines. This is a rolling application with no set dates.