Activities & Investments

Each funder involved in the Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership has its own porfolio with different policy, environmental, and institutional approaches in different parts of the country. Collectively, the Partners are committed to improving the nation's health and to supporting the strategies for creating healthy environments. For the past year they have been engaged in a strategic planning process to identify the most strategic activities and investments for the upcoming three years.

The areas of focus for 2008 - 2010 include:

The Convergence Partnership Announces Innovation Fund Winners
After reviewing proposals from across the country, 15 foundations were selected for their innovation and diversity. The awards provide as much as $200,000 over two years to each recipient to support innovative local and regional initiatives and projects. Foundations were required to provide a $2 match for every $1 they were awarded in order to leverage additional resources and support.

The Innovation Fund provides 50 percent matching dollars, up to $100,000 per year, for two years to engage foundations in two strategies that hold great promise to create healthy places –land use/built environment and/or access to healthy food. The Fund provides resources for grant makers to support new projects which engage multi-field community and foundation partnerships to work on policy and environmental change efforts emphasizing equity. 

“Innovative projects like these are at the vanguard of a national effort to create healthier communities for all people,” said Judith Bell, president of PolicyLink and the Partnership’s program director. “By investing in the local foundations that know their regions best, the Convergence Partnership hopes we will encourage new risk-taking and create sustainable, long-term impact in communities across America.”

The Partnership is utilizing a new approach to national grantmaking by targeting local and regional foundations to create sustainable local impact.  The Partnership aspires for awardees to leverage the Convergence dollars to take risks in their grantmaking, show progress and create internal support to sustain their program after the life of the matching dollars.  Catalyzing a shift in foundations’ investments and goals provides opportunities and incentives for local organizations to shift their efforts.

The Convergence Partnership launched the Innovation Fund in order to achieve the following goals:

• to support foundations to shift grantmaking towards policy and environmental change strategies targeting health and equity;
• to create local resources for promising, innovative strategies to build healthy, equitable communities;
• to promote multi-field partnerships on the ground, and;
• to support partnerships among foundations.

Click here to download the Convergence Innovation Fund RFP.

To learn more about the organizations and their projects please select from the list below:

Chicago Community Trust (Chicago, Ill.)
Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo (Buffalo, NY)
Community Foundation of Greater Memphis (Memphis, Tenn.)
Consumer Health Foundation (Washington, D.C.)
HNHfoundation (Concord, NH)
The Health Trust (Santa Clara County, Calif.)
Humboldt Area Foundation (Humboldt, Calif.)
Mary Black Foundation (Spartansburg, SC)
New Mexico Community Foundation (Santa Fe, NM)
Northwest Health Foundation(Portland, Ore.)
Raymond John Wean Foundation (Youngstown, Ohio)
Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation (Santa Monica, Calif.)
St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children (Philadelphia, Penn.)
Whatcom Community Foundation (Bellingham, Wash.)
Zilber Family Foundation (Milwaukee, Wisc.)

 

Chicago Community Trust       
www.cct.org
City/cities and state: Chicago, IL
Budget request: Year 1: $50,000, Year 2: $ 50,000, Total: $100,000

The Chicago Community Trust provides charitable resources in the arts, community and economic development, education, health and wellness, hunger and homeless alleviation, legal services; programs for youth, the elderly, and people with disabilities; and services to assure that basic human needs are met for all members of our community.

The Chicago Community Trust will use its $100,000 award for two community planning efforts.  The first project in East Humboldt Park, a largely Latino neighborhood, will engage youth to plan for state-of-the-art greenhouses on 11 community rooftops.  The second project in Englewood, a predominantly African American neighborhood, will support planning for a combined commercial and transportation corridor along an abandoned 1.5 mile rail line. 

Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo
www.cfgb.org
City/cities and state: Buffalo, NY
Budget request: Year 1: $45000, Year 2: $45,000, Total: $90,000

The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo was established in 1919 to enhance and encourage long-term philanthropy in the Western New York community.  Increasing economic self-sufficiency for low-income individuals and families and enhancing and leveraging WNY’s significant natural resources are key impact areas for the Foundation.  The Foundation’s mission is: Connecting people, ideas and resources to improve lives in Western New York.

CFGB will use its award for a grantmaking initiative for land use and food access based on recommendations from the Region’s Shared Agenda for the Environment (available at www.cfgb.org).  CFGB will seek to integrate food access issues with more traditional environmental issues.

