The Sarah Ralston Foundation seeks transformative impact on the lives of vulnerable and underserved older adults. The Foundation will be distributing $2 million annually through both General Operating Support and Innovative Project Support Grants. The deadline for the first cycle of General Operating Support grants is April 1, 2023. The deadline for the first cycle of Innovative Project Support grants is September 1, 2023. Funding areas include services and programs focused on:

  • Access to affordable, equitable and high-quality care
  • Behavioral and mental health issues
  • Caregiver support (family and significant others)
  • Care coordination
  • Housing (including older adult homelessness)
  • Social isolation issues

General Operating Support

Supports a nonprofit organization’s mission rather than specific projects or programs. General operating support is the working capital needed to sustain day-to-day operations.

Innovative Project Support

Supports organizations and projects that seek to develop or expand the scope of models that improve the delivery of health care or respond to social factors that influence health and quality of life. Innovative project support develops, extends, tests, and evaluates approaches to what sometimes seem to be intractable challenges. Innovative initiatives should be more effective than—and should ultimately displace—prevailing approaches. The support is intended for older adult serving projects pursuing bold new approaches or opportunities that could lead to significant change. Examples include but are not limited to:

  • Projects intended to discover new and better ways of solving pervasive problems that impact older adults.
  • Seemingly small interventions that when scaled, can have significant impact to addressing a big problem.
  • Organizations and projects led by entrepreneurial leadership teams who are skilled at testing new ideas.

Learn more about our grants.