Community Benefits Contributions Guidelines

Interested in applying for a community benefits contribution from Premier Health?

Grant-making policy and specific grant decisions for community benefits contributions are made by the Community Benefits Subcommittee (or designees). The size and number of contribution awards are directly related to the amount of money available each year and vary year to year. Awards are typically in the range of $500 to $8,000. The subcommittee reserves the right to make exceptions to the grant application process.

What We Look for in a Project

• Addresses health system priorities: Premier Health’s priorities include behavioral health/substance abuse, birth outcomes, and chronic disease management.
• Addresses social determinants: Social determinants are all the environmental factors that influence your health, including early childhood development, employment opportunities, food insecurity, air and water quality, transportation, educational attainment, public safety, and housing.
• Addresses health equity and disparities: Health equity is achieved when immutable characteristics such as race, gender, sexual identity, and more are not correlated to higher rates of adverse health outcomes. Health disparities are the differences in health outcomes based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and/or socio-economic status.
• Upstream approach: An upstream approach addresses the community factors that shape health before any clinical intervention is necessary (also known as social determinants of health). These factors can include fields as diverse as affordable housing, public safety, access to healthy food, and economic opportunity.
• Integration: Partnerships that align the practices and perspectives of communities, health systems and public health under a shared vision, establishing new roles while continuing to draw upon the strengths of each partner
• Local: Partnerships that engage neighborhood residents and community leaders as key voices and thought leaders throughout all stages of planning and implementation
• Data-driven and evidence-based: Partnerships that use data from both clinical and community sources as a tool to identify key needs, measure meaningful change, and facilitate transparency amongst stakeholders to generate actionable insights; mirroring proven strategies that facilitate tangible change.
  

Contribution Eligibility Questionnaire

The following questions will help determine if you should apply for funding. If you answer no to any of the following questions, please reconsider applying.

• Does the activity address a community health need, such as, behavioral health/substance abuse, chronic disease management, or birth outcomes as identified on Premier Health’s Community Health Needs Assessment?
• Does the activity support Premier Health’s vision and mission?
• Is your organization recognized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization, according to the Internal Revenue Code?
• Is the activity designed to improve health?
• Does the activity produce a measurable community benefit?
• Would an objective “prudent layperson” question whether the program truly benefits the community?
• Is the initiative realistic?
• Do you and/or your collaborative group have the capacity to implement the project?
• Do you have appropriately trained staff and/or volunteers?
• Is your initiative unique and unduplicated, and will it affect a substantial number of people?
• Do you have additional committed funders?
  

Final Report

A final report will be due within 1 year of receiving grant funds. The information in the final report may be shared through Premier Health’s social media pages (Facebook, X, LinkedIn, etc.) or publications to generate awareness in our community about the organization and the project.

The final report should include:

• An explanation of how your project addressed Premier Health’s community health priorities and/or helped Premier Health fulfill its vision and mission
• Tangible metrics of improving the health of the community
• Photographs, with captions, showing the project in action (per privacy and HIPAA/Personal Health Information compliance guidelines)
• If possible, information about how the community can get involved or help you continue to grow and benefit your service area
  

If an organization’s final report is past due and no attempt has been made by the organization to extend the final report deadline, the organization will become ineligible to apply for a grant for a period of two years.

Funding Categories

Community Health Improvement: Community activities or programs that respond to community needs and seek to achieve objectives including improving access to health services, enhancing public health, and advancing increased general knowledge.

This includes activities or programs that:

• Are available broadly to the public and serve low-income consumers
• Reduce geographic, financial, or cultural barriers to accessing health services, and if ceased to exist would result in access problems
• Address federal, state, or local health priorities, such as eliminating disparities in health care among different populations
• Advance increased general knowledge through education or research that benefits the public
  

Examples of supported activities:

• Community health education
• Community-based clinical services, such as health services and screenings for underinsured and uninsured persons
• Support groups related to community need, such as for prevention of child abuse or managing chronic disease
• Health care support services, such as enrollment assistance in public programs and transportation efforts
• Self-help programs. This includes wellness and health-promotion programs for the community, such as those for smoking cessation, exercise, and weight loss.
• Social and environmental improvement activities
• Community health initiatives addressing specific health targets and goals
• Community-based chaplaincy programs and spiritual care, including pastoral outreach programs
  

Community-Building Activities: Community-building activities improve the community’s health and safety by addressing the root causes of health problems, such as poverty, homelessness, environmental hazards, etc. These activities strengthen the community’s capacity to promote the health and well-being of its residents by offering the expertise and resources of the health care organization.

Examples of supported activities:

• Physical improvements and housing
• Economic development
• Efforts to establish or enhance community support networks
• Environmental improvements
• Leadership development and training for community members
• Coalition building
• Community health improvement advocacy
• Advocacy for community health improvements and safety
• Workplace development
  

What We Generally Do Not Fund

• Individuals
• General organizational operations and ongoing programs
• Organizations that discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship status, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any applicable federal, state or local laws.
• Scientific, medical, or academic research projects
• Operational deficits, or reduced or lost funding
• Scholarships and travel grants
• Annual fundraising drives, ceremonies, conferences, workshops, special or one-time events
• Public or private schools
• Endowment funds
• Affiliates of labor organizations
• Organizations which receive sizeable portions of their support through municipal, county, state, or federal dollars
• Golf tournaments and/or outings
• Art exhibits
• Hospitals and universities for internal programs
• Matching grants (unless local dollars are needed to fulfill a condition for a state or federal grant)
• Publications, including books, reports, and research papers
• National and/or state health organizations.
• Organizations that only benefit a few people
• Organizations raising money for second-party giving for community purposes
• Political organizations, and candidates for political office and organizations whose primary purpose is to influence legislation. With certain limited exceptions, we do not support campaigns for which we have to create employee teams to raise additional funds for an organization.

For more information and how to apply, please review the Community Benefit Grant Application.

For Additional Information

Please contact Premier Community Health at (877) 274-4543(877) 274-4543 or via email at ammornings@Premierhealth.com.