Community Foundation of Greater Memphis
www.cfgm.org
City/cities and state: Memphis, TN
Budget request: Year 1: $35,000, Year 2: $0, Total: $35,000

The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis foundation, the largest in the area, is a collective of people, families, corporations and organizations, which works to strengthen their community and address community needs.

The foundation will use its $35,000 grant to launch an initiative supporting multi-field collaborative projects that utilize new approaches for achieving health and equity through policy and environmental change, specifically in underserved neighborhoods. The project is also being funded by The Assisi Foundation of Memphis, Plough Foundation, and the United Way Mid-South.

Consumer Health Foundation
www.consumerhealthfdn.org
City/cities and state: Washington, D.C. and Prince George’s County, MD
Budget request: Year 1: $25,000, Year 2: $25,000, Total: $50,000

The Consumer Health Foundation provides grants to local grassroots and community based organizations in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area. Their mission is to achieve health justice in the Washington, D.C. region through activities that advance the health and well being of historically underserved communities.

With the grant, the foundation seeks to support D.C. Hunger Solutions and Maryland Hunger Solutions, initiatives of the Food Research and Action Center focused on alleviating hunger.  The effort will lay the groundwork for creating Fresh Food Financing Initiatives in D.C. and Maryland based on the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative and other similar initiatives.

HNHfoundation
www.hnhfoundation.org
City/cities and state: Concord, NH
Budget request: Year 1: $15,000, Year 2: $15,000, Total: $30,000

This grantmaking organization helps nonprofit organizations and agencies working to evaluate and promote access to quality health care insurance coverage. They also support nonprofits that promote healthy behaviors and lifestyles.

HNHfoundation was specifically honored for their work to implement a project in the center-city of Manchester, New Hampshire, the largest city in northern New England.  The project aims to create neighborhoods that support access to healthy food and physical activity as part of everyday life through environmental and policy changes.

The Health Trust
www.healthtrust.org
City/cities and state: Santa Clara County and Northern Benito County, CA
Budget request: Year 1: $65,000, Year 2: $65,000, Total: $130,000

The Health Trust’s mission is to lead the Silicon Valley community in advancing wellness with an emphasis on prevention.  Their work is focused on healthy living, healthy aging and healthy communities.

The grant will help The Health Trust establish a new initiative to support a neighborhood, place-based approach.  The initiative will fund collaborative, community-driven efforts that cut across the foundation’s three priority initiatives -- Healthy Living, Healthy Aging, and Healthy Communities.

Humboldt Area Foundation
www.hafoundation.org
City/cities and state: Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity Counties, CA
Budget request: Year 1: $50,000, Year 2: $50,000, Total: $100,000

The Humboldt Area Foundation is a community foundation of and for the North Coast of California for residents to build social, economic and environmental prosperity.

The foundation will use its $100,000 award to create a new Health Equity Initiative to coordinate and support the work of three local multi-field projects: Humboldt Community for Activity and Nutrition (Humboldt CAN), the Humboldt Partnership for Active Living (HumPal), and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF).  The project emphasizes supporting community members to become integrally involved in policy and environmental change focused on built environment and food access. 

Mary Black Foundation
www.maryblackfoundation.org
City/cities and state: Spartanburg, SC
Budget request: Year 1: $100,000, Year 2: $100,000, Total: $200,000

The Mary Black Foundation’s mission is to improve the health and wellness of people and communities in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Their resources are dedicated to the underlying causes of poor health with a focus on active living and early childhood development.

Using the grant, the South Carolina-based foundation will build on its existing work by engaging neighborhood residents in two to four communities in Spartanburg to improve access to physical activity and healthy foods.  Individuals and community organizations from selected neighborhoods will develop plans to improve policies and environments to encourage healthy eating and active living.

New Mexico Community Foundation
www.nmcf.org
City/cities and state: Santa Fe, NM
Budget request: Year 1: $25,000, Year 2: $25,000, Total: $50,000

The New Mexico Community Foundation (NMCF) is a statewide endowment building and grant-making organization that serves and invests in New Mexico’s communities and their greatest asset . . . people.

