Meyer Foundation & Consumer Health Foundation's
New Partnership On Health Funding
The Meyer Foundation is pleased to announce a new collaborative partnership with the Consumer Health Foundation, the leading health funder in the Greater Washington region.
Meyer and Consumer Health have worked closely together for nearly a decade, and there is considerable overlap in our funding priorities and grantees. Beginning next year, the Consumer Health Foundation will manage the application and grant review process for Meyer's health and mental health grants.
We are making this change for several reasons:
Meyer's program staff is smaller because of the economic downturn, and this partnership allows us to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the Consumer Health Foundation without expanding our staff.
We also believe that grantmakers should be open to innovative new ways of working together—especially in difficult economic times—and should model the kind of collaboration they hope to see among grantees.
Finally, coordinating more closely with Consumer Health will streamline and simplify application and reporting processes for nonprofits, since they will use a single process for both foundations.
Meyer's commitment to funding in health remains strong, and our priorities and funding interests will continue to focus on expanding access to primary care throughout the region.
Consumer Health Foundation staff will manage the application and review process for health and mental health grants and make recommendations to Meyer staff and board. The Meyer Foundation board will review Consumer Health's recommendations and approve Meyer's health grants in June 2010. Health and mental health grants will still be listed on our website and in the annual report, and those grantees will continue to be eligible for Meyer's Management Assistance and Cash Flow Loan programs.
Given our constrained resources and limited ability to support new groups at this time, Consumer Health will accept proposals for Meyer funding by invitation only starting in 2010.
Later this fall, Consumer Health staff will contact Meyer's current health grantees to let them know whether and how to apply for funding in 2010. Meyer will no longer accept health and mental health letters of inquiry as part of its regular grantmaking process. In addition, our ability to support capital campaigns in 2010 will be extremely limited.
As we face the prospect of healthcare reform, we believe that Meyer's health funding—and the good work of our grantees—remains critical to enabling access to high quality healthcare. We are excited at the prospect of working more closely and strategically with our colleagues at the Consumer Health Foundation and at the potential for aligning our work to better serve the community and our grantees. We will provide periodic updates on our website and in our e-newsletter as this work progresses.