Kansas United Methodist Health Philanthropy in Action
In 1986, the Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church established the Health Fund with a portion of the proceeds of the sale of Wesley Hospital in Wichita. The Health Fund works with all of its resources to fulfill its mission of Healthy Kansans through strategic and cooperative philanthropy guided by Christian principles.
The Health Fund serves the State of Kansas with special emphasis on the western two-thirds of the state.
In its first sixteen years of existence, Health Fund grants helped establish a wide spectrum of health-related programs--medical care for the uninsured, hospice services in both rural and urban settings, intergenerational services, quality early education, mentoring for children and youth, a statewide telepsychiatry network, congregational health ministries and prevention measures to improve oral health.
From its beginnings with a $30 million endowment, the Health Fund has made grants totaling over $50 million to improve the health, healing, and wholeness of Kansans.
In 2006, the Health Fund completed a strategic planning process that involved hundreds of Kansans in meetings, focus groups, and interviews. We asked about health issues of importance in our state and in local communities. We asked about the role of the Health Fund and how our grant funding could have the most impact on the Health of Kansans. With this information, Health Fund trustees agreed on the goals of the Health Fund through 2009 in three focus areas: oral health, healthy lifestyles, and access to health care.
The Innovation Funding program was made available in 2007 and 2008 as a way to gather some of the best ideas for impacting our three health focus issues in Kansas—oral health, access to healthcare, and healthy lifestyles. We received 162 applications and awarded 33 Innovation Funding grants. Our total investment in these grants was $1.4 million. Innovation Funding grants will not be offered in 2009.
In 2009, we evaluated the three focus areas of our funding since 2003, planning for the best way to use our resources to advance health, healing, and wholeness in the future. The 2009 "Think of the Possibilities Funding" RFP offered grants for access to primary care and specific children's health issues. We received 82 Letters of Intent and have invited full proposals from 18 of those which submitted an LOI.
The results of the 2009 strategic planning process indicated opportunities to generate the greatest positive impact on health in the following areas: access to health care, children's mental health, and healthy lifestyles for young children and their families. The Health Fund will award grants totaling approximately $2 million in each of the three focus areas over the next three years.
In addition to these general focus areas, the Health Fund seeks to support Kansas United Methodist churches in health ministry work through the Healthy Congregations Covenant program.
Oral health has been a major emphasis of the Health Fund since the 1998 launch of the Fund's Healthy Teeth for Kansans initiative. Although it will continue to help sustain efforts increasing access to dental care, particularly with workforce issues, the Fund will not be developing new initiatives in oral health through 2012.
The 2009 Strategic Planning news release contains additional information and background on the planning process.
We thank the many Kansans who participated in our strategic planning process, providing insight on health issues and offering ideas on how the Health Fund might improve health outcomes for Kansans.