Search Through Grants for Reproductive Health in the U.S.

Catalyst Fund

The Catalyst Fund supports organizations that are using grassroots organizing to advance reproductive justice policy and systems change. By centering efforts led by women of color, Catalyst supports work led by low-income white women, transgender, and gender-expansive people, who together make up the constituencies that experience the greatest reproductive health disparities and the largest barriers to reproductive freedom in the U.S.

Catalyst awards grants directly to grassroots organizations, including matching grants designed to bolster organizations’ efforts to raise new money from other sources. Particular attention is paid to organizations building cross-movement alliances between reproductive justice efforts and other social justice organizations, including labor, environmental and economic justice. Catalyst also awards matching grants to public foundations and women’s funds who make grants to organizations led by women of color and transgender people of color. atalyst grantees are the main participants in Groundswell’s two flagship capacity-building programs aimed at boosting the grassroots power of the field: the Integrated Voter Engagement Program and the Grassroots Organizing Institute. Catalyst has a strong track record of galvanizing new money for RJ from foundations and individual donors. Since Groundswell’s first RJ grants were made in 2008, grantmaking partners and grassroots organizations receiving matching grants have catalyzed $41 million into primarily women of color-led RJ work.

The Catalyst Fund has one primary grantmaking round in the fall of each year.

When identifying groups to support through the Catalyst Fund, Groundswell looks for organizations with:

• A highly engaged and growing membership/constituent base comprised of people directly impacted by the conditions that they seek to transform;
• Organizational leadership that reflects the diversity of this base;
• Clear mechanisms for leadership development;
• The ability to mobilize a base to win concrete policy changes;
• A strategic direction with clear goals and objectives that are driven by the membership/constituency;
• Ability to forge inter- and cross-movement alliances and to work well in coalition;
• Innovation in framing and thought leadership;
• A clear timeline for achieving goals and objectives and organizational capacity to achieve these;
• An integrated racial, gender, and class justice analysis;
• Connections to intermediary support organizations that build the capacity and collective power of the RJ movement;
• A strong track record of policy wins or strong strategy towards future wins; and
• System for measuring the impact of the work, including clearly defined benchmarks for success.

Catalyst provides the following types of support:

The fund provides general operating grants, capacity building grants and project grants, with grant sizes ranging from $20,000-$100,000.

Our Mission

Established in 1992 by Lisa and Douglas Goldman, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund is a private foundation committed to providing support for charitable organizations that enhance our society. Within its grantmaking areas, the Goldman Fund strives to be responsive and flexible and make informed and responsible grants to support qualified projects. We invite you to review the Goldman Fund’s Interests & Priorities.

Interests & Priorities - Jewish Community

Jewish Community

• Goal: Ensure a more vibrant, inclusive, and safe Jewish community.
  • Geographic Area: San Francisco Bay Area and/or projects that are implemented nationally.
    • This program area does not currently accept applications for projects that are implemented in a single region other than the San Francisco Bay Area.
  • Strategies:
    • Combat antisemitism and discrimination against Israel by advancing education, advocacy, and communication about Jews, Judaism, and Israel.
    • Engage the Jewish community in combatting climate change, expanding access to voting, preventing gun violence, and protecting reproductive health and rights.
    • Support innovative, experiential projects that enhance Judaism’s relevance in contemporary life.

The Goldman Fund considers requests by invitation only from organizations in the following fields:

• Health & Recreation
• San Francisco Bay Area Institutions & Projects
• Special Projects & Initiatives

Our Mission

Established in 1992 by Lisa and Douglas Goldman, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund is a private foundation committed to providing support for charitable organizations that enhance our society. Within its grantmaking areas, the Goldman Fund strives to be responsive and flexible and make informed and responsible grants to support qualified projects. e invite you to review the Goldman Fund’s Interests & Priorities.

Interests & Priorities - Reproductive Health & Rights

Reproductive Health and Rights

• Goal: Support abortion service delivery training, safety, and clinics.
  • Geographic Area: National, regional, California, and/or multiple states.
    • This program area does not currently accept applications for projects that are implemented in a single state, other than California.
  • Strategies:
    • Advance and expand access to medication abortion.
    • Improve abortion seekers’ ability to access care.
    • Promote activities that increase abortion provider training.
    • Support Northern California-based health clinics that offer abortion services.

The Goldman Fund considers requests by invitation only from organizations in the following fields:

• Health & Recreation
• San Francisco Bay Area Institutions & Projects
• Special Projects & Initiatives

Established in 1957 and animated by the Jewish value of tzedakah (obligation to be charitable), the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation promotes social justice and human rights through six program areas:

• Strengthening Public Education seeks to improve outcomes and opportunities for students and the quality of teaching and leadership in the Baltimore City school system
• Arts and Culture nurtures a robust cultural scene and ensures that the arts are accessible to children and underserved audiences in the Baltimore region
• Health and Mental Health aims to expand access to quality, affordable health and mental health services for low-income residents of Baltimore City and create better health outcomes locally, regionally and nationally by addressing environmental threats to human health
• Strengthening Israeli Democracy works to support Israel as a pluralistic society by promoting shared society between Jewish and Arab citizens in the Negev, building the pipeline to higher education and workforce integration for Israel’s ethnic minorities, and protecting Israel’s environment
• Jewish Life focuses on keeping Judaism meaningful and responsive to contemporary concerns through “repairing the world”, furthering progressive and inclusive approaches to Judaism, and facilitating nuanced discourse among American Jews about Israel
• International Human Rights advances women’s and reproductive rights, and protects the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the US and other countries

The Foundation supports organizations that: promote systemic change; involve constituent participation in identifying needs, planning and decision-making; encourage innovation; have clear goals, a process for evaluation and a long-range funding strategy.

International Human Rights Program Area

The Foundation’s program in International Human Rights reflects the commitment of its founders to the principles of universal rights. As President of the American Jewish Committee from 1949 to 1954, Jacob Blaustein worked to protect the civil and religious rights of Jews and other minorities and to promote intergroup tolerance. He was a lifelong advocate for human rights and helped to promote the idea of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position that was established more than twenty years after his death in 1970.

