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Montana Healthcare Foundation

Annual Giving
$5.6M
Grant Range
$10K - $0.1M
Decision Time
3mo
Success Rate
17%

Montana Healthcare Foundation

Quick Stats

  • Annual Giving: $5.6 million (2023)
  • Total Assets: $249.8 million
  • Success Rate: 17% (Call for Proposals)
  • Decision Time: 2-3 months
  • Grant Range: $10,000 - $150,000 (standard grants)
  • Geographic Focus: Montana statewide

Contact Details

Address: 777 East Main Street, Suite 201, Bozeman, MT 59715

Phone: (406) 451-7060

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://mthf.org

Grant Information: https://mthf.org/grants

Overview

The Montana Healthcare Foundation was established in 2013 following the sale of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana, with state law requiring the proceeds be transferred to a charitable trust for public benefit. As a private foundation with $249.8 million in assets, MHCF makes strategic investments to improve health outcomes across Montana, distributing approximately $5.6 million in grants annually (122 awards in 2023). The foundation takes a comprehensive approach through direct grantmaking, leadership development, technical assistance, and research initiatives. Under CEO Dr. Aaron Wernham's leadership, MHCF emphasizes community-driven solutions, strong partnerships beyond traditional healthcare, and addressing upstream social determinants of health. The foundation prioritizes supporting populations facing health inequities due to income, geography, service accessibility, and existing disparities.

Funding Priorities

Grant Programs

Annual Call for Proposals (applications open early 2026)

  • Planning Projects: Up to $50,000 for strategic, business, and sustainability planning
  • Implementation Projects: Up to $100,000 for two-year projects with strong sustainability plans
  • One-Year Projects: $10,000-$50,000
  • Application method: Online portal, annual deadline (typically March)

Rural Health Small Grants (applications open 2026)

  • Grant amount: Up to $10,000 for 12-month projects
  • Application method: Two-step process with rolling review
  • First round decisions: Mid-June; Second round decisions: Mid-September
  • Focus: Organizations physically located in and serving rural Montana (outside seven urban hubs)

The Mignon Waterman Award

  • Individual recognition award for contributions to improving behavioral health in Montana

Program-Related Investments

  • Available for large-scale infrastructure projects (e.g., affordable housing preservation)
  • Recent example: $740,000 for 273-unit housing preservation project

Priority Areas

The foundation's strategic focus areas include:

  • Integrated Behavioral Health: Building effective prevention and treatment systems for mental health and substance use disorders
  • American Indian Health: Expanding high-quality, Native-led public health and healthcare services
  • Public Health Strengthening: Supporting tribal and county health departments
  • Maternal and Infant Health: Integrating prenatal care with behavioral health services
  • Housing is Health Care: Addressing housing as a social determinant of health
  • School-Based Health Initiative: Expanding health services in educational settings
  • Medicaid Policy: Improving access to quality, affordable health services

The foundation particularly values:

  • Upstream approaches addressing social determinants of health
  • New partnerships increasing health system efficiency
  • Projects demonstrating sustainability beyond grant funding
  • Rural and frontier community initiatives
  • Culturally appropriate interventions for Montana communities

What They Don't Fund

  • Individual grants or scholarships
  • Capital campaigns or construction projects
  • Debt retirement
  • Lobbying or political activities
  • Large equipment purchases
  • Medical research without direct community benefit
  • Sub-grant redistribution programs
  • 501(c)(6) organizations
  • Organizations outside Montana

Governance and Leadership

Board of Trustees

  • Paul Cook (Chair) - Red Lodge
  • Gerald Gray (Vice Chair) - Billings
  • Michael Harrington (Secretary) - Missoula
  • Bill Underriner (Treasurer) - Billings
  • Joanne Pieper (Trustee) - Bozeman
  • Judy LaPan (Trustee) - Sidney
  • Tracy Neary (Trustee) - Billings

Senior Leadership

  • Aaron Wernham, MD, MS - Chief Executive Officer
  • Price Klaas, MPA, SHRM-CP - Chief Operations Officer
  • Scott Malloy, LCSW - Program Director
  • Tressie White - Program Director
  • Melinda Buchheit, MS - Communications Director

CEO Dr. Aaron Wernham brings extensive public health and family medicine experience. On the foundation's approach, he emphasizes: "We work hard to meet people where they are, rather than imposing our own approach...we have done whatever we can to streamline the application process." He's committed to being "a catalyst instead of an underwriter of change" and notes the foundation's strategy emerged from extensive community listening, including putting "more than 25,000 miles on his car in his first year on the job" traveling across Montana.

