Health Care Advancing Innovation Grants is sponsored by The Duke Endowment. The Duke Endowment provides charitable contributions to nonprofit organizations in North Carolina and South Carolina, with workforce development as one of its primary areas of focus.

The Duke Endowment | Health Care The Duke Endowment believes that all people can achieve their best health when communities are designed to support healthy lifestyles and when our health care system is able to engage patients and provide holistic care that meets the unique needs of each individual.

The U.S. spends more on health care per capita than any other country but does not achieve better outcomes in terms of life expectancy, health status or patient satisfaction. It fails to provide equal opportunities for health and well-being to all segments of the population. These failures contribute to large disparities in health status and health care utilization based on a range of social factors.

Our health care system is designed to provide excellent medical care to the sick; however, it often fails to take a comprehensive approach to preventing illness and supporting wellness. We seek to improve health status and reduce health disparities in the Carolinas by ensuring all people can access timely and appropriate health care, lead a healthy lifestyle and have their basic social needs met.

Improving health and reducing health disparities will require communities and the health care system to innovate. We look for opportunities to support the development and testing of new approaches that can outperform the current standard of care.

These new approaches will require robust evaluation plans that can build the evidence necessary to understand what works and accelerate the systemic reforms necessary to scale and sustain best practices. Our founder’s keen interest in innovation drives us to consider new ways to optimize person-centered and community-based approaches to improving health. The majority of grants will follow one of our two strategies.

Build Community Coalitions We build coalitions that bring together health systems, public health agencies and community-based organizations to advance programs and policies that promote healthy lifestyles. We partner with health systems and community-based organizations to identify, develop and test innovative programs that have the potential for long-term scale and sustainability.

Select 501 (c)( 3 ) organizations in North Carolina and South Carolina may be eligible to receive funding. The Health Care program area uses a short pre‑application to confirm eligibility and project fit. Pre-application deadlines are May 15 and November 15 .

The portal opens approximately six weeks before each deadline and is only available during that time. Pre-applications are reviewed on a rolling basis up until the deadline.

After review of the pre-application, applicants will either be: Invited to submit a full application, or Notified that the project does not align with current priorities Full application deadlines are June 15 and December 15 To begin the application process, please click on ​ “ Start a New Application” below Edit an Existing Application If you have previously started an application, please select ​ “ Edit an Existing Application” to prevent loss of information.

If you have not already started your application, please proceed by selecting ​ “ Start a New Application. ” Edit an Existing Application School-Based Mental Health Consistent with national statistics, North Carolina and South Carolina have seen children's mental health reach emergency levels.

Our Health Care program partners with schools to support innovative, systems-based approaches to mental health that help ensure all children are healthy and ready to learn.

Improving Population Health As the United States advances value-based payment methodology, the Health Care program area is building capacity at the state, regional and local level to link government, health, and social services so that Carolinians have the opportunity to increase healthy behaviors and address their social needs. Poor oral health can result in lower quality of life and poor health outcomes.

It can negatively impact self-esteem, employability and the ability to learn. The Duke Endowment seeks to improve the oral health delivery system throughout North Carolina and South Carolina to ensure every adult and child has access to essential dental services.

Advancing Mental Health Services The lack of access to mental health and substance abuse treatment services throughout the Carolinas significantly impacts the health of individuals, families and communities. The Health Care program area seeks to identify service delivery models that promote mental health and well-being for adults, adolescents and children, with a priority on holistic approaches to early intervention and treatment.

Expanding Access to Care for Vulnerable Populations Across the Carolinas, too many vulnerable residents lack insurance or go underserved. The Health Care program area seeks to reduce health disparities, improve clinical outcomes and reduce inappropriate hospital utilization by increasing access to essential services for low-income uninsured adults and underserved populations.

AccessHealth — Networks of Care for the Low-Income, Uninsured The AccessHealth initiative launched in 2008 to reduce health disparities, improve clinical outcomes, decrease avoidable hospital use and expand access to care among low-income, uninsured adults.

A Collaborative Commitment to Advance Oral Health Policy Where Climate Meets Health: Duke Researchers Chart a Path Forward at ‘Big Idea’ Symposium Duke University School of Medicine $1. 3M in Grant Money Will Help Fund Florence Health Care School and Clarendon County Health Initiative The Post and Courier Pee Dee Atrium Health Foundation Receives Transformational Award from The Duke Endowment