The Foundation funds a small number of grantees that work to advance international human rights. The Foundation generally supports US based organizations that address international issues, rather than those based abroad. The Foundation rarely provides support for programs or projects that focus on one country or region.

Internationally, the Foundation works in three areas:

• Advancing women's and reproductive rights. We do not provide support for domestic programs in this area.
• Protecting the rights of refugees and asylum seekers who seek refuge in the United States and other countries.
• Supporting cross-cutting programs that advance leadership development, capacity-building and training across issues. The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals in this area.

In 1971, the Foundation created and endowed the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights at the American Jewish Committee. This is an independent entity with its own governance, programmatic priorities and grantmaking program.

Our Work

Vitamin Angels improves nutrition and health outcomes for pregnant women, infants, and young children worldwide.

We Bring Essential Healthcare to Underserved Communities

As a public health nonprofit we are committed to reaching the most underserved, nutritionally vulnerable populations—pregnant women, infants, and children—with the right solutions. Overcoming barriers to nutritional access takes teamwork.

US-Based Programs

Vitamin Angels (VA) supports the delivery of evidence-based nutrition interventions by providing commodities and technical assistance. For programs based in the United States, prenatal multivitamins, also known as multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS), can be provided as in-kind donations to qualified organizations. Prenatal multivitamins are a daily nutritional supplement of vitamins and minerals, and serve as an excellent way to meet the increased need for nutrients experienced during pregnancy. Prenatal multivitamins granted by Vitamin Angels are to be distributed in a targeted manner to women of reproductive age who experience barriers to accessing prenatal multivitamins.

Our grant opportunities are best suited to organizations that can add our nutrition interventions to their existing programming with limited cost implications.

Mission

To give back by improving the larger world around us and the lives of others where our gifts can yield meaningful tangible impact for a better world.

Zegar Family Foundation Grant

Established in 2007, the Zegar Family Foundation donates to worthy charitable organizations within the scope of our Mission, our Key Focus and/or Other Principal Areas of Giving in the priority order as follows.

Key Focus Areas

• Environment and Sustainability – Addressing the climate change crisis to preserve and conserve our natural biodiverse resources and sustain our world environment.
• Justice and Human Rights – Assisting in seeking justice and protection of rights for people to whom rights are denied, including pursuing racial equality, criminal and legal systems reforms, immigration, LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights through litigation, activism and advocacy for change.

Other Principal Areas of Giving

• Science and Medicine – Advancing scientific and medical knowledge through innovative research, especially basic research, often neglected by governmental and other funding.
• Human Services and Economic Opportunity – Helping disadvantage people help themselves through opportunities for economic growth and/or personal development.
• Arts, Culture, and Heritage – Contributing to societal enrichment through the arts, historical education, preservation of our national and global heritage and other cultural programs.
• Education – Supporting educational institutions, primarily in the higher educational area and providing college access and success for the less advantaged students who desire to attend them.
• Nutrition and Health – Empowering people in underserved communities to improve nutrition and health through education programs encouraging healthier food choices, increased access to fresh foods and increasing options for achieving better health through enhanced medical assistance along with other programs bolstering health in these communities.
• International – Supporting economic relief and development, medical assistance, and human rights for people in need and other compelling causes throughout the world.
• Community Improvement and Development – Supporting projects benefiting and improving life for the communities around us, such as for parks, recreation, libraries and other spaces for community enhancements as well as for public safety.

Future Injectable Market Steward

Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA) is a highly effective, long-acting form of hormonal contraception which can be administered through either intramuscular (IM) or subcutaneous (SC) methods. Administered every 12 weeks, DMPA can be provider administered (PA) by a trained healthcare worker or self-injected (SI) subcutaneously by the user.

As a self-injectable contraceptive product, DMPA-SC (SI) empowers users by offering greater control over their reproductive health, thereby reducing dependency on healthcare providers and alleviating pressure on health care systems. DMPA-SC (SI) is packaged in a prefilled, all-in-one injection system and offers a convenient, discreet, and effective method of family planning. Robust research has proven that women can successfully self-inject after training, can accurately recall for subsequent doses, and that self-injection increases continuation rates. Every month, hundreds of thousands of DMPA-SC users opt for self-injection.

The Injectables Access Collaborative (AC) project (led by PATH), has supported over 60 countries in introducing and scaling up DMPA-SC and self-injection through technical assistance and market insights. To date, there are 59 countries with DMPA-SC and self-injection regulatory approval and 20 sub-Saharan African countries have DMPA-SC on their respective national essential medicine lists. There have been 5.3 million DMPA-SC visits recorded over the past year (Q2 2023-Q1 2024) among 14 countries with data reporting (including Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia). Among DMPA-SC visits in these countries, 22% were for self-injection. The AC has driven market growth by integrating DMPA-SC into policies, regulatory frameworks, and health information systems, fostering demand generation, and addressing supply chain challenges to expand contraceptive access and choice globally.

 The global rollout of DMPA-SC and SI remains at a critical phase for coordination and market shaping and we believe this is an opportune time to build on our momentum and to continue to scale DMPA-SC and SI across the entire health system. As the AC project concludes in late 2025, the Gates Foundation (GF) and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) seek to fund the next evolution of this work with a new award to establish and galvanize the Future Injectable Market Steward (FIMS) for injectable contraceptives.  

INTRODUCING: FUTURE INJECTABLE MARKET STEWARD (FIMS)

With inputs and consensus from the Injectables Strategic Advisory Group (I-SAG; whose membership includes donors, representatives from country ministries, USAID, UNFPA, key partners, and other lead market actors), the FIMS was developed. The primary role of the FIMS will be to lead the global contraceptive injectables market and advance the 2030 strategic vision for DMPA-SC which states:

Quality-assured product is consistently available, affordable, and accessible for women via their preferred channels (including in the private sector) and via their preferred method of administration, in the context of informed choice.

