The Spring 2024 Grant Cycle opens January 8, 2024 and closes February 8, 2024 with decisions announced in April 2024.

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 race, sexual orientation, creed, age, or national origin

• Compete directly with Advocate Aurora Health

The Spring Grant cycle is open for:

• Program grants – support new programs, continuing programs, or expansion of successful ongoing programs

• Project grants – funding for short-term activities, usually lasting less than one year

We recognize that without people, there are no programs or projects; therefore, we will consider staffing costs as part of a program or project request.

In 2022, Provident conducted a Community Health Needs Assessment with Aurora Medical Center – Bay Area and the Marinette County Public Health Department. This assessment consisted of a phone survey, an online survey, and key-informant interviews as well as secondary data. Over 1000 residents of Marinette County, WI and Menominee County, MI were interviewed. Although those priorities varied somewhat, there was general agreement around the four that Provident has chosen to address through our grant-making process:

• Substance Abuse

• Mental Health

• Childhood Obesity reduction through healthy eating and active living

• Equitable Access to Care

We also will recognize and focus on a broad definition of health, believing there is much more to health than health care. Health is influenced by many factors, including socioeconomic conditions, the environment, education, income family and social support, and individual behavior choices – factors that are known as the Social Determinants of Health.

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 development programs that promote the health and well-being of children, teens, and families.

Promotion – Strategies designed to create environments and conditions that support health and the ability for individuals to withstand challenges. Promotion strategies also reinforce the entire continuum of Health.

Prevention – Delivered prior to the onset of a disorder, these interventions are intended to prevent or reduce the risk of developing a health problem, such as underage alcohol use.

Treatment – These services are for people diagnosed with a health disorder.

Recovery – These services support individuals’ abilities to live productive lives in the community and can often help with abstinence.

We will have a significant and measurable impact on improving the health of Twin County Residents by:

• Being a meaningful partner by supporting and advancing the efforts of organizations that are aligned with our goals

• Emphasizing efforts that are likely to achieve long-term impact with measurable outcomes

• Having a priority interest in populations who are at greatest risk for poor health and who face barriers to pursuing better health

• Using our community to help us identify and prioritize the programs and needs where our resources would be best directed to achieve our goals.

• Demonstrating leadership by raising awareness and understanding of important health issues and effective approaches

We will be an effective grant-making organization by:

• Developing flexible funding approaches that allow us to respond to community-identified priorities and needs

• Offering a grant evaluation and award process that is consistent, fair, and transparent to grant requesters and the community

• Creating evidence-based evaluations of our grant-making impact and effectiveness

• Pursuing collaborative funding opportunities

• Keeping the community informed, involved, and invested in our mission

• Serving the community and our mission in perpetuity

Provident will consider support for individual fundraising events through modest sponsorships, apart from our grant cycle. 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.

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

• Lobbying/Partisan Efforts/Political Activities

• Pass-through grant support through a third party

• Scholarships, fellowships, or direct financial assistance to individuals

During 2024, we will have a Spring grant cycle and then determine how the rest of the year will proceed. The cycle during the Spring will be for grants focusing on our priority areas of mental health, substance abuse, childhood obesity reduction through healthy living, and equitable healthcare access. Our funding is primarily for efforts that focus on promotion and prevention and then for some efforts that involve treatment and recovery.

Provident is committed to maintaining our initial community health improvement funding in perpetuity and will grant only investment earnings. Fund available is subject to change over time.

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 with multiple programs that align with Provident’s focuses may apply for more than one grant in the grant cycle, and each grant will be considered on its own merit. In the Spring 2022 grant cycle, two organizations applied for two grants, and both grants were approved for both organizations. Another nonprofit applied for two grant applications and one was approved while one was denied.

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 development programs that promote the health and well-being of children, teens, and families, as well as prevention strategies that empower youth to make better health decisions.

Yes! We have a couple of new components this year after our recently completed Strategic Planning for the next three years.

• Systemic Interventions – Provident will begin to look at funding more systemically with this Grant Cycle. 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. For example, Provident recently funded a grant to expand a bus route that includes Marinette & Menominee Cities. This systemic intervention improved the systems that serve the community by increasing the public transportation infrastructure. A downstream intervention would have been funding individual bus passes or taxi vouchers.

• 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’ve chosen. 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.

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. Any decisions that are not clear-cut will be discussed and a recommendation will be made by the Executive Committee. All grant awards will be determined by the full Board.

We are not anticipating personal interviews for the Spring grant cycle, but there may be requests for additional or clarifying information before a decision is made. We will require greater proposal detail and may require personal interviews on any request over $25,000.

Based on the number and size of grant requests received, we may decide to make some partial awards. During the spring 2022 cycle, 7 of the 12 grants awarded were done at the fully requested level, 1 of the 15 grants was awarded higher than the fully requested level, and 4 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.

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.

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. 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 contact us.

We encourage applicants or those interested in applying to reach out to us with any questions, comments, or concerns. We would be happy to meet with you regarding your application; to do so, email Madison Darling at madarling@providenthealth.org.

Our application will be available online at – https://www.grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=providenthealth