The Health Fund Board of Directors has approved 37 grants totaling $6,108,697 with an aim to provide resources and implement new health solutions that improve the health of Michigan residents. Most new investments will support projects and organizations through our Capacity Building and Maternal & Infant Health initiatives.
A full list of new grant projects can be found at the bottom of this post.
MIH GRANTS TARGET TRAINING AND EDUCATION; EXPAND DOULA SUPPORT
The Health Fund’s Maternal & Infant Health Initiative supports community-driven, locally focused projects to improve birth and health outcomes for infants and their families in communities throughout the state.
In this grant round, we are investing $2,943,783 in 11 projects aimed at removing barriers that make it harder for families to receive needed care, improving integration of services, increasing screening, and addressing policies, practices, and procedures that prevent the best outcomes for infants and their parents.
Many of the projects funded this year aim to expand access to doula support, as well as strengthen education, training, and workforce solutions to ensure providers are equipped to deliver culturally competent care, make timely interventions, and offer effective, responsive support to individuals at critical stages of pregnancy and postpartum care.
“Michigan continues to experience maternal and infant mortality rates that are unacceptably high, with many families lacking access to adequate care and supportive services,” said Michelle Gagliardi, Program Officer for Nutrition & Children’s Health.
“The grantees in our new cohort are pursuing strong approaches that prioritize a healthy start for kids by increasing access to care, improving the service delivery environment, and informing efforts to improve outcomes for all pregnant persons and infants, regardless of income, geography or background.”
For example, a grant to the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic & Sexual Violence will train 630 doulas, birthing professionals, and survivor advocates on the intersection of domestic and sexual violence with maternal health. The project seeks to address a lack of standardized training for professionals serving populations that experience higher rates of sexual violence — including BIPOC and rural populations — to address critical gaps in trauma-informed maternal care.
CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS BOLSTER ORGANIZATIONS AND COLLABORATIVES
Our 2025 Capacity Building Initiative provides grants to nonprofits and collaborative partnerships to create capacity that helps organizations address important needs and enhance collaboration to make progress toward their missions.
Grants from the initiative are being invested in two cycles in 2025. In our first cycle, the Health Fund is allocating $2,620,396 to support 22 projects in two categories:
- Organizational Capacity Building grants help organizations become stronger, more effective institutions to better serve their goals.
- Collaborative Capacity Building grants help increase collaboration among providers, agencies, businesses, and other community partners to support sustainable, long-term solutions to health challenges.
“A thriving nonprofit sector is essential for improving the health and wellness of Michigan residents,” said Veronica Marchese, Program Officer for Community Health & Capacity Building. “These grants offer funding to boost important organizational functions and nurture collaborative partnerships, all with a goal to promote healthy communities across the state.”
A group of 20 organizations will receive Organizational Capacity Building grants to address infrastructure needs — including financial management, operations, revenue development, and more — enhance learning and evaluation, deliver critical training, and improve technology systems. Grantees will deploy these resources to improve service delivery, increase organizational resiliency, advance health equity, and other critical mission goals.
For example, a grant to Grow Jackson will support a host of activities designed to enhance the organization’s healthy food access, nutrition education, and community agriculture work, which serve children, families, and older adults through partnerships with schools, youth organizations, and senior living communities. With grant funding, Grow Jackson will engage an outside expert to develop an evaluation strategy; lead staff training on data collection, management, and analysis; and invest in new data systems and technology tools to support ongoing learning and evaluation across its organization.
Meanwhile, two new Collaborative Capacity Building grants totaling $187,578 will help launch new collaboratives or strengthen existing ones.
Through one funded project, Allegan Food Alliance will establish a cross-sector task force to address food access and health equity in Allegan County. This task force aims to unite farmers, schools, health care providers, human service agencies, and community organizations to build a resilient and equitable food system, prioritizing vulnerable populations, including older adults and children.
OFF-CYCLE AWARDS SUPPORT HEALTHY AGING, FUNDER COLLABORATIONS
The Health Fund has also awarded two off-cycle grants totaling $509,518 through our Healthy Aging Initiative to support timely, strategic projects. This includes a grant to the Michigan Center for Rural Health aimed at increasing access to palliative care services in rural communities and a grant to the Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) Association of Michigan to help AAAs form critical contracting relationships with health plans to provide expert aging services.