Responding to evolving market needs, FIMS will oversee all DMPA injectable contraceptive products including all administrative methods (subcutaneous, self-injection, provider administered, and intramuscular), near-term generic options that are entering the market, and future injectable products in the pipeline. A key goal for FIMS is to catalyze a sustainable market for DMPA-SC (SI) with full independence by 2030, at which point the goal will be to reach a market of over 100 million units annually (up from the current allocation of 34 million units per year in 2024), with self-injection as a routine option.  

The primary functions of the FIMS will include:

• Market Intelligence, landscaping, and strategy development to achieve the vision for a healthy injectables market by 2030 [high priority].
• Establishment and maintenance of a supportive in-country enabling environment for introduction and scale, including advocacy, policy, regulation, and service delivery [high priority].
• FP commodity planning, forecasting, and quantification to support a robust supply chain [high priority]
• Demand generation to increase awareness of and support for new products [medium-low priority]
• Research, learning, and dissemination of best practices to build evidence and inform action [medium priority] 

CORE CAPABILITIES

A sufficient application will showcase an organization and/or partner consortium model where relevant previous experience, deep sector knowledge, a clear and aligned strategic approach, and CVs of team members (where available) are evident and clear. Beyond the illustrative competencies listed above for each of the core functions for FIMS, the following criteria represent other required core capabilities:

Geographic Focus & Market Stewardship: Ability to deliver results in priority geographies and manage multi-country market stewardship for contraceptive products.

Data Analysis & Strategic Recommendations: Strong data analysis skills to synthesize complex information and drive actionable recommendations, utilizing advanced data science methodologies.

Market Shaping & Product Introduction: Expertise in market stewardship, product introduction, and shaping approaches across the value chain, particularly for SRH or related products.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement: Proven ability to convene and collaborate effectively, including with Ministries of Health, procurers, agencies, and other key stakeholders; experience with accessing and utilizing HMIS/commodity data.

Supply Chain Management: Significant experience addressing and overcoming supply chain challenges, both within countries and with upstream partners.

Private Sector & Sustainability Engagement: Experience working with private sector and social marketing channels to drive long-term sustainability.

Adaptability & Problem-Solving: Open-minded, proactive, and solution-oriented approach to quickly adapt and respond to a rapidly changing landscape. 

The Children’s Tumor Foundation

The Children’s Tumor Foundation is dedicated to funding research that will prevent, reverse, or manage the complications of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), and all types of schwannomatosis (SWN), including NF2-related schwannomatosis (NF2-SWN), formerly called neurofibromatosis type 2. As the leading non-governmental NF research funder in the US, CTF has historically acted as a ‘seed funder’ to provide funding especially to early-career NF researchers and to early-stage NF research, both of which require additional time and support before becoming eligible for larger governmental or industrial funding.

Clinical Research Awards

The purpose of the CRA is to advance effective clinical therapies for NF by supporting early-stage investigations of broad-thinking, novel ideas involving candidate therapeutics, neurocognitive or psychosocial interventions, and clinical-trial-enabling studies.

Examples of areas of interest for this award include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Pilot clinical trials or studies adjunct to an ongoing clinical trial
• Biomarker studies (e.g. molecular, imaging, or genetic biomarkers) that may inform or accelerate a clinical trial or the development of diagnostics
• Patient-reported outcome measures or other real-world evidence that can assess disease burden, risk stratification, short- or long-term treatment effects, etc., for specific manifestations
• Natural history
• Clinical heterogeneity and its relation to genetic, environmental, or biologic factors
• Adult care concerns such as barriers to care, transition from pediatric to adult healthcare, chronic pain management, mental health, nutrition, bone/joint health, and sexual and reproductive health
• Research in support of developing evidence-based care and treatment guidelines

Longevity Science Foundation

Our Mission

Access to longevity-focused care is limited and exclusive. Due to inadequate funding, countless life saving interventions remain beyond reach for much of the global population. We aim to bridge this gap by funding innovation, accelerating the translation of longevity solutions into accessible treatments for everyone.

Female Fertility & Longevity

The Longevity Science Foundation (LSF) is pleased to announce a funding call to support innovative scientific proposals advancing female fertility and reproductive longevity. This initiative encourages proposals that focus on understanding and addressing the decline in fertility with age, with the goal of extending the biological clock and improving healthspan in women. By fostering breakthroughs in this field, we aim to bridge the gap between reproductive health and longevity science, paving the way for interventions that not only preserve fertility but also enhance overall well-being and quality of life for women.

Objective

The Female Fertility & Longevity grant call seeks research proposals that deepen our understanding of the aging female reproductive system, identifying strategies to preserve or rejuvenate ovarian function, thereby extending both reproductive and overall longevity in women. Proposals should include a clear plan aiming to provide accessible and actionable solutions that enhance reproductive health outcomes, with an emphasis on long-term societal and health benefits. Studies may investigate factors such as the mechanisms of ovarian aging and oocyte preservation, interventions that address hormonal, genetic, and epigenetic factors, innovative diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, and the influence of lifestyle and environmental factors on fertility decline.

Funding

• Funding amount: up to $200,000 per selected project
• Funding coverage: direct costs only (inclusive of lab equipment)

The NICHD has a state-of-the-art Chemical Synthesis and Optimization Facility for advancing both non-hormonal contraceptive and reproductive health related product development. This facility has the capabilities and capacity for preclinical services including Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) or Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies (e.g., protein generation, X-ray crystallography, high throughput screening, structure activity relationships, hit-to-lead generation, drug metabolism). The long-term objective is to enable a preclinical candidate for IND/IDE study(ies) that offers a safe therapeutic option in the field of contraception, and/or reproductive health related indications (pending contractor availability and available funding).

The Catalyst Awards—part of the broader Healthy Longevity Global Competition—reward bold, new, potentially transformative ideas to improve the physical, mental, or social well-being and health of people as they age, in a measurable and equitable way.

The National Academy of Medicine (“NAM”), with support from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, the Bia-Echo Foundation, and the Yun Family Foundation, will issue up to 18 Catalyst Awards in 2024 to U.S.-based innovators. Each Catalyst Award includes a $50,000 cash prize as well as exclusive access to additional funding opportunities, occasions to connect and collaborate with innovators from around the world, amplification of your award-winning idea, and resources to enhance your project and professional development.

