Funding Proposal to the Bank of America Charitable Foundation

FUNDING PROPOSAL

Heal One World Non-Profit

Mental Health Support RFP to the Bank of America Charitable Foundation

To Whom it may Concern,

Please find enclosed our RFP for the period January to December 2023. Heal One world seeks to obtain funding from the Bank of America (BOA) Charitable Foundation for its Mental Health Support Project to be implemented in Los Angeles, CA. Heal One World is registered as a not-for-profit organization in the state of California and commits to the mission of empowering individuals to cultivate and create their own sense of wellness and health of the spirit, mind, and body. Through the Mental Health Support program, Heal One World proposes to offer free/donation-based yoga, meditation, and Tai-Chi classes to 175 low-income individuals with mental health issues who lack the resources and insurance coverage to access specialized treatment. The total project budget is $153,000. Heal One World is requesting a total of $150,300 from the BOA Charitable Foundation towards this noble initiative.

Project Overview

The mission of the mental health support program is to help low-cost residents of Los Angeles, California, cultivate their own sense of mental wellness and health through increased access to guidance-learning self-help techniques and natural, non-invasive treatments. To realize its mission, Heal One World will offer free and donation-based classes on self-help and self-healing techniques such as yoga, tai-chi, and reiki. At the same time, the organization maintains a database of low-cost mental healthcare providers, to whom it refers cases requiring more than self-healing for specialized care. The mental health project targets low-income residents in need of preventive, non-traditional/complementary modalities to mental healthcare, but who lack access to such services due to their high cost and lack of health insurance.

Through the project, Heal One World envisions to promote mental health and well-being among vulnerable low-income households in Los Angeles, thus reducing mortalities from non-communicable diseases. This aligns with the United Nations’ Social Development Goal (SDG) 3 and the WHO’s SDG target 3.4, which focuses on reducing by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through promotion of mental health (World Health Organization, WHO, 2022). Studies have shown that mental health leads to significant social and physical problems, which ultimately affects the wellbeing of individuals across the lifespan (Tullius et al., 2022).

At the household level, poor mental health disrupts relationships with family members, leading to divorce, family breakdown, and childhood neglect (Tullius, et al., 2022). For children and adolescents, poor mental health increases the risk of poor academic outcomes as well as social and behavioral problems that increase the risk of delinquent behavior (Tullius et al., 2022). Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicates that poor mental health is a risk factor for substance abuse, and people with mental health issues are more likely to smoke cigarettes, engage in binge drinking, and use non-prescription opioids (NSDUH, 2018). Through the Mental Health Support program, Heal One World seeks to improve the target population’s mental health by increasing access to natural, non-invasive treatments and self-help techniques. The requested funds will support the project in the payment of staff salaries, purchase of materials and stationary for office use, psychiatry fees for local low-cost clinics, coverage of overhead costs such as electricity and rent, marketing, and transport costs.

Project Context

Data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) shows that 1 in every 5 US adults, and 1 in every 6 adolescents experience poor mental health every year (NAMI, 2022). In 2020, 53 million adults and 7.7 million adolescents in the US experienced some form of mental illness (NAMI, 2022). In California, where the project is based, 5.6 million people were diagnosed with a mental condition in 2020 (NAMI, 2022b). Unfortunately, the cost of treatment remains a problem for Californians with mental conditions (NAMI, 2022b). 1.6 million people among those diagnosed with mental conditions in 2020 did not receive any form of mental healthcare, with 35% identifying that they could not afford treatment (NAMI, 2022b). NAMI (2022b) points out that approximately 8 percent of Californians lack health insurance, which makes it challenging to access the needed mental healthcare. Further, over 9.4 million California residents live in communities that do not have mental health professionals, which further aggravates the lack of access to adequate mental health supports (NAMI, 2022b).

The proposed project seeks to fill this gap by increasing access to free and donation-based non-invasive treatments and self-help techniques among low-income Californians who lack financial resources and insurance coverage to obtain proper mental healthcare. In the short-term, the project will improve the mental health of the surrounding community and reduce mortalities related to mental health disorders. In the long-run, the project will address disparities in access to mental health and ensure health equity in the surrounding community and the greater state of California.

Project Description

To realize its aim, Heal One World proposes to carry out the following activities through the mental health support project to be implemented between January and December 2023:

i) Offer a variety of classes on non-traditional and complementary modalities, ranging from yoga, tai-chi, meditation, and reiki to suit a range of needs and interests

ii) Refer cases requiring more than self-healing for specialized care in low-cost mental healthcare providers in the Heal One World database

Objectives

i) To train 150 adults on self-help techniques and skills in yoga, meditation, tai-chi, and reiki by the end of 2023 to create a long-term focus on well-being of body, spirit, and mind.

ii) To refer 75 adults requiring more than self-healing for specialized care in selected low-cost mental health providers by the end of 2023

Anticipated Results

i) 100 adults successfully complete training classes and graduate with skills in yoga, meditation, tai-chi, and reiki by the end of 2023

ii) 75 adults from low-income households report improved mental health outcomes as a result of receiving specialized mental healthcare support via Heal One World’s referral program by the end of 2023

iii) 20 percent of adults who graduate from the project use the skills acquired to improve the mental health of other community members through skills transfer by the end of 2023.

