Being For Others seeking grant applicants

It’s not every day an offer of lunch comes with a potential $250,000 grant, but that was exactly the case on Friday, January 16, when the Being For Others Health and Wellness Foundation provided both.

The event was held at the Dubois County Museum, which also houses the Being For Others Foundation offices.

Attendees covered a broad swath of affiliations, from non-profit organizations and other foundations to government entities.

After welcoming everyone, President Christian Blome explained, “Today is about building partnership and imagining what collective action could look like!”

Being For Others (BFO) was created in 2024 when Deaconess and Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center merged to create Deaconess Memorial Hospital. The hospital affiliation begets the BFO foundation, focused exclusively on grantmaking and created with a $20 million bequest from Deaconess.

BFO serves eight counties: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Martin, Orange, Perry, Pike and Spencer. This luncheon happened to be in Dubois County, but every affiliated county was being treated to a similar lunch and learn event, with Perry County’s scheduled for Tuesday, January 27, 11:30 a.m. CT at The Patio Steakhouse in Cannelton and Spencer County’s on Wednesday, January 28, 12 p.m. CT at the Spencer County Youth & Community Center in Chrisney.

BFO offers several grant opportunities, but the focus of these luncheons is a three-year grant of up to $250,000 that fits in with the priority pillars established by the BFO board. These pillars include access to comprehensive healthcare, mental health and substance use support, healthy living and chronic disease prevention, transportation and connectivity, early childhood and family support, housing and economic stability, social and civic engagement and community safety and violence prevention. Proposed grants must align with one of the pillars and applicants must either be a non-profit, government entity or school in at least one of the counties. In addition, they cannot be a competitor to the hospital.

This Community Collaboration Grant has been designed to address large, systemic community challenges by bringing together cross-sector partners via a facilitated process. Community, in this case, can be defined in many ways, such as the community of county schools, or several non-profits sharing a common goal, or county government working with a non-profit to address a particular issue.

A letter of intent with a description of the applicant’s idea, potential partners, and impact area is due February 27, and from these letters, applicants will be chosen to complete a grant. Chosen finalists will meet with the committee to present their proposals, and recipients will be notified in June. BFO also offers project grants that support innovative, evidence-based, or community-driven projects that directly improve health and wellness across the service region. These one-year grants can range from $1,000 to $40,000.

In addition, BFO provides Rapid Response Grants for short-term support for time-sensitive, unexpected needs. Blome said the staff is available to discuss ideas and help talk through your concept. Both he and Director of Operations Mary Champion are available to assist and can be reached at 812-556-0400 or at info@beingforothers.org.

Contact them as well if interested in attending the Perry or Spencer County session.

“You don’t have to have all the answers,” Blome explained.

He added that this brand new way of tackling real-world programs has been touted by others as a potential model to be used nationwide.

To learn more or just to posit an idea, do not hesitate to reach out to Being For Others at 812-556-0400.