The NAM is currently seeking bold, new, and innovative ideas that aim to extend the human healthspan (i.e., the number of years lived in good health), especially approaches that challenge existing paradigms or propose new methodologies or concepts. High-risk ideas that could potentially yield high rewards and, in turn, dramatically change the field of healthy longevity are encouraged.

Ideas may focus on any stage of life, as long as they ultimately promote health, functioning, meaning, purpose and/or dignity as people age.

Applications may also originate from any field or combination of fields (e.g., biology, chemistry, medicine, engineering, behavioral and social sciences, technology, data science, and policy). Examples of topic areas include but are not limited to:

• Behavioral health (e.g., social connectedness, engagement, and well-being)
• Biology of aging and molecular pathways
• Built environment and urban planning
• Disease prevention, including biomarkers and indicators of disease
• Health care delivery (e.g., technologies simplifying access to care, elder care services)
• Housing (e.g., smart-enabled homes, intergenerational housing models)
• Physical health (e.g., mobility and functionality)
• Policy (e.g., economic, health, and science)
• Reproductive longevity and equality
• Technology (e.g., telehealth; artificial intelligence; robotics; medical, assistive, and information technology)

The NAM strongly encourages individuals with diverse backgrounds, ideologies, and perspectives to apply. Ideas or projects that aim to reduce health disparities, promote health equity, combat ageism, or apply human-centered design principles to engage older adults in the work, are also of strong interest to the NAM.

The Rapid Response Fund provides the philanthropic community with a vehicle for deploying resources quickly and strategically to Reproductive Justice and social justice organizations during unexpected and critical campaign fights and key opportunities.

In 2023, we funded 96 organizations to the tune of almost $820k.

We encourage applicants to submit requests in advance of the deadline as intake call spots can be filled up quickly.

Groundswell’s Rapid Response Fund (RRF) provides fast funding to grassroots organizations led by women of color, trans people, and low-income women in critical but unexpected fights to protect and advance reproductive and social justice.

What does the Rapid Response Fund support?

There is a range. The Rapid Response Fund has supported organizations doing work around activating and mobilizing their base for direct action, key campaigns, organizing opportunities, and building up coalitions and alliances. The Fund is a multi-issue Fund and has resourced work around reproductive justice, abortion care and support, trans justice, criminal legal reform and abolition work, environmental justice, healing justice, building communities and systems of care, among other critical issues of our time.

The Rapid Response Fund also  collaborated with the Black Trans Fund to grant $200,000  specifically to Black trans-led organizations. In addition to the $1.1 million, RRF moved $150,000 in one-time rapid response support grants to existing Birth Justice Fund  grantees.

Groundswell’s Rapid Response Fund will continue to center its criteria around:

Urgency

The request is responding to an unanticipated event, political moment, and/or requires urgent or timely action. It is a new/unexpected critical opportunity or threat.

 Leadership

• Must be majority women of color and/or transgender, gender expansive people of color-led organization.
• Groundswell Fund defines majority leadership that is more than 50% in decision making.

Definition of Women of Color and/or Trans and Gender Expansive (TGE) Led:

• organizations with a majority WOC/TGE board, staff, and volunteers in leadership positions;
• a WOC/TGE-led effort that is a core strategic priority within a majority white/cisgender people of color/white trans-led organization. This organization must have WOC/TGE in decision-making positions at the staff and board level;
• a WOC/TGE-led coalition; or

Organizing + Base-Building

• Groundswell Fund’s RRF aims to support organizations with a history of dismantling systems of oppression by way of organizing as a central strategy.
• Groundswell defines organizing as ongoing, systematic engagement and relationship building with an ever-expanding and increasingly committed number of constituents and leaders who act collectively to change the conditions harming the community due to systemic oppression and state-sanctioned violence.
• Specifically, this is achieved by building a base. Groundswell defines base building as using strategies to build the leadership of directly impacted communities to create solutions to the issues negatively impacting their lives, and gain skills, abilities, and collective power needed to transform and dismantle policies and systems that affect their lives.

Building Systems of Community Care

• For birth justice groups, using a reproductive justice and community-centric frame to provide a spectrum of support which includes abortion services, birth, and postpartum care that is urgent and responsive to a specific event.
• Building new systems and imagining new ways of care for directly impacted people outside of existing systems which may include mutual aid and food sovereignty.
  • This must be tied to organizing and not direct service provision.
• If the organization is an existing Groundswell Fund grantee, the RRF request must fall outside their existing scope of work.

We are particularly interested in supporting the following issues in response to this political moment that meets other funding criteria and addresses the following community care needs:

• Community Care, mutual aid, and disaster resilience efforts in response to climate disasters led by directly impacted communities.
• Local efforts to advance vaccine equity and health justice in places where Covid-19 variant deaths and cases are on the rise rooted in issues organizing and base-building organizations.
• Housing justice efforts in response to the eviction moratoriums being lifted
• Community rooted and local birth justice efforts and organizing. This means using a reproductive justice and community-centric frame to provide a spectrum of support which includes abortion services, birth, and postpartum care that is urgent and responsive to a specific event.
• Healing justice connected to a specific campaign or issue organizing opportunity

Additional Considerations:

Groundswell Fund has made a commitment to movement to specifically increase grantmaking to Black women, Indigenous women, trans women of color, and TGE people broadly. In addition to those communities, Groundswell is also prioritizing Southern, Midwest, and rural communities.

GLMA Mission

GLMA is a national organization committed to ensuring health equity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) communities and equality for LGBTQ+ health professionals in their work and learning environments.  To achieve this mission, GLMA utilizes the scientific expertise of its diverse multidisciplinary membership to inform and drive advocacy, education, and research.

Lesbian Health Fund

The Lesbian Health Fund (LHF), a program of GLMA, improves the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ women and girls through funding rigorous scientific research. Since its inception in 1992, LHF has funded 126 research projects, awarding over $1.2 million in grants. Our grants are crucial catalysts to larger, multi-million dollar studies funded by federal agencies.

