Alkermes Education Grants

Alkermes supports continuing medical education with grants for educational activities focused on pragmatic approaches to improving patient care and public health. We hope to contribute to an improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the diseases we research and their relevance to medications, as well as psychosocial interventions.

Grant funding may be available for activities, including live, print, enduring or web-based continuing medical education (CME) activities. 

Medical education grant funding is available for medical education activities, including live, print, enduring, and/or web-based activities.

Alkermes is currently accepting grant proposals related to:

• Schizophrenia
• Bipolar Disorder
• Alcohol Use Disorder

Areas of Interest

Alkermes is interested in collaborative submissions between CME providers partnering with professional organizations of practitioners who focus on treatment of persons with serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia and addictive disorders. Examples might include proposals for CME activities for regional meetings of psychiatric or addiction practitioners, or partnering with professional nurse practitioner, case manager, or pharmacist societies in their CME efforts for their constituents.

Alkermes is currently accepting proposals that address the topic areas listed below.

Schizophrenia

• Understanding and implementing pharmacologic approaches to address one or more of the following challenges in the treatment of schizophrenia:
  • Suboptimal therapeutic response
  • Gaps in medication adherence
  • Side effects associated with treatment
• Emerging pharmacologic approaches and their mechanism of action for the treatment of schizophrenia
• Using patient-centered approaches to optimize treatment of schizophrenia

Bipolar Disorder

• Understanding and implementing pharmacologic approaches to address one or more of the following challenges in the treatment of bipolar disorder:
  • Suboptimal therapeutic response
  • Gaps in medication adherence
  • Side effects associated with treatment
• Emerging pharmacologic approaches and their mechanisms of action for the treatment of bipolar disorder
• Using patient-centered approaches to optimize treatment of bipolar disorder

Alcohol Use Disorder

• Education around the use of standardized screening tools
• Support for motivational interviewing 
• Pharmacological evidence-based treatment

NOTE: Requests for IME funding may be submitted at any time and for any start date, provided that the program start date is 60 days or more from the date of submission. 

About Amgen

Amgen is one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies. Amgen is a values-based company, deeply rooted in science and innovation to transform new ideas and discoveries into medicines for patients with serious illnesses.

Amgen is committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of human biology.

Our belief—and the core of our strategy—is that innovative, highly differentiated medicines that provide large clinical benefits in addressing serious diseases are medicines that will not only help patients, but also will help reduce the social and economic burden of disease in society today.

Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. A biotechnology innovator since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential.

Independent Medical Education Funding

As part of Amgen's mission to further the advancement of medicine and healthcare, Amgen supports Independent Medical Education ("IME"). IME is professional education given by accredited medical education providers who design and implement programs totally independent of any Amgen influence, as defined by standards such as the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education ("ACCME") guidelines, the FDA's Guidance: Industry Supported Scientific and Educational Activities, and the PhRMA Code.

Funding requests including for live presentations, written enduring materials, online courses, and conference symposia from organizations (e.g. hospitals, universities, societies, medical-education vendors) will be reviewed and assessed in conjunction with Amgen's goal to help physicians and other healthcare professionals to obtain information and insights that contribute to the improvement of patient care and the advancement of medicine.

Amgen supports IME that address:

• Alignment of the proposed IME program to established educational goals focused on unmet clinical, educational or professional practice needs in therapeutic areas of interest
• Education of health care providers including trainees, allied health professionals and payers
• Advancing the understanding of the disease state
• Improving health care providers' understanding of the diagnosis, treatment, outcomes, and co-morbidities
• Quality, reimbursement, access to care
• Innovative and biosimilar drug development

Disease States and Areas of Interest:

Global Biomedical Data Sciences 

• Fellowships in Statistics or Biostatistics
• Annual Society meetings for Statistics, Biostatistics or Statistical Programming
• Programs in the field of Statistics, Biostatistics or Statistical Programming

Oncology

• Prostate Cancer
• MRD in ALL (or acute leukemia) [especially if reaching pathologists and/or community oncologists]
• Treatment of pediatrics, AYA and adult ALL patients [especially if with global reach]
• Importance of biomarker testing in cancer care with emphasis on Lung, CRC or Gastric
• Bone health and prevention of skeletal events in cancer
• Management of ITP
• Management of Relapse Refractory Multiple Myeloma
• Bispecific T-cell Engager education

