California Endowment Awards $3.7M To Help Organizations Provide Health Services in Underserved Communities

The California Endowment, a private statewide health foundation, last Friday awarded more than $3.7 million in grants to help local organizations respond to health issues that affect their communities. The endowment awarded a total of 88 grants through the group's Local Opportunities Fund to not-for-profit and public organizations that provide health and health-related services to underserved communities in the state. The endowment established LOF to provide smaller grants of as much as $50,000 to fund programs, provide operational support and increase capacity at local organizations. More than 80% of the organizations that have received grants through the program have annual budgets of less than $500,000. "This program was designed to create a pool of funds for organizations and programs that work on a local, grassroots level," Robert Ross, president and CEO of the endowment, said, adding, "Many of the organizations that will benefit from this program have struggled to secure funding because of their limited size, their nontraditional approach to providing services, or because they don't match the funding criteria of most foundations." The endowment awards grants through LOF four times per year (California Endowment release, 7/12). More information about LOF is available online.