Donor Impact Stories

Five health-focused nonprofits partner with CFT to create a community of practice

North Star Values: Collaboration and Effectiveness

To address community needs during the COVID-19 public health crisis, CFT launched a funding opportunity for organizations addressing vaccine hesitancy, aiming to reduce transmission of the virus in urban and rural communities. We also wanted to help nonprofits build community trust and learn if culturally relevant, grassroots approaches to vaccine education and deployment could make a difference in these communities.

We made a combined $2 million investment in five nonprofits working to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: The Concilio, Fort Worth SPARC, Project Unity, Texas Health Resources, and Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) Meals on Wheels. In addition, we stretched the potential impact of these grants by creating a learning community for the organizations who received the grant funding. We connected the grantees with MyPHI, a North Texas data analytics organization, to form the Vaccine Community of Practice. Its goals are to use data to drive the actions each organization takes to address vaccine hesitancy, and then bring education and vaccines to North Texas communities.

Creating the Vaccine Community of Practice allowed us, as grant makers, to see beyond incremental outcomes of a single program. We were able to recognize pivotal impact, which for us was an investment in several organizations working toward one goal. It maximized our investment so that the dollars work more efficiently, allowing the grantees to identify overlapping efforts while leveraging the individual expertise of each organization. The organizations learned key points about their targeted populations, including the leading reasons for vaccine hesitancy, with one of the top reasons being possible side effects. They also discovered the recommendations most likely to convince people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

We have met with the grantees and MyPHI several times to discuss the work, learnings, and progress of the initiatives. As of late October, the organizations reported reaching more than 50,000 people in communities with high rates of vaccine hesitancy with education about how COVID-19 vaccines work, and their efficacy and effectiveness. Through the programs we funded, the organizations have vaccinated more than 5,700 people. Equally as important as these numbers are the connections the organizations have made with the communities they serve.

This story was originally featured in our 2021 annual report. For additional details and content, click here.