Bone

• Improving the awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of osteoporosis, among multiple specialties (notably primary care and orthopedics) with varying degrees of expertise including Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and Physician Assistants (PAs)
• New and emerging treatments in osteoporosis, including the evolved treatment paradigm of anabolic → antiresorptive for patients at very high risk of fracture
• Conditions other than PMO/MOP associated with bone loss and fractures: CTIBL, GIOP, OP with CKD, OP with diabetes, Osteogenesis Imperfecta, and idiopathic OP
• Increasing awareness of emerging AI/ML technologies designed to detect or predict osteoporotic fractures, including care pathway implementation considerations

Cardiovascular

Dyslipidemia education to increase awareness and (if applicable) consequences of: 

• Identification and management of very high risk ASCVD patients with a focus on ACS and Recent MI
• Education on the implementation of the 2018 ACC/AHA Cholesterol Guidelines
• Current Dyslipidemia treatment landscape and the importance and urgency of LDL-C lowering in CVD
• Enhancing patient access to PCSK9 inhibitors and improving physician perception

Inflammation

Education to Increase Awareness of:

• Rheumatologic diseases with particular interest in: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
• Dermatologic diseases focusing on psoriasis, other psoriatic diseases, and atopic dermatitis
• Other inflammatory diseases including lupus and related autoimmune diseases
• Gastrointestinal diseases focusing on inflammatory bowel disease
• Respiratory diseases focusing on asthma
• Education about the biosimilar approval pathway, biologic manufacturing and biosimilar development

Nephrology

• Anemia associated with CKD-treatment, consequences, transfusion, risk: benefit of treatment
• CKD Mineral and Bone Disorder – pathogenesis, consequences, treatment
• Emerging data (clinical and basic research)
• Quality improvement in the care of patients with renal disease
• Healthcare disparities
• Emerging trends in Pharmacoeconomics and healthcare policy research pertaining to CKD
• Advancement of the field of pharmacy through education

Neuroscience

Migraine education to improve the understanding and awareness of:

• Diagnosis of migraine
• Burden of disease and clinical consequences of migraine
• Treatment options for migraine and its unmet needs
• Impact of migraine on healthcare resource utilization
• Patient reported outcomes (PROs) for migraine

Process Development 

Programs that support awareness and education of researchers, students and clinicians in the fields involved in process development, of large molecules, oral parenterals and other novel therapeutics:

• Candidate and molecule selection
• Manufacture and characterization (upstream and downstream, synthetic) of drug substance
• Manufacture and characterization of drug product
• Device development
• Quality target product profile and identification of critical quality attributes
• Society activities involved in education, career development, and scientific exchange in process, product, and device development
• Programs dedicated to educating and training students in the various areas involved in product development

Translational Sciences

Programs that support awareness and education of clinicians, researchers and patients in the following areas:

• Comparative Biology and Safety Sciences
• Medical Sciences
• Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism
• Advance field of Translational Sciences focusing on new areas for professional development
• Education and training of students through didactic and experiential opportunities

Independent Medical Education

Genentech/Roche supports grants for independent medical education in an effort to further the advance of medicine and healthcare by improving the knowledge of the medical community.

Independent Medical Education (IME) is generally defined as education for healthcare professionals (HCPs) provided by an independent educational provider, such as a community hospital, academic center, society/association or medical education & communication company.

Funding Priorities

Grant requests must identify unmet educational needs of a target audience and demonstrate how the program will address the unmet educational needs, and encourage the improvement of medicine and healthcare. The selection of medium and format should be commensurate with the educational needs, the audience, learning preferences, geography, content, and other factors that contribute to educational effectiveness.

Responsibility and control over the selection, content, faculty, educational methods, materials, and venue for an independent medical education event belongs solely to the organizers of the event. Genentech/Roche will not provide any advice or guidance to the independent medical education provider (even if asked) regarding the content or faculty for any program that has received funding.

Our Priorities

We aim to prepare future health professionals to meet the needs of the 21st century with a population that is the most diverse in U.S. history and who may live longer than any previous generation. We are focusing on the learning environments where our future health professionals train so that they learn not only prevention and the social determinants of health but are well prepared to care for people when they are ill. This means learning the scientific basis of disease and taking advantage of the discoveries and breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment so that they make wise choices while providing compassionate care.

