National health funder meets Alaska partners

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Local Funding Partnerships director Polly Seitz was in Anchorage last week and dropped by the Rasmuson Foundation to talk more about how Alaskan philanthropy and non-profit groups can partner with her organization. Seitz also announced the RWJF’s newest ground-breaking program, a diversity focused fund that will partner with organizations that specifically serve hard-to-reach populations. The goal of the drive will be to promote physical and emotional safety and security and reduce exposure to violence in communities.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is amongst the largest foundations in the United States and is devoted to improving health and health care. Each year, they grant approximately $500 million to innovative non-profit organizations.

Seitz came to Anchorage to catch up with one of the Robert Wood Foundation’s successful partnerships with the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc, which was funded through its original vulnerable populations program. The RWJF Local Funding Partnerships Program joined with several Alaska partners to help build Chanlyut, a therapeutic residential community for Native Alaskan individuals who are sober but struggling to achieve long-term recovery.

Chanlyut offers a path out of substance abuse, crime and homelessness by emphasizing peer mentoring, creation of small business enterprises and Alaska Native culture and values. The RWJF donated $513,762 over four years for the project and the Rasmuson Foundation provided $100,000 in matching funds to the effort.

Over sandwiches and coffee on Wednesday afternoon, Seitz met with several groups including heads of tribal organizations and other foundations to brief them on what makes good candidates for the Local Funding Partnerships Program.

Through its Local Funding Partnership program, Seitz explained that the RWJF turns to local communities to come up with creative solutions to address their own health issues. Her organization seeks to fund projects that have substantiated buy-in from a wide-range of community players, as Chanlyut does. Therefore, RWJF requires non-profit organizations to first engage their local funders, such as the Rasmuson Foundation and others, before approaching them about a project. On average, she said, each successful project has nine other funding partners behind it.

In addition to having good buy-in, Seitz said solid projects present innovative solutions to a problem. She noted a new program in Kansas City where the Fire Department partnered with the local nurse association. In that situation, 80 percent of the Fire Department and EMS calls were non-urgent but had a health or human service element—like an elderly person who had fallen. Under the new program, the Fire Department formed an alliance with the Visiting Nurse Association so a nurse can be dispatched to the residence where problems are reported within 24 hours. The coalition serves a metro area across two states.

Seitz also took an hour to talk with more than two dozen Alaskan non-profit organizations that are dealing with violence in the state, from family violence to rape. She announced that the Local Funding Partnerships Program is launching a new diversity program fund that is seeking smaller projects (between $50,000 and $200,000) that reach groups such as Alaska Natives. In this first round of giving, the RWJF has identified 300 organizations that it will invite to submit a grant application in the process. In the future, Seitz said they’ll look to other organizations and hopes groups in Alaska will step forward. Seitz said the final details are still being put on the program and more details will be forthcoming soon.

To find out more about the RWJF Local Funding Partnership Program, click here. If you think that your organization might have a project of interest to the RWJF Local Funding Partnerships program and because the RWJF requires local collaboration prior to approaching it, feel free to email the Rasmuson Foundation at rasmusonfdn@rasmuson.org.