Moses Cone-Wesley Long Community Health Foundation seeks to provide funding to organizations and programs through two different grant programs—the Community Health Improvement Fund, and a Direct Foundation Grant.  Applications for either of these two grants must  address either of the following priorities:

Access to necessary health services with particular emphasis on eliminating the barriers often encountered by persons in need, or

Wellness, with particular attention to:

• physical activity
• nutrition/obesity
• substance abuse, including tobacco use prevention/cessation
• responsible sexual behavior, especially the prevention of HIV/AIDS, STDs, and adolescent pregnancy
• infant mortality
• mental health

In addition to these priorities, the Foundation has a strong and special interest in funding organizational development and technical assistance projects that help communities build the capacity to help themselves, thus being able to improve the health of those in their communities.

Grantmaking Characteristics
The Foundation strives to support permanent changes to systems that eliminate problems at the source. We also seek the following characteristics in any project or program we support:

Collaboration
Collaboration between organizations with similar interests and concerns is an important ingredient to effective problem solving. It is especially important in helping to build the capacity of neighborhoods and communities to help themselves.

Sustainability
The Foundation places a high value on those projects or programs that will themselves create value, and therefore merit the commitment of ongoing support from more permanent funding sources. We primarily fund new programs with potential for further development and long-term viability. Although our ability to fund ongoing operations is limited, we actively help grantees develop ways to assure that ongoing financial needs are met.

Outcome Measurement
The Foundation requires that all funded projects measure processes, outcomes and impact in order to improve grantee performance and measure our effectiveness. Reasonable evaluation costs are allowable within the grant. Outside resources may be used by either the Foundation or grantee for evaluation purposes.

Our funding priorities represent guidelines for decision making by the Foundation, not absolute targets. Moreover, the ongoing evaluation of the health status of the community will, from time to time, provide new insights with which to re-evaluate the priorities of the Foundation. Funding priorities will be reviewed annually, and change is expected to occur periodically every three to five years.

The Foundation generally does not consider requests for support of capital or community development expenditures.  However, special consideration may be given when they are included in the original request that is consistent with the funding priorities.