Application Process & Timeline

How to Apply

Call for Proposals (Annual)

  • One-step online application through grant management system
  • Up to three distinct proposals per organization annually
  • Applications typically open in January, due mid-March
  • Webinar provided before application period
  • Pre-application consultations available with program staff

Rural Health Small Grants

  • Step 1: Email brief inquiry to [email protected] with organization name, tax ID, physical location, service area, and 2-4 sentence project description
  • Step 2: Upon staff approval (within 30 days), invited applicants complete full application in grant management system

Decision Timeline

Call for Proposals

  • Application deadline: Mid-March
  • Funding decisions announced: Late May
  • Projects begin: June 1
  • Foundation may notify applicants if additional review time needed

Rural Health Small Grants

  • Applications received by June 1: Decisions by June 15
  • Applications received after June 1: Decisions by September 15

Success Rates

The foundation's annual Call for Proposals is highly competitive with a 17% success rate (average over past five years). In 2023, the foundation received more applications than ever before. They funded 122 grants in 2023 from a significantly larger applicant pool. As the foundation states: "We receive far more grant applications than we can fund" and "receive many more promising proposals than we can fund."

Reapplication Policy

Unsuccessful applicants may reapply in subsequent years but cannot resubmit the same proposal in the same year. The foundation encourages applicants to discuss their proposals with program staff before reapplying to address concerns identified in the initial review. Individual feedback is provided on a case-by-case basis depending on staff capacity, though the foundation notes it "cannot promise to provide individual critiques" for all unsuccessful applications.

Current grantees may apply for new funding if they propose entirely different projects or seek additional funding for related work with "specific, separate outcomes and deliverables," provided they maintain reporting compliance and demonstrate adequate progress.

Application Success Factors

Based on the foundation's explicit guidance and recent awards, successful applications demonstrate:

1. Addressing Community-Identified Needs The foundation's strategic priorities emerged from extensive community consultation. Dr. Wernham emphasizes their approach is "directly driven by what people around the state told them about their needs and priorities." Strong applications show the project responds to genuine community needs, not external assumptions.

2. Sustainability and Value Generation As Dr. Wernham states: "We focus on grants that will improve outcomes and can chart a path toward sustainability through the value they generate." Applications should clearly articulate how the project will continue beyond grant funding through demonstrated value, partnerships, or alternative revenue streams.

3. Strong Partnerships and Collaboration "Strong partnerships or coalitions of groups with a stake in the outcome are often very important to the success of a project and are a critically important aspect of our selection criteria." The foundation values cross-sector collaboration. Recent funded projects include mergers between organizations (Adult Resource Alliance, Aware Inc.) and integrated care partnerships (Billings OB/GYN Associates with behavioral health providers).

4. Community Stakeholder Engagement Applications must include "a strong plan to ensure that community members and other stakeholders are engaged and included in the work." This is particularly important for tribal communities—projects involving American Indian populations must demonstrate collaboration with tribal health authorities, councils, or urban Indian health centers.

5. Replication Potential "The strongest proposals will show potential for being replicated successfully in other communities." Even if serving a specific geography, describe how the approach could be adapted by others.

6. Upstream/Social Determinants Focus Dr. Wernham notes: "We are particularly interested in approaches that address the upstream influences on health (aka the 'social determinants of health')." Recent awards reflect this—housing preservation, food access, and integrated behavioral health rather than purely clinical interventions.

7. Cultural Appropriateness The foundation values interventions that are "culturally appropriate for Montana communities." Montana-grown solutions that understand rural culture, tribal sovereignty, and geographic realities perform better than imported models.

8. Accessibility Over Polish Dr. Wernham emphasizes: "We've structured our selection criteria carefully to avoid the pitfall of funding the largest organizations with the best grant writers." The foundation reviews applications holistically and provides grant application assistance. Don't let limited grant writing capacity discourage you—focus on demonstrating clear community need and feasible solutions.

Examples of Recently Funded Projects:

  • Blackfeet Community College pursuing national nursing program accreditation ($50,000)
  • Billings OB/GYN implementing perinatal mental health services across southeastern Montana ($150,000)
  • Central Montana Food Hub planning food aggregation facility ($40,000)
  • Butte Native Wellness Center expanding integrated behavioral health ($150,000)
  • Adult Resource Alliance planning merger of senior service organizations ($50,000)

Key Takeaways for Grant Writers

  • Highly competitive funding: With only a 17% success rate, applications must clearly demonstrate alignment with foundation priorities, strong community need, and sustainability plans
  • Montana-focused and community-driven: Only Montana-based organizations are eligible; solutions must be Montana-grown and responsive to what communities identify as their needs
  • Partnerships are critical: Collaborative applications involving multiple stakeholders are strongly preferred and evaluated as essential success criteria
  • Emphasize sustainability and value: Articulate how the project will continue beyond grant funding through the value it generates—this is a core foundation priority
  • Rural and tribal emphasis: The foundation gives preference to rural/frontier projects and requires meaningful tribal collaboration for American Indian-focused initiatives
  • Streamlined, accessible process: The foundation intentionally avoids favoring organizations with professional grant writers; focus on clear communication of need and feasibility over polish
  • Reapplication is welcome: Unsuccessful applicants can discuss proposals with program staff and reapply in subsequent years with revised approaches

References

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