Stakeholders and members of the West Virginia First Foundation met for the first time in the Truist building in Charleston, W.Va., on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (Caity Coyne | West Virginia Watch)
With a little over two weeks left for organizations to apply for 2024 grant cycle funds, the West Virginia First Foundation is already expecting an onslaught of applications, according to statements given by leaders at a virtual meeting on Tuesday.
The 2024 grant cycle has been open since Sept. 5 and the deadline for submitting proposals is Oct. 5.
First Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Board told members of the organization’s expert panel on Tuesday that there have been “well over 100” questions and letters of intent to apply sent to the First Foundation in recent weeks. While organizations were encouraged to send an intent to apply to the First Foundation before formally submitting their applications, it is not necessary to do so.
“Not all of those [questions] I would equate to letters of intent to apply, although I will say I’m kind of taking them as such. I think you wouldn’t be asking a question unless you had that intention,” Board said. “My hunch is that there are probably a lot [of organizations] that don’t have questions that do intend to apply … I think there are gonna be a lot of folks applying.”
The First Foundation is making $19.2 million available for grants during the 2024 cycle. Those grants will be awarded to organizations doing work in four target areas: diversion programs to keep people out of the criminal justice system, youth prevention and workforce development, programming supporting children (including babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome) and families affected by substance use disorder and the expansion of transitional and recovery housing.
Each of the six regions in the state could receive a maximum of $3.2 million in grants from up to 16 different awards.
According to application guidelines, up to $800,000 can be awarded in each region for every one of the specific target areas, and up to four different grants can be given for each of the four target areas.
This grant cycle — which will be vastly different from future grant cycles, where funding priorities will be informed by an incoming needs assessment survey — will see most of the funds likely going to established organizations already doing work in the four target areas, First Foundation board member Jon Dower told those at the meeting.
“We had always talked about this first round of funding not limiting any novel idea, but [also] not targeting novel ideas,” Dower said. “We’re not targeting innovation, but rather hitting the low hanging fruit and funding the operators that are already showing effectiveness.”
Already, Dower said, people have approached him and other board members to gauge interest on certain kinds of programs.
“I feel like we’re seeing a lot of people trying to put a square peg into a round hole,” Dower said. “They’re trying to fit what they’d like to do into one of these four buckets rather than, ‘Hey, we already function in one of these four buckets and we want to be able to expand on the services that [the board] wanted.’”
Tuesday’s meeting functioned mostly as an introduction to the expert panel, which is tasked with helping the board evaluate requests for funds. The expert panel is made up of volunteers from various areas, including law enforcement, recovery, treatment and more.
West Virginia First Foundation expert panel
Treatment
Laura Lander, associate professor in the department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry in the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University.
Prevention
Greg Puckett, a commissioner in Mercer County and as Executive Director of Community Connections Inc.
Recovery & Lived Experience
Emily Birckhead, executive director of West Virginia Alliance of Recovery Residences.
Corrections & Reentry
William Marshall, commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Systems of Care, Health Policy & Management
Christina Mullins, deputy secretary of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders at the West Virginia Department of Human Services.
Law Enforcement & Judicial Systems
Jess Gundy, criminal justice program director at the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security.
First Responders
Adam Crawford, medical director for the General Division Emergency Department at Charleston Area Medical Center Health System
Both members of the panel and those on the board used the call to discuss how they could approach scoring for applications that are submitted for funds. They asked questions clarifying the process and offered suggestions based on their experiences that could help guide the reviews.
Once the application window closes, First Foundation board members and expert panels will spend several weeks assessing the proposals. This could include interviews with project leaders and site visits to facilities requesting funds, among other things. It’s expected that applicants receiving the funds will be announced by Dec. 31.
Finalized applications for First Foundation funds should not be longer than 40 pages in 12-point Times New Roman font. They are to be submitted in a PDF format via email to iog@wvfirst.org by 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 5.
Visit https://wvfirst.org/grants/ to access the application guidelines, view detailed information on how to apply for the grants and learn more about how they will be reviewed before being awarded.
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