Introduction

New Grant Application Guide Available

Guidelines Change, Mission Remains the Same

The California Endowment is pleased to offer a new Grant Application Guide for prospective applicants. We have made several changes in application procedures to better focus our resources to make lasting improvements in the health of Californians. However, our mission — “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” — remains unchanged.

Since we adopted our strategic plan in 2002, we have clarified our focus on how to achieve the mission. First, every Californian must have access to quality health services. Second, our health care system must be culturally competent to respond to the diversity and demographic changes in our state. Third, we must eliminate the disparities in health and strengthen communities to become healthy places to live.

Based on these convictions, we have organized our work around three goals:

• Access to health;
• Culturally competent health systems; and
• Community health and the elimination of health disparities.

For those who may have received prior funding from The Endowment under the Local Opportunities Fund and CommunitiesFirst designations, we are now accepting applications only through the new Grant Application Guide, which serves as a single-point-of-entry to all of The Endowment's funding.