And today, LHF remains the only research fund dedicated solely to advancing the understanding of the unique health needs of LGBTQ+ women and girls. There is still a great need to understand how social determinants, especially race and ethnicity, influence the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ women and girls.

Our Mission

The mission of the Lesbian Health Fund is to improve the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ women and girls through funding rigorous scientific research. We achieve this mission through funding small-scale pilot grants and studies that establish knowledge of factors that impact our communities' health and shape our unique health needs.

LHF believes healthcare isn't a privilege but a right, and improving the health and wellbeing of the most marginalized and ignored uplifts all of society. We are committed to this mission until the causes of inequitable healthcare and outcomes are dismantled in our community.

Critical Need

Misinformation, homophobia among health care providers, and a lack of scientific data on basic lesbian health needs result in dangerously inadequate health care for many lesbians.

The serious impact these factors have on lesbian health is evidenced by alarming rates of suicidal behavior among lesbian, bisexual, and questioning youth; high incidence of stress-related chronic illnesses in lesbian adults; and avoidance of preventive health services by lesbians of all ages.

In order to improve lesbian health care, comprehensive research must be conducted, homophobia must be addressed within the health professions, and lesbians and their providers must become better informed.

Priority Areas

The LHF Grant Committee welcomes all proposals that identify or address health disparities among LGBTQ+ women and girls (e.g., sexual and/or gender minority women or girls, gender diverse people assigned female at birth); however, special consideration will be given to proposals that focus on the following:

• Research that generates pilot data for subsequent training or early-stage investigator grants
• Subpopulations that are often underrepresented in sexual and gender minority (SGM) research, including but not limited to:
  • Adolescents/Youth
  • Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color
  • Bisexual people
  • Gender diverse people
  • Intersex individuals or individuals with differences in sex development (DSD)
  • Older adults
  • People who experience multiple points of marginalization
  • Rural communities
• Methods & frameworks
  • Measurement & methods of LGBTQ+ people
  • Community-informed/community-based participatory research
  • Trauma-informed research
  • Social & behavioral research
  • Intersectionality
  • Sexual and Gender Minority Health Disparities Research Framework
• Topical area
  • Sexual and reproductive health, including family & parenting issues
  • The impact of the pandemic on health and wellbeing
  • Educational initiatives (e.g., curriculum development)
  • Acute care/hospitalization experiences
  • Access to healthcare issues

Mission

OAR’s mission is to apply research to the challenges of autism.

We strive to use science to address the social, educational, and treatment concerns of autistic people, parents, autism professionals, and caregivers. The mission of “applying” research to answer questions of daily concern to autistic people and those around them defines our goals and program objectives and shapes our budget.

In addition to funding research, our mission includes the requirements to:

• Disseminate new and useful information to as many members of the autism community as possible, and
• Direct all research and programs initiatives toward enhancing the quality of life for autistic individuals and the families that give them love and support.

Community Grant Competition

Background

We believe that autistic individuals and the people who surround them (relatives, educators, health care providers) have the potential to innovate practical solutions that promote the quality of life of autistic individuals. The Organization for Autism Research (OAR)—in collaboration with the Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health (AIR-P)—seeks applications for the Community Grant Competition.

Through this competition, OAR/AIR-P will promote the development of community resources that enhance the physical health and quality of life of autistic individuals. These resources may enhance autistic individuals’ health and quality of life directly or indirectly (i.e. by providing guidance to family members, educators, or other providers). Beginning this year, OAR/AIR-P will award grants ranging from $1,000 to $15,000 for up to seven (7) related projects. The projects may last up to one year.

Project Examples

The following are examples of projects that will be funded through this Request for Application (RFA). All projects must be publicly accessible and intended for non-commercial informational and educational purposes.

Projects may include, but are not limited to, the creation of:

• Guides and/or manuals
• Educational curricula
• Books (children’s, instructional)
• Practical toolkits
• Innovative multi-media tools

Objective

Projects will promote the physical health and overall quality of life of autistic individuals across the lifespan. Specifically, all funded projects will lead to the production and dissemination of a practical tool; all funded projects will have the potential to impact community practices or public policy and aim to enhance the quality of life for autistic individuals. Practical tools that are available in languages other than English are welcomed.

Priority Topics

Projects must address at least one of the following priority topics:

• Physical Health
  • Primary Care Services and Quality
  • Community-Based Lifestyle Activities
  • Mental Health Services or Supports
  • Health Systems and Services
  • Gender, Sexuality, and Reproductive Health
• Adult Services and Supports
  • Transition Planning
  • Employment and Higher Education
  • Housing and Residential Supports
  • Financial and Estate Planning
  • Adult Sibling Support

Mission and Purpose

The Anna Lalor Burdick Program funds initiatives that bring women information and access to reproductive health care, contraception, and pregnancy termination in order to help broaden and enhance their options in life.

Funding Interests

The Anna Lalor Burdick (ALB) Program supports programs that offer sexual and reproductive health education to women. It is interested in programs serving women who are disadvantaged by poverty, discrimination, geographic isolation, lack of comprehensive sex education, hostile public policy, or other factors leading to inadequate sexual and reproductive health.

The ALB Program is particularly interested in supporting new programs or initiatives, or innovations in successful programs. Programs at new or small organizations, including those with a grassroots base, that are capable of delivering excellent services will also be considered.

Programs should

• have a comprehensive approach to SRH education that includes unbiased information on all options 
• include novel ideas or innovative methods of delivering information
• define clear goals and intended outcomes as well as a feasible plan to assess impact and success
• be exemplars for replication if successful
• be economically sustainable if successful

Funding Availability and Duration

The ALB Program awards a small number of grants in the range of $10,000 to $35,000, with an average grant size between $15,000 and $25,000.

Grants are awarded for one year. On rare occasions, trustees invite follow-up work to a project that has shown outstanding results or promise during its first year.

Mission and Purpose

The Anna Lalor Burdick Program funds initiatives that bring women information and access to reproductive health care, contraception, and pregnancy termination in order to help broaden and enhance their options in life.