Meanwhile, the board approved two grants totaling $35,000 under our Special Projects and Emerging Ideas Initiative. One grant will enhance collaboration with funding partners through support of Grantmakers in Aging, and the other will cover attendance costs for nonprofits presenting their work to the Council of Michigan Foundations 2025 Annual Conference. These projects are being funded outside our standard cycles to meet strategic, time-sensitive project goals.
Find out more about all Health Fund grants — past and present — by visiting our Grant Database.
2025 CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS
Collaborative Capacity Building
Heart of West Michigan United Way (Sponsored Organization: Allegan Food Alliance)
Building Food Resiliency Across Allegan County —$79,441
Shiawassee Family YMCA
Food Access Coalition for Shiawassee County — $108,137
Organizational Capacity Building
Access Health, Inc.
How YOU Birth Doula Billing Buddies —$113,073
Access of West Michigan
Capacity Building to Address Health Disparities in Kent County — $106,591
Adoption Option, Inc.
Casebook Software — $50,000
The Avenue Family Network, Inc.
Trauma-Informed Care Across the Spectrum — $44,800
Grand Rapids Pride Center
Advancing Health Equity for 2-SLGBTQ+ Individuals in West Michigan — $200,000
Grow Jackson
Grow Jackson Program Evaluation and Data Utilization Project — $200,000
Hannan Center
Data Integration and Capacity Enhancement (DICE) Project — $55,900
H.O.P.E. Gardens
Building Financial Capacity to Support HOPE Gardens’ Mission — $26,251
Jewish Family Service of Metropolitan Detroit
Building a Stronger Community-Service Agency Model — $93,131
Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County
Meals on Wheels Program Capacity Building — $53,675
Legacy Adoption Services
Streamline Adoptee Access to their Personal Medical Records — $200,000
New Detroit Inc.
Capacity Building for New Detroit’s Just Care — $50,000
Northern Michigan Children’s Assessment Center
Building the Capacity of the Northern Michigan Children’s Assessment Center to Ensure Sustainability — $16,054
Otsego County United Way, Inc.
Find It Otsego — $23,400
Ottawa County Department of Public Health
Modernizing Food Safety Operations: Digital Tools to Empower Ottawa County’s Workforce — $200,000
Presbyterian Village North DBA The Village of Oakland Woods
Affordable Housing in Pontiac — $200,000
Realism is Loyalty
Leveling Up Operations and Expertise — $200,000
The Regents of the University of Michigan
Enhancing Pharmacy Capacity to Promote Medication Optimization in the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community — $200,000
Starfish Family Services
Fostering a Culture of Engagement and Excellence — $200,000
Washtenaw County Health Department
Healthy Together: Solidifying Our Vision for Health Equity — $199,943
2025 MATERNAL & INFANT HEALTH GRANTS
Corewell Health Foundation Southwest Michigan
Continuum of Care Initiative — $300,000
Genesee County Health Department
Daddy as a Doula (DAD) Initiative — $140,000
Henry Ford College Foundation
LCP (Lactation Consultant Program) Expand — $225,264
Ingham County Health Department
Ingham County Black Doula Cohort: Next Steps — $300,000
Leaders Advancing and Helping Communities
Comprehensive Maternal Health Advocacy Initiative — $300,000
Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians
2025 – 2027 Gun Lake Tribe Maternal-Child Health Initiative —$289,738
Michigan Coalition to End Domestic & Sexual Violence
Equity in Birth: Transforming Care for Survivors of Domestic & Sexual Violence — $245,892
Michigan State University
Community-based Intervention to Reduce the Reliance on Cannabis Use Among Pregnant Individuals in MI — $299,994
The New Foster Care
Improving Maternal Health Outcomes for Former Foster Youth — $297,500
Upper Peninsula Health Care Solutions
CIRCLE UP — $298,704
YWCA Kalamazoo (Sponsored Program: Cradle Kalamazoo)
Cradle Kalamazoo Connect Care Doula Program — $246,691
2025 HEALTHY AGING OFF-CYCLE GRANTS
Area Agencies on Aging Association of Michigan (Sponsored Program: Michigan Community Care Collaborative)
Statewide Contracting Initiative Phase Two: Data Integration and Operations Alignment — $495,000
Michigan Center for Rural Health
Rural Palliative Care Education: Implementing Recommendations – $14,518
2025 SPECIAL PROJECTS & EMERGING IDEAS OFF-CYCLE GRANTS
Council of Michigan Foundations
Council of Michigan Foundations Annual Conference — $10,000
Grantmakers in Aging
Grantmakers In Aging: 2025 Midwest Regional Funders Forum Spotlighting Michigan’s Investments — $25,000