OVERVIEW: The California Endowment was established through a health insurance company merger. It supports neighborhoods, health prevention, schools, and youth throughout California. It supports healthcare solutions rooted in racial justice and combating systematic oppression.
IP TAKE: This foundation welcomes innovative approaches that shake things up. It prioritizes health equity and racial justice.
PROFILE: Established in 1996, the California Endowment was created through the Blue Cross Blue Shield of California and WellPoint Health Networks. It seeks to “expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians.” It is based in Los Angeles and remains a private, statewide foundation that focuses on encouraging good health and the provision of and access to quality health care for all Californians. Funding priorities include access to affordable healthcare for underserved individuals and improvements in the health status of Californians.
The California Endowment makes grants broadly through its People Power Health strategy, a $225 million health-related racial-justice campaign. This program replaces the foundation’s previous 10-year initiative, Building Healthy Communities. People Power Health’s grantmaking prioritizes racial justice because, according to the foundation, “there is no health justice without racial justice.” It particularly supports grassroots organizations and community initiatives working to create a state where a person’s health is not a product of where they live, and that believe that systematic racism is a root cause of poor health. According to Robert K. Ross, MD, president and CEO of The California Endowment, "Racial injustice and structural inequality are made by the human hand, which means they can be dismantled by the human hand; dismantled by leadership, action, voice, advocacy, activism."
People Power Health focuses on four broad geographic regions, “which have the most acute health and racial inequities and encompass 78% of California’s population.” Grants often exceed the million-dollar mark, but many others are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Grantees for the foundation’s previous initiative include the USC's Health Journalism and Fellowships Program, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine, and the American Heart Association. It has also given as much as $5 million to local organizations for COVID-19 relief and recovery. And it has pledged $100 million to nonprofits led by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders over the next ten years.
This foundation makes single-year grants, multi-year grants, direct charitable activity contracts, and program-related investments in the form of loans. It offers grants for programs and projects, as well as general operating support grants.
The California Endowment does not accept unsolicited letters of intent or proposals. Grants are by invitation only. The funder has an online application process for invited grantees. It also has a matching grant program to encourage employees and directors to contribute to charities they care about and receive matching funds from the foundation. Grant seekers may sign up for emailed news alerts from the foundation and direct any general inquiries to the staff at 800-449-4149.
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