Anna Lalor Burdick Program

Funding Interests

The Anna Lalor Burdick (ALB) Program supports programs that offer sexual and reproductive health education to women. It is interested in programs serving women who are disadvantaged by poverty, discrimination, geographic isolation, lack of comprehensive sex education, hostile public policy, or other factors leading to inadequate sexual and reproductive health.

The ALB Program is particularly interested in supporting new programs or initiatives, or innovations in successful programs. Programs at new or small organizations, including those with a grassroots base, that are capable of delivering excellent services will also be considered.

Programs should

• have a comprehensive approach to SRH education that includes unbiased information on all options
• include novel ideas or innovative methods of delivering information
• define clear goals and intended outcomes as well as a feasible plan to assess impact and success
• be exemplars for replication if successful
• be economically sustainable if successful

Programs that incorporate advocacy or policy change, consistent with IRS 501(c)(3) status, are of particular interest.

Attention Applicants: Due to the increase in restrictions for women living in places where the right to choose has been or threatens to be abolished, we are focusing our efforts on supporting organizations that value reproductive rights and help women gain access to contraception and abortions.

Circle for Justice Innovations

Mission

CJI’s mission is to end mass criminalization and incarceration by building and strengthening the infrastructure of the grassroots criminal justice movement to fundamentally transform the U.S. criminal legal system. We fund where the movement is developing, shifting, and growing. We believe this movement should be led by those most impacted by the injustices of the current system, working in alliances across race, class, faith, gender, gender identity, sexuality, immigration status, and age.

Until She’s Free

Launched by CJI in 2020, the Until She’s Free is a necessary, strategic, and timely response to this growing crisis. Until She’s Free is an innovative, participatory grantmaking circle comprised of community organizers, many of whom have experienced incarceration, working alongside donors and donor activists. We share power and a passion for supporting a meaningful, transformative, and systemic change in the criminal legal system, as well as a commitment to interrogating the elements of a Just Sisterhood.

Until She’s Free is a grantmaking initiative strictly supporting women-led organizations addressing state-sanctioned violence against women and girls, including trans women and trans girls, and gender-nonconforming people, and their criminalization and subsequent incarceration, while also elevating their leadership in bringing about foundational change.

UNTIL SHE’S FREE FUND

The Until She’s Free Circle, a fund of Circle for Justice Innovations, is seeking applications from women, girls, trans and gender expansive people-led organizations tackling the Systems faced by incarcerated, detained, criminalized or formerly incarcerated women, girls, trans and gender expansive people.  We are committed to flanking organizations that are addressing current realities of incarcerated and criminalized women, girls, trans and gender expansive people and the innovative solutions needed to build power and create transformative systems change.

If this is your work and mission, we encourage you to apply including but not limited to formerly incarcerated women, girls, trans people, undocumented activists; focused on forward thinking approaches to transform the criminal legal system and sustain our communities.

BACKGROUND

The Circle for Justice Innovations (CJI) resources organizations seeking to end mass incarceration and criminalization. Celebrating 25 years of grantmaking, CJI was founded to combat prison expansion, mass incarceration, and racial disparities affecting marginalized communities and seed organizations whose work is led by formerly incarcerated and directly impacted leadership

The Until She’s Free Circle (USF) is a participatory grant-making circle of community organizers, many with lived incarceration experience, alongside donors and donor-activists. The Until She’s Free Fund shares consensus decision making power and commitment to a Just Sisterhood process in philanthropy. The Circle seeks to end the racialized carceral state, creating new frameworks for safety, and accountability models. This Circle was launched to provide vital support for addressing the criminal legal system's impact on women, girls, trans and gender-expansive people, while uplifting their leadership in this critical work.

This year’s USF funding priorities include:

• Carcel Conditions and Systems Control focused work organizations committed to improving conditions for those incarcerated, advocating for basic human dignity, as well as addressing harmful alternatives to incarceration (e.g., e- incarceration) and the economic related profits from Systems surveillance.
• Black and Latine Trans-led organizations advocating for ending incarceration and criminalization of trans and gender expansive people. Including but not limited to conditions and access while incarcerated and/or detained, participation in survival economy strategies, and gender-based affirming justice solutions.
• Immigration & Detention organizing around immigrant detention, family separation, and ICE deportations; political education and Know Your Rights trainings for community safety.
• Gender Affirming Care & Reproductive Justice, Health and Access for justice and systems involved women, girls, trans, and gender expansive people, including those in jails, prisons, detention centers and other forms of state supervision.
• Indigenous Practice Based and Cultural Organizing work using indigenous practices to disrupt incarceration and criminalization. Including narrative shifts, cultural organizing, and storytelling.
• Restorative, Healing and Transformative Justice work - innovative solutions to combat incarcerations and criminalization in communities, behind the wall and as an interruption and intervention to incarceration.

Our Mission

Our mission is to lead the fight for the health of all moms and babies. Our goals are to end the preventable maternal health risks and deaths, end preventable preterm birth and infant death, and close the health equity gap.

Reproductive Scientist Development Program

No matter where in their early career path applicants find themselves, scholars must be committed to a career in OB/GYN and medical research, ready to use the RSDP program as a springboard into the type of deeper and more targeted scientific inquiry their careers will ask of them.

The RSDP program is more flexible in terms of research proposals.

Due to its focus on young scientists who may not have had rigorous experience or training in scientific inquiry or publication, recipient acceptance into the program does not imply a need to conduct and publish novel, breakthrough scientific work in the OB/GYN space, as this in and of itself is rare. Rather, the program is a March of Dimes effort to recognize and strengthen the wide breadth of human talent in the OB/GYN field and spark a lifelong confidence, passion and commitment to maternal fetal health research that will undoubtedly change not only clinical outcomes, but lives, in the decades to come.

As such, research proposals must be translational in nature and relate to the field of maternal fetal health – with a focus on prematurity, maternal and infant morbidity and mortality and health equity – but the outcome of the work is less important than the training and shaping of the recipient during the grant period.

This program is administrated by a host institution and is funded by a coalition of organizations including the March of Dimes, with coalition members pooling funding to support the research work of about a dozen grant recipients annually, the grant structure has recently changed, with each coalition organization funding a specific recipient.