The Santa Fe, New Mexico organization was awarded a $50,000 match to fund the initiative, Good Food for New Mexico Families.  The project, which brings together four non-profit organizations, will establish a statewide collaborative to advocate for state and federal policy changes that will increase access to healthy foods and agriculture production as well as help rural communities design and implement projects to develop healthy food retail and local food production and marketing.

Northwest Health Foundation
nwhf.org
City/cities and state: Portland, OR
Budget request: Year 1: $100,000, Year 2: $100,000, Total: $200,000

Based in Portland, Oregon, the foundation advances, supports, and promotes the health of the people of Oregon and southwest Washington.

The Northwest Health Foundation (NWHF) will create a grant-making initiative targeted to organizations that represent communities of color in order to engage them in the healthy eating, active living movement in the region. The project will promote social justice, advance health equity, strengthen community capacity for enhanced civic participation, and create stronger networks between diverse constituencies.

The Raymond John Wean Foundation
www.rjweanfdn.org
City/cities and state: Warren & Youngstown, OH
Budget request: Year 1: $100,000, Year 2: $100,000, Total: $200,000

The Wean Foundation enhances community well-being in the Mahoning Valley through grant-making, advocacy and leadership with a focus on economically disadvantaged communities and an emphasis on raising capacity of recipients to perform their mission.

The Wean Foundation will be using their grant to create an Access to Healthy Foods Program in Warren and Youngstown, Ohio.  The Mahoning Valley Alliance will address health equity and food access through a focus on community organizing for policy and environmental change and programs to improve access to healthy foods.  

The  Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation
www.thegilbertfoundation.org
City/cities and state: Santa Monica, CA
Budget request:  Year 1: $40,000, Year 2: $40,000, Total: $80,000

The foundation invests in programs that promote education, tolerance, social services, healthcare and the arts. This California foundation is using its $80,000 award to support built environment approaches that address the lack of access to physical activity and/or healthy food. Specifically, they will support efforts to increase the accessibility and maintenance of parks for low-income communities throughout California.

St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children
www.scfchildren.org
City/cities and state: Philadelphia, PA
Budget request: Year 1: $100,000, Year 2: $100,000, Total: $200,000

St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children is a grant-making public charity operating and supporting programs that increase positive health outcomes for children and families in the North Philadelphia neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children plans to support multiple projects, totaling nearly $1 million.  The first includes the creation of community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs in low-income communities in Philadelphia.  The second project works for changes to state and city policies to increase food access, including expansion of food benefits to include purchases from CSA programs, amendments to sidewalk vending zoning code to allow for greater produce sales, and the creation of a revolving loan fund for refrigeration and shelving for corner stores.  A third project—funded outside the Innovation Fund grant and match, but equally as important to the success of the portfolio—is a nutrition education program for CSA members with curriculum relevant to their weekly shares.

Whatcom Community Foundation
www.whatcomcf.org
City/cities and state: Bellingham, WA
Budget request: Year 1: $100,000, Year 2: $100,000, Total: $200,000

Whatcom Community Foundation (WCF) is a public charitable organization that enriches the quality of life for residents of Whatcom County, Washington.  WCF works with donors, volunteers and numerous organizations to meet community needs, support collaboration and innovation for community benefit and promote community investment.

As a result of the grant, the Whatcom Community Foundation (WCF) will coordinate and expand its effort to support substantive local work in land use, the built environment and food access by funding multi-field collaborative projects, establishing a field of interest fund around healthy eating and active living, and working with other funders to better coordinate strategies and priorities. WCF seeks to connect sustainable agriculture and land use work with health, and to involve interdisciplinary coalitions in order to create environmental and policy change.

Joseph and Vera Zilber Family Foundation
City/cities and state: Milwaukee, WI
Budget request: Year 1: $100,000, Year 2: $100,000, Total: $200,000

The Zibler Family Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to enhancing the well-being of individuals, families and communities, with a primary emphasis on supporting community-based efforts to revitalize neighborhoods in the City of Milwaukee.

The Zilber Family Foundation will use $200,000 to support new land use and food access policy projects identified through community planning processes in Lindsay Heights and Clarke Square, the first of ten city sites to participate in the Zilber Neighborhood Initiative.  Copies of the community plans are available at www.znimilwaukee.org.  In partnership with residents and community-based organizations, the Zilber Family Foundation will fund projects that connect access to healthy foods and physical activity to environmental transformation, policy reform, and economic and workforce development.