Level One: Seed Grant (2023-2024)
Massey’s “Seed to Harvest” community grant initiative is a mechanism for community partners to address person-centered care across the cancer continuum, from health promotion and prevention through survivorship, and to reduce suffering from cancer for citizens in Massey's catchment (geographical) area.
The catchment area is the home to 4 million racially, ethnically, geographically, and socio-economically diverse individuals. The catchment spans nearly 19,000 square miles, is approximately 275 miles or 1.5-5 commuting hours to Massey; and is defined as 66 contiguous localities in Virginia's central, eastern and southern areas.
Request for application (RFA) details
Level 1 ("Seed") of the community grant initiative is designed as the first step to germinate and foster community integration between a community organization and Massey's 2021-2025 strategic priorities.
The objectives of Level 1 are to:
- Support the exchange of ideas for real-world applications in solving complex problems for health promotion, cancer prevention, cancer health education and risk reduction, or enables access to cancer screening
- Share the community's voice to build a collaborative, communicative and trusted relationship between the community and Massey
- Address emerging ideas and health performance improvement, capacity building and collaborative partnerships that address cancer health promotion, prevention, early detection or health equity
- Provide innovative activities to disseminate measurable outcomes and target the distribution of the proposed project to a specified target audience, which include but are not limited to the following:
- Policy briefs
- Public engagement workshops
- Artistic exhibitions or performance arts
- Participatory filmmaking
- Grassroots organizing
- Curriculum development or adaptation
- Infographics
- Serve Virginia residents who live within Massey’s catchment area
Level 1 ("Seed") is a $5,000 award over a twelve-month funding cycle. Only one application per organization will be accepted. Once awarded, funding extensions or no-cost extensions are not allowable.
Funding priorities are those that include one or more of the following:
- Sensitivity to an emerging need of a diverse underserved population
- Directly impact social determinants of health factors, health disparities or health equity
- Clearly articulates a sustainability and dissemination plan
- Address the grant objectives in priority communities using creative ideas and innovatively act on them (see section 2 of the application package)
Organizations interested in submitting a proposal must meet the following criteria:
- Recognized in the state of Virginia and by the IRS as a non-profit, either a government agency, a recognized house of worship or an organization exempt from income tax with a 501(c)(3) public charity designation
- Including community and faith-based organizations, advocacy groups, coalitions, neighborhood associations or service providers
- Are not a political or lobbying organization, private foundation or represent an individual
- Do not discriminate based on age, sex, race, color, sexual orientation, national/ethnic origin or disability
Applicants requesting funds for event sponsorships, scholarships, publication of books, conferences, dinners, fundraisers, capital campaigns or endowment funds will not be considered.
A virtual technical assistant webinar for organizations that wish to respond to Massey's request for applications (RFA) will be held on December 12, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. The RFA will be reviewed and attendees will have an opportunity to ask any questions about the application process. Organizations planning to apply are strongly encouraged to attend but are not required. Organizations in rural communities that cannot join virtually due to unstable broadband access may schedule an appointment with the technical assistance team.
If you plan to attend the technical assistance webinar, please notify Brad Williams at williamsb12@vcu.edu or (804) 628-8573 by noon on December 12, 2022.
- November 29, 2022: Application released
- December 12, 2022: Technical assistance webinar
- January 20, 2023: Applications due
- February 3, 2023: Awardees announced
- March 1, 2023: Project start date/Grant initiation date
- September 1, 2023: Six-month progress report due
- February 29, 2024: Project completion date
- March 15, 2024: Final written report due
Massey staff members will review the applications for eligibility and completeness. A review panel of Massey's affiliated community partners and members of Massey’s Cancer Community Connection Coalition (The Coalition) will review the applications for the merit of the proposed plan. The review panel’s decision is final.
A standardized scoring rubric will be used that reflects the following:
- The merit of the proposed activities
- Relevance of the proposed project
- The budget and budget justification sections and the reasonability of the proposed intent of the project
Applications are no longer being accepted at this time.
Questions? For more information about the Community Grant Initiative please contact Brad Williams, Senior Program Coordinator, at williamsb12@vcu.edu or (804) 628-8573 or contact us at engagemassey@vcu.edu or (804) 628-0896.