At the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, we foster innovation in clinical learning environments by investing in three areas:

• Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Belonging
• Increasing Collaboration Among Future Health Professionals
• Preparing Future Health Professionals to Navigate Ethical Dilemmas

About Our Priorities

Promoting Diversity, Equity, and BelongingWe must ensure that everyone who receives care and those who learn, teach, and work in clinical environments are treated equitably. Systemic inequities that reduce career satisfaction and limit advancement opportunities for health professionals from historically underrepresented communities, including people of color, women, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, members of some religious groups, and individuals from low-income households need solutions.Increasing Collaboration Among Future Health ProfessionalsStudents, residents, and graduate students historically learn and train as highly skilled, but largely autonomous, professionals. This “siloed” approach is obsolete and is being replaced by environments where health professionals and their learners work together as a high functioning team. This means promoting collaboration among health care providers, such as nurses, social workers, physicians pharmacists, and others so that learners in these environments are trained to provide the highest quality patient care as members of a collaborative team. Public health leaders play a critical role in promoting community health and preventing disease and are vital collaborators with the health care team.Preparing Future Health Professionals to Navigate Ethical DilemmasTo succeed today, health professionals need more than clinical skill. They must also be prepared to navigate the complex ethical dilemmas that arise when confronting barriers that conflict with professional ideals and aspirations. Those teaching in learning environments cannot anticipate every scenario, but they can equip future health professionals with essential tools for navigating dilemmas that arise when managing issues of patient access, end of life, interactions with other health professionals and many other complex situations.About Board Grants

• Board Grants are generally one to three years in duration with a budget target of no more than $100K annually, which includes indirect costs at no more than 10%.
• Board Grants are awarded three times each year, following approval at one of the three annual Macy Foundation board meetings.

The Impact Fund awards recoverable grants to legal services nonprofits, private attorneys, and small law firms who seek to advance justice in the areas of civil and human rights, environmental justice, and poverty law. Since being founded in 1992, the Impact Fund has made more than 700 recoverable grants totaling more than $8 million for impact litigation. 

Social Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants and legal support to assist in human and civil rights cases. We have helped to change dozens of laws and win cases to improve the rights of thousands. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Orange County, California there are currently 13 gang injunctions under effect, which disproportionately affect young men of color.
• In Chicago, Illinois, the city’s homeless shelter program is inaccessible to people with disabilities.
• In Springfield, Oregon, the city and its police department used excessive force during a Black Lives Matter protest.
• In Maine, the state fails to safely monitor the prescription and administration of powerful psychotropic medications to foster youth.
• In Missouri, a Medicaid agency fails to arrange for in-home nursing services for children with medically complex conditions.
• In Montana, voter suppression laws disadvantage young adults and give priority to gun owners.
• In Vancouver, British Columbia, the police perpetuate systemic discrimination against Indigenous people through bureaucratic measures.
• In West Virginia, incarcerated individuals do not receive adequate medical and mental health care, and jails do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

Environmental Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants to support local litigation for environmental justice. These are often cases no one else will support. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin the proposed expansion of a highway will divide the region's Black, Asian, and Latine neighborhoods and bring pollution and ill health.
• In North Dakota, the five-month closure of a highway in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests disproportionately affected the livelihoods and health of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members.
• In Ontario, Canada, mercury contamination of the English-Wabigoon river system causes catastrophic environmental and health impacts for the Grassy Narrows First Nation.
• In Sacramento, California, the county government and Sacramento Area Sewer District violate the Clean Water Act by discharging raw sewage into the Delta, the Sacramento River, and the American River.
• In Fresno, California, the city’s efforts to streamline industrial development fail to protect vulnerable neighborhoods from adverse environmental and public health impacts.
• In the Eastern Coachella Valley in California, 1,900 residents of the Oasis Mobile Home Park suffer from arsenic-laced drinking water, wastewater contamination, and overcharging for utilities.

Economic Justice

The Impact Fund provides financial and other forms of support to cases fighting for economic justice. From workers' rights to consumer protection for vulnerable populations, impact litigation is a powerful tool to hold corporations accountable. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In San Diego, California, vehicle ordinances target homeless vehicle owners even when no adequate housing alternative exists.
• In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the city and county destroy the property of homeless individuals and employ forced evictions from public spaces.
• In Miami, Florida, insurance companies discriminate against a nonprofit community development corporation renting to tenants with Section 8 rental subsidies.

