VNA Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The VNA Foundation prioritizes the health of Chicago’s underserved populations. It awards grants for home health care services, community and school-based services, primary care, chronic disease management and health promotion.
IP TAKE: The VNA Foundation of Chicago funds a broad range of public health needs with measurable outcomes. This funder accepts letters of inquiry through its online system.
PROFILE: The VNA Foundation is the philanthropic entity of the former Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago, which was established in 1890. The VNA ceased its operations in the 1990s and now exists only as a grant-making entity. The foundation works exclusively in the Chicago metropolitan area and is passionate about supporting nonprofit organizations that offer home-based and community-based healthcare to the region’s medically underserved. Grantmaking areas of interest are home-based medical care, community healthcare, nursing care, dental care, underserved patients and healthcare access.
Virtually all VNA grants have “measurable goals and objectives,” although amounts, target populations and purposes of grants vary widely. Organizations that have received large grants include the Illinois Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, and Thresholds, an organization that assists low-income women veterans struggling with PTSD, mental illness and sexual trauma. The foundation’s recent special initiatives are a smartphone app for youth experiencing homelessness, supporting free and charitable clinics, the Anne M. Davis Mobile Health Award and the Women Veterans Health Project.
Many foundation grants range between $15,000 and $80,000 in size. View a list of past grantees and amounts on the funder’s grants search page. The Chicago area counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, Will, and McHenry are geographic priorities. The foundation understands that health needs are often critical and urgent, so it distributes grants at least four times annually.
The VNA Foundation is open to unsolicited inquires and proposal ideas, and letters of intent are submitted online through a grants management system. Grantseekers can find a list of quarterly deadlines for letters of intent and proposals on the foundation website. Multi-year grants are rare, but not out of the question. Direct general inquiries to the staff at 312-214-1521 or via email at info@vnafoundation.net.
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