Frequently Asked Questions

Point32Health Foundation was formed in 2022 by the combination of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and Tufts Health Plan Foundation.

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

We work with communities to support, advocate and advance healthier lives for everyone. As a funder, we support community-led, equity-focused solutions in access to healthy food, healthy aging and behavioral health. We will continue this work through 2024.

In determining how we would move forward, we identified our north star and mission to guide our 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, beginning in 2025

Point32Health Foundation will continue to support access to healthy food, behavioral health and healthy aging in the current year (2023) and all of 2024.

When people of color, people with disabilities and people who face systemic barriers grow older, a lifetime of inequities exacerbate health disparities. Renewing and deepening our commitment to equity in aging will improve conditions for those bearing the greatest risks and burdens of inequitable systems. A focus on equity in aging begins to address a growing unmet need.

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. Through this process we heard from hundreds of individuals and organizations, engaging with them as thought partners to help shape our path forward. This input informed Point32Health Foundation’s strategy and planning.

Feedback from community reinforced the need for the Foundation to act beyond the role of funder. We will continue work with community as advocate, capacity-builder, catalyst, convener and funder.

We are inspired and excited by our focus because it allows us to continue 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.   

What we will focus on for 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)
• ​Continue to support food systems and mental health, key factors to address when advancing equity in aging

What we will fund

• Changing inequitable systems and advancing policy/advocacy
• Capacity-building defined by organizations that are for, by and about communities of color and others experiencing systemic barriers

How we will invest

• General operating support grants
• Multi-year grants

Equity in aging will continue to include support for organizations engaging in systems change and policy and advocacy. In addition, we will invest in capacity-building with organizations that are for, by and about communities of color and others experiencing systemic barriers – leveraging their power and potential to address issues to which they are most proximate. 

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

Humility

• Being grounded in and responsive to community context
• Being accessible, a "good listener" and follow those doing the work
• Trusting what community organizations say, act on what they share
• Having community define "older people“

Equity

• Being anti-racist
• Using inclusive language to advance asset-based approaches in our work

Transparency

• Monitoring our progress, engage in learning, increase our understanding, and identify where we can support strong work
• Identifying where we can address gaps (modified from redundant one in operating)
• Learning from community and sharing lessons

Point32Health Foundation will continue to fund access to affordable, nutritious food, behavioral health and healthy aging initiatives for the next two years. In 2025, Equity in aging becomes the lens through which we address the social determinants of health—housing, access to affordable, nutritious food, transportation, social isolation, mental health, ageism, civic engagement and caregiving.

The Foundation will continue making new grants each year.

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

All community commitments will be honored. Current grantees will not see any changes. The grants team has scheduled time in April to connect with current grantees to answer questions. The team continues to be available for community conversations. Register for an upcoming information session.

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

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

We will continue to support organizations increasing access to affordable, nutritious food, advancing healthy aging, and promoting behavioral health for the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024. In each of these areas, we prioritize community-led solutions that address systemic inequities.

The Foundation will continue making new grants each year.

Our grantmaking process starts with a conversation.

We believe in the power of a conversation to strengthen relationships and deepen understanding – sharing stories, experiences and connecting meaningfully. You asked us to eliminate barriers, and we have.

You won’t find calls for proposals or requests for letters of intent on our website. Instead, you will find information about upcoming information sessions. Follow-up calls can be scheduled to explore possibilities for moving forward together.

The Foundation team will provide status updates to grantseekers who have engaged with the Foundation through office hours in 2023. These updates are scheduled for the weeks of May 29, October 2 and December 18.  

Schedule a meeting with our Community Investments team.

The Foundation team is also reaching out proactively to equity-centered organizations to learn more about their work.

We continue to prioritize support for organizations that:

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

Yes. Collaboration continues to be essential to community and to Point32Health Foundation. It is central to how the Foundation engages with community organizations and other funders. Our team engages community and participates in convenings, stakeholder groups and other community events. We do so to stay proximate while building and increasing our knowledge and awareness of relevant state and local philanthropic initiatives.  We are also 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 recommend submitting by November 1 for the following year. Submissions are reviewed by an enterprise-wide sponsorship team. If you have questions about sponsorships, please email sponsorships@point32health.org.

Older adults

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

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 put our values into action. 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, keeping community relationships at the center of what we do.

System change

System change is an intentional effort designed to alter the status quo by shifting the function or structure of an identified system with purposeful interventions. It is a journey which can require a radical change in people’s attitudes as well as in the ways people work. This can include policies, routines, relationships, resources, power structures and values.

Policy and advocacy

Support for policy and advocacy advances solutions prioritized by community. These efforts must include diverse people with lived experience impacted by the issue(s), People affected by the issue should be informing plans, and the impact should contribute to increased equity.

Activities should align with strategies likely to change policies, regulations and systems, such as the formation of coalitions and networks; the generation of solutions; education and information for the general public, decisionmakers and media; collaboration with government officials and agencies; and effective implementation of policy changes.

Advocacy also includes deliberate actions and strategies to build 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.

Capacity-building

Capacity-building should be driven by what an organization says it needs. It invests in 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.