Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health Gears Up for Second Round of Funding

Palo Alto – Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health is inviting more than 1,000 child health nonprofit organizations throughout San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties to submit letters of inquiry by December 1 for potential funding.

An independent public charity established in 1996, the Foundation’s mission is to promote, protect, and sustain the physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children in its two-county service area. The Foundation’s two areas of grantmaking interest are: 1) to protect children from injury (ages 0 to 5), with an emphasis on preventing neglect, child abuse, and other forms of intentional injury from occurring; and 2) to promote emotional, mental, and behavioral health in pre-teens (ages 9 to 13).

Through research and ongoing consultation with local communities, the Foundation recognizes that the majority of children in the region are born healthy. The greatest subsequent threats to their health are the circumstances in which they live, the behavior of others toward them, and, ultimately, their own behavior. “As such, we believe many negative health outcomes could be prevented,” says Foundation Chairman and CEO Stephen Peeps. “We want to partner with community-based, family-centered, nonprofits whose primary focus is prevention.”

The Foundation’s Program and Grants staff are currently in their first funding cycle, reviewing 40 proposals for possible funding and making recommendations to the Foundation’s Board of Directors. The Board will decide in December those programs that will receive funding.

“December will mark our first grants to the community,” says Program and Grants Director Sharon Keating Beauregard. “It also marks the beginning of our second funding cycle which culminates with the next distribution of grants in June 2001. As we complete one funding cycle, the next gets underway.”

In general, the Foundation accepts requests for grants ranging from $20,000 to $300,000 per year. For more information, visit the Foundation’s Web site at www.lpfch.org, or call (650) 736-0676.