Frequently asked questions

Point32Health Foundation is the resulting organization of the combination of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and Tufts Health Plan Foundation in 2022.

We serve five New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. We build on the strong reputation of our legacy foundations and honored relationships and commitments made before our combination.

We build on existing and new community relationships to support, advocate and advance healthier lives for everyone. We support community-led solutions that advance equity in aging.

Together with community, our board of directors and team, we have identified our north star and mission to guide future work.

North star: Communities thrive, are great places to grow up and grow old, and everyone experiences equitable health outcomes.

Mission: Together with community, we advance equity in aging, so communities thrive, are great places to grow up and grow old, and everyone experiences equitable health outcomes.

Focus: Equity in aging

In 2022, the Foundation engaged Health Resources in Action (HRiA), a local public health research institute, to facilitate statewide listening sessions in the five states we serve. This included focus groups, key informant interviews, and surveys. Throughout this process we engaged with and heard from hundreds of individuals, organizations and other thoughts partners to help direct our path forward. Point32Health Foundation’s strategy and planning is informed by community engagement and listening.

Community feedback reinforced and affirmed the need for the Foundation to act beyond our role as funder. Based on community input, we also will continue work as an advocate, capacity-builder, catalyst and convener to advance community priorities in aging.

We are inspired and excited by our focus because it allows us to support whole person health, build on our successes, and importantly, ensure better outcomes for all our futures. With community, we’ve identified the impact we want to have and how we will invest as we continue our work.

What we will focus on for positive impact

• Upstream work addressing community factors that affect the health of older adults (i.e., root causes and the social determinants; we do not offer grant funding for medical care) and those facing inequitable systems

What we will fund

• Changing inequitable systems and advancing policy/advocacy

How we will invest

• General operating grants
• Multi-year grants

We also will support organizations engaging in systems change and policy and advocacy. In addition, we invest in social and racial justice work “for, by and about” communities of color and others experiencing systemic barriers – and addressing issues to which they are most proximate.

A set of core practices guide how we engage with community. Rooted in trust, humility, equity, and a commitment to transparency and learning, we will evolve and stay relevant and responsive to community.

Humility

• Being grounded in and responsive to community context
• Being accessible, a “good listener” and a follower to those doing the work
• Trusting what community organizations say, acting on what they share
• Having community define “older people“ in the context of lived experience

Equity

• Recognizing that people have different circumstances and require different levels of support to reach the same goals (as defined by YWCA USA)

Transparency

• Monitoring our progress, engaging in learning, growing our understanding, and identifying where strong work is occurring and supporting it
• Identifying and addressing gaps
• Learning from community and sharing lessons

Our community investments grantmaking budget is approximately $8 million annually. This amount does not include sponsorships, employee contributions, volunteering and other supports, including in-kind.

The Foundation’s fiscal year starts, and the grant budget renews on January 1 each year. Given our commitment to multi-year funding, approximately 50% of the annual grantmaking budget is already committed to community organizations.

The size and timeframe for each grant depends on the organization and scope of work.

We request organizations submit a short inquiry form to share how their work may align with the Foundation’s focus. We will respond to your submission within 30 business days. Submission can be made when it works best but please consider the decision timelines of the Foundation Board so that the team has the opportunity for timely conversations.

• February 20, 2025 for organizations working in organizing, policy, advocacy and systems change to improve the conditions affecting older adults. Decisions will be announced in June.
• September 19, 2025 for organizations working in social and racial justice. Decisions will be announced in December.

The Point32Health Foundation team will work with and learn from grantees and community on how equity in aging shows up in your work. We will support efforts that prioritize and directly engage older adults, especially in communities of color and for others experiencing systemic barriers.

We also will invest in capacity building within organizations that are for, by and about communities of color–and others experiencing systemic barriers. We will leverage their power and potential to address issues to which they are most proximate.

Our grantmaking process starts with community. You asked us to eliminate barriers, and we have.

You can reach out to our community investors using our short inquiry form. The Foundation team also proactively reaches out to equity-centered organizations to learn more about their work.

We prioritize support for organizations that:

• Work on community-based interventions
• Engage in initiatives with the potential to dismantle racist systems
• Work in communities experiencing historic disinvestment—especially people of color and others facing systemic barriers—and are proximate and connected to the people they serve
• Use disruptive approaches to influence systems beyond individual organizations
• Collaborate to expand positive impact
• Show promise—may be unproven—and take risk

Yes. We cannot do this work alone and shouldn’t. Collaboration is an essential characteristic of our investments in community. It is central to how the Foundation engages with community organizations and other funders.

Our team participates in convenings, stakeholder groups and other community events. We do so to stay proximate and strengthen our knowledge and awareness of state and local philanthropic initiatives. We also are members of the regional associations of grantmakers in the states we serve.

To be considered for a sponsorship, requests must be submitted through our online system. We strongly recommend submitting by November 1 for support in the following year. Requests are reviewed by an enterprise-wide sponsorship team. If you have questions about sponsorships, please email sponsorships@point32health.org.

Capacity-building

Capacity-building should be driven by what an organization says it needs. This type of investment supports a nonprofit’s ability to deliver on its mission effectively and efficiently over time. (Council of Nonprofits). Capacity-building includes developing and strengthening skills, instincts, abilities, processes, and resources that organizations and communities need to survive, adapt and thrive. (United Nations). Examples include professional development, improving volunteer recruitment, creating a communications strategy, consultation for strategic planning, evaluation.

Older adults

We believe those closest to an issue are best positioned to define older adults in their community. How people age is based on lived experience and context. When people of color, people with disabilities and people who face systemic barriers grow older, a lifetime of inequities accumulate and exacerbate health disparities.

Organizing

Organizing is an essential element in the ability to create policy change. We define it as deliberate community actions and strategies designed to ensure community voice and participation in decision-making processes.

This can include relationship building, organizing community members, educating the public and decision makers, forming networks or coalitions, communication campaigns and more.

Policy and advocacy

Support for policy and advocacy solutions prioritized and advanced by community. These efforts must include diverse people with lived experience negatively or positively impacted by issue(s), and people affected also should be informing plans and solutions. The result should increase equity.

Activities should align with effective strategies likely to change policies, regulations and systems for the better. This can include the formation of coalitions and networks; the generation of solutions; education and information for the public, decision-makers and media; collaboration with government officials and agencies.

Systems change

Systems change can include a range of activities. Ideally, actions are coordinated within a strategy intended to influence change across multiple organizations.

These efforts may include:

• efforts to alter the status quo by shifting the function or structure of an identified system
• purposeful interventions
• actions designed to positively influence policies, routines, relationships, resources, power structures and values

Systems change requires persuasion and advocacy to change mindsets

We will support systems change efforts that advance solutions prioritized by community. Efforts must include diverse people with lived experience that are affected by the issue(s). Individuals from community should be informing plans, and the actions should contribute to increased equity.

Trust-based philanthropy

The principles and actions promoted by the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project are rooted in advancing equity, shifting power, and building mutually accountable relationships. We are expanding our practice of trust-based philanthropy to act on our values. Examples of trust-based practices include giving multi-year, unrestricted funding and simplifying administrative paperwork. We will demonstrate our commitment to this practice through humility and collaboration and  keep community relationships at the center of what we do.