Areas of Research

• Obstetrics and gynecology and their subspecialties (e.g. reproductive endocrinology and infertility)

The  Little Giraffe Foundation

The Little Giraffe Foundation is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Chicago, dedicated to supporting parents and patients of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Since 2011, the foundation has delivered over 28,000 gift bags to an array of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), awarded nearly 150 support grants to dozens of hospitals across the country, and funded over $300,000 in medical research.

Neonatal Research Grants

The Little Giraffe Foundation is offering research grants in the amount of $5,000 - $10,000 for neonatal research.

We invite qualified scientists, doctors, and nurses at universities, hospitals and research institutions, to submit applications for research grants directed at addressing both the long term and immediate health needs caused by premature birth.

Research subjects appropriate for support by the Little Giraffe Foundation include basic biological processes governing development, genetics, clinical studies, studies of reproductive health, environmental toxicology, and social and behavioral studies.

The Society of Family Planning

Our Mission

The Society of Family Planning is the source for abortion and contraception science.

Our Vision

We believe in just and equitable abortion and contraception informed by science.

Contraceptive Misinformation and Disinformation

Purpose

Access to accurate information about contraception is fundamental to reproductive autonomy. However, the rapid proliferation of misinformation—facts that are false based on scientific consensus—and disinformation—coordinated or deliberate efforts to spread misinformation to gain money, power, or reputation— can undermine reproductive autonomy by hindering people’s abilities to make informed decisions. Although misinformation and disinformation about contraception are not new, understanding their dynamics and impact is particularly important in the current US environment, where the politicization of science and health information fuels their spread.

To generate research related to this topic, the Society of Family Planning is offering the Contraceptive misinformation and disinformation funding opportunity. This funding opportunity seeks to support research projects that explore the scope, consequences, and drivers of contraceptive misinformation and disinformation, with the goal of developing effective strategies to mitigate or combat their spread.

Research Focus

We invite research proposals focused on the following topics related to contraceptive misinformation and disinformation in the US:

• Improving surveillance of contraceptive misinformation and disinformation.
  • Proposals focused on understudied platforms and nontextual content are encouraged, as well as proposals using methods that provide a more comprehensive picture of the misinformation and disinformation ecosystem, such as network analysis, cross-platform surveillance techniques, spatial and temporal analysis, and/or automated techniques involving machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• Understanding the consequences of contraceptive misinformation and disinformation, such as how exposure shapes people’s attitudes, behaviors, relationships, and decision-making related to contraception.
• Understanding the role of emotion, cognition, and identity on people’s susceptibility to contraceptive misinformation and disinformation leveraging existing theoretical frameworks as relevant.

Given the rapidly evolving landscape of contraceptive misinformation and disinformation, teams must prioritize research questions with enduring relevance and be thoughtful about how findings could inform future interventions even amidst changing contexts. Please note that we are particularly interested in proposals focused on disinformation, given its significant threat in the current context. However, we also recognize the unique methodological challenges in studying disinformation and, as such, also welcome projects that address misinformation more broadly. In all cases, proposals must clearly define the scope of their research within an established framework of misinformation and disinformation. 

Proposals must be positioned to produce empirical evidence with a clear, concrete, and strategic path to informing interventions, practices, and policies that mitigate or combat contraceptive misinformation and disinformation. Teams must be attentive to the Society’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Vision and the Coalition to Expand Contraceptive Access’s equity-informed principles for contraceptive access research. In addition, teams working with data related to race and racism or sex and gender should be attentive to recommendations for working with these data.

Funds and Duration

We invite proposals for research studies with budgets up to $150,000 that can be completed within 24 months. Please note that we seek to fund studies with a range of budgets within the budget maximum: concretely, we anticipate supporting up to five projects with larger budgets (eg, up to $150,000) and up to four projects with smaller budgets (eg, up to $75,000). Funding is also available to cover processing fees associated with two open-access publications, provided the work is published within two years of grant completion.

Leadership Circle Grant Program

CJI’s Leadership Circle is requesting proposals from formerly incarcerated people and directly impacted people-led grassroots organizations working to transform and reimagine the current U.S. criminal legal system, building to create new alternative community-based solutions and organizing to stop the criminalization of marginalized identities and communities.

We fund alternatives outside of the current legal and cultural systems of oppression, prioritizing those that empower communities to lead their own alternatives. In supporting the crucial work of building infrastructure that replaces the current system, which is rooted in racism and inequity, CJI also prioritizes groups enhancing the safety of communities that are victims of state-sponsored violence (both overt and insidious), those affected by the criminalization of protests and those working toward community healing. We will support the crucial work of building infrastructure that replaces the current system.

CJI believes that formerly incarcerated movement leaders and their organizations, working at the grassroots and drawing from experience, must be at the forefront of determining the solutions that will move us forward. The movement must also push back against the emergence of tools of repression, however disguised. The time is now for innovative approaches to building a vibrant movement that engages the imaginations of directly impacted communities creating the solutions and alternatives to disrupt, dismantle and establish new systems for justice.

This year, CJI will support movement-building* organizing that is based in Creating the World –WE Demand NOW! We want to support the efforts that:

• build alternatives to create safe and healthy communities that don't rely on arrest and incarceration
• invest in approaches that seek to end mass criminalization and incarceration
• create policies to reform and dismantle current repressive criminal legal systems
• lift up the leadership and experience of those affected by the criminal legal system, regardless of the type of detention (e.g. jail, prison, ICE detention, etc)
• re-establish rights and access to those formerly incarcerated and newly criminalized; e.g. intersections of reproductive health & justice, protesting & resisting oppression and repression
• promote transformative and restorative justice that heals, builds across movements and collaborations to effectively address the current criminal legal system.

CJI defines movement building as:

An ongoing collaboration, both within and across communities, intended to eradicate core systems of injustice. Collaborations may include those among grassroots or community organizations and/or between grassroots/community organizations and people or groups working with transparency and integrity inside the institutions they seek to transform; eg (Community Review Boards, Arrest Divergence Programs, etc. 

Our Mission

Our mission is to lead the fight for the health of all moms and babies. Our goals are to end the preventable maternal health risks and deaths, end preventable preterm birth and infant death, and close the health equity gap.