NOTE: 

• See separate grant page for Direct Effect Quality of Life grants which are currently offered twice yearly, in the 1st and 2nd grant cycles.
• See separate grant page for Expanded Impact Tier Quality of Life grants which are currently being offered once per year, in the 1st grant cycle.

We fund a wide array of programs that are organized in three key areas: Actively Achieving, Bridging Barriers and Caring and Coping. We strongly encourage requests to support the launch of new initiatives or the expansion of existing projects that serve individuals living with paralysis, their families and caregivers.

Grants are awarded to organizations that address the needs of people living with paralysis caused by spinal cord and other injuries, diseases or birth conditions, including (but not limited to) stroke, spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We also support initiatives that are focused on caregiving and improving the quality of life of family members who are caring for a loved one living with disability.

Program overview

As a pillar of the Paralysis Resource Center, the Quality of Life Grants Program awards financial support to nonprofit organizations that mirror the Reeve Foundation's mission.

Pioneered by the late Dana Reeve, the Quality of Life Grants Program recognizes projects and initiatives that foster community engagement, inclusion and involvement, while promoting health and wellness for individuals living with paralysis and their families.

The Quality of Life Grants Program has funded 3,200 non-profit programs, awarding over $30 million to organizations nationwide that provide services to foster community engagement, improved access, and independent living.

Grants have been awarded in all fifty states and in 33 countries outside the United States of America.

Priority Impact Grants (Tiers 2, 3, & 4)

The Priority Impact Grant Tiers (Tiers 2, 3, & 4) offer three increasing levels of grant funding. Priority Impact grants fund priority issues for individuals living with paralysis. Grantee organizations will demonstrate capacity to implement the grant without intensive technical assistance and capacity building, as well as demonstrate capacity for program development, evaluation and sustainability.

Tier 2 

Grants  of up to $30,000. - must be completed within 12 months.

Respite/Caregiving – This grant area recognizes family caregivers and the vital role they play in caring for those with paralysis. Funds support nonprofits that offer exemplary and innovative respite care services that are evidence-based, appear promising, or are trying new service models.

Assistive Technology - Assistive Technology grants are a new priority area that differs from the previous High Impact Innovative Assistive Technology (HIIAT) grants program (2015-2020) and the Direct Effect assistive technology project type grants. This new tier is open to all organizations with the continued emphasis on increasing the independence of people living with paralysis, to assist them to participate fully in the communities of which they are a part, and enhance their social, employment, education or finance-related quality of life through the use of assistive technology.

Tier 3

Grants of up to $40,000  - must be completed within 18 months

Nursing Home Transition – Funds support Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and other organizations that provide transition services across the country to transition people with paralysis living in nursing home back into their homes or a community-based setting of their choice. Funds also support projects focused on diversion (keeping people living with paralysis who are at-risk from entering a nursing).

Racial Equity - The aim of the Reeve Foundation’s new Racial Equity grants program is to fund projects that explicitly benefit people and communities that are racially diverse and/or historically underserved living with paralysis and/or promote racial equity for people living with paralysis. The projects may focus on a number of issues (see below for examples) that enhance the quality of life of those individuals living at the crossroads of racial inequity and paralysis, especially those from Black, Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, and other marginalized racial groups.

We urge you to examine the needs of your communities. These projects should identify how your organization aims to address the injustices and inequalities affecting targeted population(s) within your community that are racially diverse and/or historically underserved.

Rural Underserved and Unserved - The aim of the Reeve Foundation’s new pilot grants program is to fund projects that explicitly benefit people living with paralysis in unserved and underserved rural communities.

Tier 4

Grants of up to $50,000 - must be completed within 24 months

Employment – The Employment – Priority Impact grants are one of Reeve’s top priorities because employment is fundamental in achieving and maintaining independence, while being one of the most challenging obstacles to individuals living with paralysis. In addition, gainful employment allows people living with paralysis to achieve enhanced financial security, higher quality of life, and improved community connections.

McElhattan Foundation Grants

Welcome to the McElhattan Foundation. We are a Pittsburgh-based grantmaking foundation.

