OVERVIEW: The Thomas Scattergood Foundation awards grants to groups that advocate for local and systematic change in behavioral healthcare delivery. The foundation also funds grants to groups fighting the stigma of mental illness, building workforce capacity in the behavioral health field, and fighting to include mental health as a larger part of integrated healthcare.
IP TAKE: Scattergood’s mental health grantmaking seeks to encourage public dialogue about mental and behavioral healthcare. Small groups should approach this funder, as it supports organizations that advocate for improved mental healthcare at both the local and national levels.
PROFILE: Thomas Scattergood was a 19th-century Quaker minister in Philadelphia who suffered from depression in a period when the mentally ill were seen as damaged or "spiritually damned." The Thomas Scattergood Foundation seeks “opportunities for productive dialogue and learning within the behavioral health field” and to activate “leadership and collaborative endeavors by awarding targeted grants to address important behavioral health needs in innovative ways.” Scattergood prioritizes Grantmaking, Innovation, Community Wellness, and Program-Related Investments in Philadelphia, but does not specifically restrict its support to the city or the state of Pennsylvania.
Grants for Mental Health and Brain Research
The Scattergood Foundation’s Grantmaking supports programs that seek to “disrupt our current behavioral health space and create impact at the individual, organizational, and societal levels.” It funds projects and programs that combat the stigma of mental illness, promote knowledge and understanding, advocate for the integration of mental healthcare services into larger healthcare systems, improve health outcomes of both physical and behavioral health, and build workforce capacity in the behavioral health field. Grantees include Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, Active Minds, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, and Brandywine Health Foundation. The Scattergood Foundation also supports mental health services and research through its Innovation Award, a $25,000 prize for initiatives that challenge the status quo of behavioral health through “catalytic concepts, products, processes, services, and/or technologies.
The Scattergood Foundation also approaches its mission through Program-Related Investments. As opposed to grants, these investments seek to achieve “programmatic results” by providing loans at below-market rate to organizations that need capital to “start, grow, or sustain a program, or when results cannot be achieved with grants alone.”
Grants for Immigrants and Refugees
The Scattergood Foundation’s Community Fund for Wellness is specifically targeted at immigrants and refugees in the greater Philadelphia area. It forges partnerships with community-based organizations that help immigrants deal with barriers to mental wellness such as “trauma and toxic stress.” It seeks to support programs that provide effective care services and resources in a “culturally and linguistically and appropriate context” depending on ethnicity, religion, and place of origin. Grantees include Movement of Immigrant Leaders in PA, Moder Patshala, Familias Separadas Project, Korean American Association of Greater Philadelphia, and the New Sanctuary Movement.
Important Grant Details:
Grant amounts range from $5,000 to $50,000. While the foundation supports organizations throughout the United States, it strongly prioritizes work centering around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Grantseekers may view past grantees and investment partners on the individual pages for the foundation’s giving initiatives.
The Thomas Scattergood Foundation accepts unsolicited letters of inquiry throughout the year via its online application system. Applications are reviewed by the Board, which then decides which organizations to invite back to submit a full proposal.
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