March of Dimes Richard B. Johnston, Jr., MD Prize

Recognizing an outstanding scientist who has profoundly advanced the science around prenatal development, pregnancy and birth.

Celebrating scientists who have dedicated their lives to translational research

The March of Dimes Richard B. Johnston, Jr., MD Prize honors outstanding scientists who profoundly advance the science that underlies our understanding of pregnancy, parturition and prenatal development. Created as a tribute to Dr. Jonas Salk shortly before his death in 1995, the Prize has been awarded annually since 1996. It’s now named in recognition of Dr. Johnston, former Medical Director of March of Dimes and Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado.

The Prize carries a cash award and a physical commemorative award presented to the awardee at the Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI) Annual Meeting where the awardee will also give a lecture.

Areas of Research

• Prenatal development and pregnancy and parturition

Research Grants

The National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association Grants Program awards research grants in the field of wildlife rehabilitation, including wildlife medicine and wildlife education. NWRA encourages and supports wildlife rehabilitation organizations in conducting independent and/or collaborative research projects. Many types of projects are welcome to apply for funding, such as those studying post-release survival, clinical treatments, disease syndromes, behavior, nutrition, and more. Such studies offer an opportunity to evaluate and compare the success of varying approaches utilized in modern rehabilitation practices.

Wildlife rehabilitation is a young science and frequently is criticized for its lack of quantitative evidence describing survivorship, behavioral responses, and overall reproductive fitness of rehabilitated wildlife following release. It also primarily involves poorly studied species where common health problems and challenges are under-investigated and lack applicable scientific literature. Through funding research projects, NWRA hopes to improve wildlife rehabilitation techniques, allow for continued growth within the profession, and to expand scientific knowledge about the species in our care.

Goals of the NWRA Research Committee:

• Provide guidelines for integrating research and post-release studies within wildlife rehabilitation that do not infringe on the NWRA code of ethics.
• Support wildlife rehabilitators conducting and/or collaborating on post-release studies and similar research.
• Advocate for wildlife rehabilitators and rehabilitated wildlife involved in research.
• Broaden the breadth of knowledge on post-release survival of rehabilitated wildlife.
• Provide an avenue to improve and broaden collaboration between wildlife rehabilitators, governmental agencies, private groups, universities, nonprofit organizations, and individuals, conducting post-release studies and other wildlife health research.
• Disseminate information on permit compliance, safe handling procedures, and standard operating procedures (SOP’s), etc., for post-release studies.
• Simultaneously, ensure that post-release research study designs and proposals involving rehabilitated wildlife adequately address animal welfare considerations by adhering to humane standards of care.

Burroughs Wellcome Fund

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund serves and strengthens society by nurturing a diverse group of leaders in biomedical sciences to improve human health through education and powering discovery in frontiers of greatest need.

BWF’s financial support is channeled primarily through competitive peer-reviewed award programs.

BWF makes grants primarily to degree-granting institutions on behalf of individual researchers. To complement these competitive award programs, BWF also makes grants to nonprofit organizations conducting activities intended to improve the general environment for science.

BWF believes that a diverse scientific workforce is essential to the process and advancement of research innovation, academic discovery, and public service.

Next Gen Pregnancy Initiative

Building upon the original goals of the BWF Preterm Birth Initiative, a recently convened Pregnancy Think Tank has helped shape the next iteration of this award mechanism. Growing evidence suggests the interrelatedness of the duration of pregnancy, fetal growth, and adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth, preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, stillbirth, and maternal medical complications including maternal mortality. Other areas of interest are climate change and environmental impact on pregnancy, complications associated with ART, and epigenome-wide association studies. We have expanded the scope of this award mechanism to capture these and other pregnancy outcomes as we believe they will be mutually informative and accelerate discovery. Each award will continue to provide up to $500,000 over a four-year period ($125,000 per year).

The initiative is designed to stimulate both creative individual scientists and multi-investigator teams to approach healthy and adverse pregnancy outcomes using creative basic and translational scientific research methods. The formation of new connections between reproductive scientists and investigators who are involved in other areas is particularly encouraged. Postdoctoral fellows nearing their transition to independent investigator status through senior established investigators are encouraged to apply.

Molecular and computational approaches such as genetics/genomics, immunology, microbiology, evolutionary biology, mathematics, engineering, and other basic sciences hold enormous potential for new insights independently or in conjunction with more traditional areas of parturition research such as maternal-fetal medicine, obstetrics, and pediatrics. We encourage applications seeking actionable therapeutic interventions, novel diagnostics, and device development for real time data capture, and particularly those investigating mechanisms of racial disparities in pregnancy outcomes.

Potential Proposals

Proposals should address the biomedical causes and molecular mechanisms underlying adverse pregnancies and their outcomes including but not limited to peri-implantational events, placentation, fetal determinants, fetal-maternal immune responses, biological basis for racial-ethnic disparities, mechanisms relating preterm birth to other adverse pregnancy outcomes, biology of normal labor, genomics, evolutionary influences, maternal complications and other approaches. Proposals seeking to identify biomarkers predicting preterm birth are welcome.

BWF is also interested in Preterm Birth Risk Stratification using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Local delivery of drugs into the vagina for prevention and treatment of female-specific conditions remains understudied and under-utilized despite clear potential advantages such as discreetness, potent local efficacy, large surface area for drug absorption, high potential for API dosage sparing, potential for fewer systemic side effects, as well as providing autonomy and empowerment of women. Several key drivers may be responsible for this lag, including paucity of mechanistic biological data, particularly from high-burden settings such as low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), to support the development of specific formulations for vaginal use as well as a persistent misconception that vaginally delivered products may not be embraced by women and their sexual partners. Several of our priorities for impactful products for sexual and reproductive health will require vaginal delivery for immediate, on-demand use. We seek to catalyze the development of innovative technologies and approaches that can safely and effectively deliver a wide range of vaginal products. We expect these approaches to have user appeal, including promotion of self-care capability and other beneficial features that women seek, hence the need to couple discovery research with high-quality end-user input.