Updated on 03/31/2025 at 5:15pm Eastern
The 2025 Grant Cycle is now closed.
Please be aware that the 2025 Building Capacity for Health Advocacy grant cycle officially closed on 03/31/2025 at 5pm Eastern. We are no longer accepting LOIs for our Building Capacity for Health Advocacy grant program in 2025.
LOI Info Session Recording
On Thursday, February 13th, we hosted an LOI Info Session. In addition to answering several questions, we covered:
MISSED THE LIVE INFO SESSION? WATCH OUR RECORDING!
Overview
The Rx Foundation has launched a new funding cycle for the Building Capacity for Health Advocacy grants.
Key 2025 Dates
LOI Meetings with Rx Foundation staff will be held between March 3rd – March 31st
The deadline for written LOIs is March 31st by 5PM Eastern
This grant program is open to 501(c)(3) nonprofits, or organizations with a suitable fiscal sponsor, anywhere in the United States. Grants will be awarded for up to five years in the amount of $150,000 annually. Applicant organizations are encouraged to budget a portion of the total award as sub-grants to nonprofit partners or coalition members that engage with the applicant in capacity-building efforts. These grants do not support event sponsorship, capital campaigns, service delivery, academic research, or work that is strictly programmatic in nature.
Organizations that match one or more of the following descriptions are strongly encouraged to apply:
- Nonpartisan, grassroots, and people-centered,
- Organizations that function as hubs or coalition leaders to build advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement capacity and infrastructure among a network of members or partners, especially at the state level; and
- Base-building and power-building organizations that address health and health care priorities in the context of a multi-issue agenda.
Committed to health justice, this grant program envisions a future where all communities can address the root causes of poor health.
Background
Since 2019, the Rx Foundation has made more than $7M in grants under this program, supporting more than two dozen organizations working on advocacy, organizing, or civic engagement, with a funding model that emphasizes capacity-building and long-term progress. You can learn more about the Foundation here.
Previous Building Capacity for Health Advocacy Grant Partners
Meet Alabama Arise
Meet People’s Action
Meet Vot-ER
The Rx Foundation invites applicants who are:
- Non-profit organizations with 501(c)(3) status in good standing or with an appropriate fiscal sponsor
- Non-partisan grassroots, people-centered organizations
- Organizations that function as hubs or anchor organizations for building advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement capacity and infrastructure among networks or coalitions of nonprofit organizations
- Ready to share a clear vision for impacting health and health care, along with an analysis of and a practical plan for addressing gaps in strategy, skills, and infrastructure
- Able to demonstrate a track record of effective collaboration with partners
The Rx Foundation understands that many factors affect health and healthcare. This program seeks to foster the capacity to build lasting advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement efforts. These efforts will adapt as community needs, the policy environment, and priorities change. Key factors include equal access to coverage and care, health equity, social and economic needs like food and housing, the links between environmental issues and health disparities, racial justice, and income inequality.
My team has found the coaching support so deeply valuable. I don’t think we would have found it on our own, and more than that, I don’t think I would have expended the amount of funding necessary to work with Randall Smith of PowerLabs without the Rx Foundation…Some of the learnings entirely re-defined how we ran our deep canvassing pilot program. We wouldn’t have had that without the Rx Foundation making the connection for us.
– Molly Fleming, Founding Executive Director of Missouri Organizing and Voter Engagement Collaborative
Grant recipients will join a learning community of organizations and leaders who are working towards similar goals across the country, with access to tailored coaching and technical assistance resources. You can learn more by visiting our Beyond Grantmaking page.
Capacity-building priorities under this program include,
but are not limited to:
Advocacy & Policy
Developing and implementing advocacy efforts to change policies, systems, and practices to advance health justice. This may include building coalitions, supporting community-driven policy agendas, conducting policy research, and promoting systemic change through a variety of strategies.
Base–building
Organizing communities to create a strong active base of leaders and a broader collective of members to advocate for change and sustain long-term efforts. This may include developing leadership within the community, fostering relationships, and ensuring community engagement and leadership in advocacy, policy, and civic engagement efforts.
Civic Engagement
Building, improving or expanding grassroots organizing, integrated voter engagement, and other constituent- and community-engagement strategies to increase civic participation.
Communications & Narrative Change
Training, strategy, and resource development in communications and narrative change, including storytelling, messaging, digital organizing, traditional media, and social media.
Data & Technology
Resources
Improving access to and utilization of databases, data analysis, digital organizing, and other technology tools or strategies.
Leadership
Development
Investing in a diverse variety of current and emergent leaders to build skills that will empower them to lead and shape community-driven efforts today and in the future. This could include mentorship or peer-to-peer learning, trainings on management, strategic planning, and decision-making.
Network- & coalition-building
Building or improving and expanding on existing partnerships to (1) articulate shared goals, (2) develop and execute consistent communications strategies, (3) set attainable milestones, and (4) track progress.
Training
Host or participate in training to understand policy-making systems (e.g. legislative process, local government) and to build advocacy and community organizing skills (e.g. power-mapping, canvassing, phone banking), including advocacy and organizing training for direct-service organizations.
Eligibility Criteria
This program is open to:
- 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organizations,
- Or other non-profit entities with a suitable fiscal sponsor. As a private foundation, the Rx Foundation is not able to make grants to 501(c)(4) organizations.
- Organizations that function as hubs or coalition leaders to build advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement capacity and infrastructure among a network of organizations, especially at the state level, are encouraged to apply.
- Base-building and power-building organizations that address health and health care priorities in the context of a multi-issue agenda are strongly encouraged to apply.
Before proceeding with your application, please confirm that you are eligible to apply by referring to the alignment chart below.
Timeline
In 2025, we are offering two options for submitting a letter of interest (LOI) as the first step in the grant application cycle:
As of 02/19/2025, there are no more LOI Meeting spots available. If you still intend to apply, please submit a Written LOI by March 31st at 5pm Eastern.
Option 1
LOI Meetings
1. You can schedule a 30-minute Zoom LOI interview with Rx staff between March 3rd and March 31st, 2025. The scribed notes from our conversation will serve as your LOI.
Option 2
Written LOI
2. You can submit a written LOI, following the guidelines outlined below, which must be received by March 31st, 2025 by 5pm Eastern.
The Rx Foundation will invite several applicants with a high-scoring LOI to submit a full proposal in the late Spring / early Summer. Grant awards will be made beginning in September 2025.
To complete the first step in our application process, please refer to our LOI Guidelines linked below.