Our mission is preserving and enhancing human life, and we are working toward this by focusing our grantmaking on four program areas: 

Workplace Safety 

The Foundation's interest in preventing death and serious injury in the workplace stems from the family's company, Industrial Scientific Corporation, which manufactures life-saving gas-monitoring devices. The McElhattan family is deeply committed to ending death on the job by 2050, and we expect the majority of our grant budget will be dedicated to this effort. We are especially interested in innovative safety technology, including virtual and augmented reality. 

We do not fund applications from nonprofits for employee training or installing/buying safety equipment; we also do not fund road safety initiatives. If you've found us and are seeking funding for any of these things, we wish you the best of luck-- our team is small and it's necessary for us to stay within our particular areas of focus in this program area.

Education

Please note: If you plan to apply for a grant in our Education program area, please schedule a 15-minute meeting with our program officer.

The McElhattan Foundation believes that learning - about oneself and the world around us - is at the core of human life. After all, we learn throughout our entire lives, and in many different settings from school to home and everything in between. Learning brings joy, frustration, resilience, understanding, and purpose to our lives. Unfortunately, many in our region, specifically children living in poverty and children of color, do not have equitable access to high-quality learning opportunities. There are complex and systemic issues of racial and economic injustice at work. To address these issues, our grantmaking is focused on high-need, high-impact areas. Through careful consideration of evidence and urgency, we make grants to support out-of-school time learning and innovative approaches to expand educator diversity. 

Out-of-school-time (OST) Learning  - Research shows that interest-driven experiences in OST settings are key to unlocking the critical learning and life skills that help children to flourish. Because learning does not stop when the school day ends, we support high-quality afterschool, summer, and other informal learning experiences that take place outside the classroom. We fund hands-on learning experiences where youth can connect to positive adult mentors, feel safe to try new things, and have the opportunity to hone new skills. Through our funding, we work to strengthen and expand OST learning in the Pittsburgh region to ensure equitable access for all children.

We prioritize funding for programs that:

• primarily serve children living in poverty and/or children of color; 
• are community-based, rather than operated by schools; 
• primarily serve children in grades K-8; and 
• operate with dependable consistency and high frequency.

We are particularly interested in funding organizations that demonstrate a commitment to implementing critical quality standards, including:  

• social-emotional learning and skill development;
• positive relationship development among youth and with trusted adult mentors;
• youth-centered approaches that help individuals build on their strengths and talents; and 
• strong partnerships with families and schools.

The McElhattan Foundation aims to provide flexible support to grant recipients in the OST area and will direct the majority of our giving through general operating grants. We also will prioritize organizations with annual operating budgets of $10 million or less.

End-of-Life Planning and Care

The McElhattan Foundation believes it is possible for most people to have a higher quality of life at the end of life. Grants in our End-of-Life Planning and Care program area will support initiatives in three strategic areas: Awareness and Documentation, Caregiver/Provider Training and Support, and Technological Innovation. As always, we seek to fund changemakers—visionary leaders and strong teams who will create dramatic, measurable improvement in how patients and their families experience the inevitable process of dying.

• AWARENESS & DOCUMENTATION - We will support initiatives that educate and empower our community—Western Pennsylvania—about end-of-life decision-making, including clarifying the option of hospice care. We are open to funding broad awareness campaigns as well as targeted efforts aimed at reaching specific segments of the population, especially underserved groups. Once an individual understands their end-of-life options and decides upon their preferences, it’s essential for that person to make their wishes known, in advance and in writing, to their loved ones and medical providers. We will support initiatives designed to make recording and sharing this information easier.
• CAREGIVER/PROVIDER TRAINING & SUPPORT - We support initiatives that offer resources, such as respite care, practical training, and counseling, to family and other nonprofessional caregivers. We support programs that train or retrain professional end-of-life care providers—nurses, doctors, social workers, home healthcare aides, etc.—for careers that pay family-sustaining wages. We are particularly interested in improving communication skills around end-of-life care for providers, and in high-quality home-based care. This work too will be focused in Western Pennsylvania.
• TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION - We believe technology can play a role in improving the “quality of death” for many people. Perhaps there is an application for existing technology, like augmented reality, in training caregivers, or perhaps someone can use emerging technology to prevent pressure sores. We would love to see this innovation begin in Pittsburgh, but we are open to applications from end-of-life tech innovators anywhere in the U.S. (To clarify: the bar here is high. We are not funding requests to purchase equipment like VR headsets, iPads, etc. We are looking for game-changing new ideas that could move the entire field of end-of-life care forward.)

