CVS Health Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The CVS Health Foundation’s public health and disease-related grants support local, regional, and national organizations that focus on smoking cessation and expanding access to quality health care.
IP TAKE: CVS occasionally awards multi-year grants as it likes to help grantees grow beyond its support. It also likes to work on a larger scale, so grassroots organizations get left out. However, most grants are awarded for a period of one year. Not the most transparent or accessible funder, CVS likes to keep its cards close. Grants are difficult to unlock here unless you do work that gets noticed on a large scale.
PROFILE: The CVS Health Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the pharmacy health care provider CVS Health. The private foundation focuses its grantmaking on programs that “improve access to health care services, provide chronic disease management, and promote smoking cessation and prevention.” It does this through three specific programs, including Grants, Scholarships, and the Hometown Fund. Its grantmaking supports “free and charitable clinics, school-based health centers and community health centers nationwide as well as to colleagues who volunteer their time to nonprofit organizations.”
Grants for Diseases and Public Health, Mental Health,
The CVS Foundation’s giving initiatives support organizations that “[expand] access to quality health care nationwide.” Grants support community health centers, free clinics, and charitable health clinics around the country.
Working in partnership with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), CVS has awarded grants to organizations such as the Whitman Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., and La Clinica de La Raza, in Oakland, California. The foundation also collaborates with the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC). Past grantees include the Arlington Free Clinic located in Arlington, Virginia; and Catherine’s Health Center, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Click here to learn more about the foundation’s grants made in conjunction with the NAFC.
Its Project Health program offers “free biometric screenings” to “help identify chronic conditions before they become life-threatening illnesses.” Health screenings through these mobile care units include body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, glucose, total cholesterol, individual health access plan, professional consultations, smoking cessation counseling, and diabetes resources.
The foundation also awards public health-related grants through its Be The First initiative which supports organizations and programs helping to “deliver the first tobacco-free generation.” The foundation supports anti-tobacco, tobacco prevention, and smoking cessation programs. The Tobacco-Free Generation Campus Initiative supports smoking cessation programs on college campuses. Much of CVS’s anti-tobacco funding addresses youth and young adults.
In addition to those programs, the foundation awards grants to disease organizations such as the American Cancer Society, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and local chapters of the Autism Society and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It also provides access to a range of mental health services and resources, including depression screenings through MinuteClinic.
Finally, the CVS Foundation offers scholarships for its “full-time colleague’s children in their pursuit of higher education by relieving the financial burden.”
The Hometown Fund focuses on increasing health outcomes and supporting nonprofits in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. It provides both project support grants and grants for general operating support.
Grants for Women and Girls
The foundation has listed efforts to address maternal health inequalities across the country as a top giving priority and in 2021, it announced a $1.74M commitment to support “a range of programs designed to help expectant parents — Black women, in particular — navigate pregnancy, birth and postpartum care,” and “to provide critical resources and education where they’re needed most.”
Important Grant Details:
According to the foundation’s tax filings, it awards grants of up to $1 million to qualifying organizations. The CVS Health Foundation’s accepts applications by invitation only and does not accept usolicited proposals or requests for funding.
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