Community Development in Knox & Franklin, PA

The McElhattan family's roots are in Knox and Franklin, PA, and we would like to see those communities thrive. We aim to support locally-led initiatives that improve residents' job opportunities, health, safety, and general quality of life. We have, for example, contributed to the renovation of Miller-Sibley Park and the renovation of the Franklin YMCA, and have funded the Knox Area Ambulance Company and the Knox Volunteer Fire Department.

Organizations that serve Knox and/or Franklin as part of a larger geographical service area are eligible to apply for funding, but in your LOI, please estimate what percentage of funds will be spent specifically on community development in Knox and/or Franklin. 

NOTE: The deadline for this Application is the 31st day of December of the year preceding the year of the grant requested.

About Us

In 2012, the current Board of Directors of the Jay L. Smith Family Foundation envisioned helping others by creating a foundation that would fund other non-profit organizations.

The Jay L. Smith Family Foundation is dedicated to helping multiple causes; however, the Foundation is especially partial to funding research for a cure of Alzheimer's. The Foundation is heavily dedicated in assuring proper care and service for individuals suffering from this disease and related illnesses.

In its first full year of existence, the Jay L. Smith Family Foundation had the pleasure of funding 11 different non-profit entities from 5 different states. Some of the services provided by those entities include elderly care, cancer research, family violence clinics, suicide prevention, and Alzheimer's research.

The Jay L. Smith Family Foundation is open to funding new groups and causes; however, at this time, the Foundation will only provide grants to entities and relief efforts in the United States.

Mission Statement

"The mission of the Jay L. Smith Family Foundation is to enhance the quality of life for individuals, families, and communities by funding qualified non-profit organizations that promote family values, support the advancement of healthcare, and serve the disadvantaged."

What we do

The Jay L. Smith Family Foundation is a 501(c)(3) foundation that gives grants to organizations that promote family values, support the advancement of healthcare, and serve the disadvantaged.

Projects

Alzheimer's Research

According to the Alzheimer's Association, this disease is the most common type of dementia, a disease that affects millions of people. This past year, the Jay L. Smith Family Foundation gave grants to 2 of the leading facilities in the field of Alzheimer's research.

Strengthening Families

The US Department of Health and Human Services states that domestic violence can expose children to greater risks of substance abuse and criminal activity. The Jay L. Smith Family Foundation recently gave a sizeable grant to a domestic violence clinic in Montgomery, Alabama.

Elderly Care

Caring for the elderly requres a strong unit that includes doctors, nurses, aides, and family members. The Jay L. Smith Family Foundation is dedicated to funding organizations that provide vital services to the elderly, including hospitals and hospice facilities.

Suicide Prevention

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention stated that almost 42,000 Americans took their lives in 2013. The Jay L. Smith Family Foundation granted money to an organization who researches ways to prevent suicide and also the helping of families coping with loss.

Cancer Research

The American Cancer Society recently stated that more than one million people in the United States are diagnosed with cancer every year. The Jay L. Smith Family Foundation dedicated a significant amount of funds in the year 2014 to help find a cure for cancer.

Spiritual Wellbeing

Many Americans suffer from hopelessness and depression. The Jay L. Smith Family Foundation aims to help people find their unique purpose in this life and to help them become better citizens in their communities.

Hillman Serious Illness and End of Life Emergent Innovation

The Hillman Serious Illness and End of LIfe Emergent Innovation (HSEI) Program provides up to thirteen $50,000, 12-18 month grants to accelerate the development of bold, nursing-driven interventions targeting the needs of groups and communities who have historically struggled against oppression, discrimination and indifference. These populations include the economically disadvantaged, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people, people experiencing homelessness, low-income rural populations, and other groups that encounter obstacles to accessing quality health care services.

We seek creative, early stage (untested or minimal-evidence) innovations that address health and health care problems in new ways. 

The annual program—a complement to the Hillman Innovations in Care initiative—will award up to thirteen 12-18 month grants of $50,000 each.