Beneficiary Analysis and Involvement

The project targets 175 direct beneficiaries, who will benefit from daily classes and specialized psychiatric support for selected cases. Participants will report improved mental well-being, which will translate to improved physical health, enhanced academic and work performance, lower risks of involvement in delinquency and substance abuse, and more fulfilling social interactions. Indirectly, the project will serve approximately 1,000 individuals, assuming a three-member household for each of the direct beneficiaries, and colleagues both at work and school. The families of the participating individuals will benefit from improved social interactions and communication resulting from their enhanced mental and physical well-being. At work and school, colleagues will equally benefit from participants’ enhanced performance.

To instill a sense of ownership, participants will be encouraged to donate what they can, from as little as $1 towards the project’s sustainability. Donations will be on a voluntary basis and no one will be turned away for being unable to donate. Beneficiaries will be actively involved in the biannual evaluations that will be carried out internally in June and December 2023 to identify participants’ needs and obtain their views on project activities and ideas for future improvement. As part of the evaluation, participants will receive a questionnaire, where they will indicate their level of satisfaction with the available programs and ideas for future improvement. The insights obtained from the evaluation will be integrated into the project design in the subsequent period.

In realizing its mission, Heal One World will partner with the county department of mental health in Los Angeles, where the project is located. The county department’s mobile response teams will be crucial in identifying vulnerable cases to be enrolled into the project for mental health support. Further, the organization will partner with local low-cost mental healthcare providers, including TMS Health, the California Pacific Medical Center Counselling Clinic, and the California Institute of Integral Services Psychological Services Center to offer specialized psychiatric services for cases requiring more than self-healing.

Project Timeframe

Heal One World proposes a one-year timeline for the proposed project. We estimate that one year is sufficient time to offer training to our participants and observe the ripple effects of the project when the graduating students transfer the skills acquired to other members of the community. The project will begin by employing staff and volunteers, and marketing the project to the local community through flyers, broadcasting in local radio and television stations, and online postings via social networking sites. Since the project is already in existence, we expect to get over 30 percent of new enrolees as referrals from students who have graduated from the project in past years. As such, we project a very minimal expenditure on marketing and advertising.

To sustain the project beyond the funding period, we will rely on individual donations, which have grown by 35 percent over the last two years as the project gained popularity within the local community. Most of our individual donors are participants who have graduated in the past and their family members who have witnessed the benefits of the project first-hand. We project a steady growth in individual donations over the next few years as more students graduate from the project.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The project is guided by a four-year strategic plan running from 2021 to 2024, which provides the foundation for its annual targets, goals, and growth plan. To assess its progress in realizing expected outcomes, the project team will conduct monthly monitoring and biannual evaluation exercises in June and December every year to assess actual performance against the targets set out in the strategic plan. To assess whether the project has an impact on participants’ mental health, the project team will conduct mental health surveys using the Positive Mental Health Scale after every six months. Every two years, the project will be subjected to an external audit that will be conducted by a team of consultants to measure the effectiveness of its programs in realizing projected goals and improving mental health outcomes.

Detailed Project Budget

Currency: USD ($)

Budget 2023 to 2024

 

Human Resources

Units

Total Annual Cost (USD)

Requested from BOA Charitable Foundation (USD)

Funded from Local Sources (USD)

Gifts/Donations in Kind (USD)

Project Manager salary

Month

40,000.00

40,000.00

-

-

Accountant Salary

Month

30,000.00

30,000.00

-

-

Trainers - Salary

Month

30,000.00

30,000.00

-

-

ICT Personnel - Salary

Month

30,000.00

30,000.00

-

-

 

 

 

 

 

-

Administrative Costs

-

Rental Costs

Month

1,000.00

-

1,000.00

-

Monthly Internet Subscriptions

Month

1,000.00

-

1,000.00

-

Utilities (water, electricity)

Month

1,500.00

1,500.00

-

-

Office Supplies and Stationary

Month

300.00

300.00

-

-

Annual operating licenses

Annual

100.00

-

100.00

-

Transport costs

Month

2,500.00

2,500.00

-

-

Marketing and Advertising costs

Annual

1,000.00

1,000.00

-

-

 

 

 

 

 

-

Direct Costs

-

Fees for Specialized care in other facilities

Annual

15,000.00

15,000.00

-

-

Equipment (laptop and projector for online classes)

Annual

600.00

-

300.00

300.00

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Annual Budget

153,000.00

150,300.00

2,400.00

300.00

 

 

 

 

 

 

The total projected budget for the project for year 2023 is $153,000. Of this, we are requesting a total of $150,300 from the Bank of America Charitable foundation. $2,400 will be obtained from local funding sources, which mainly comprises of donations from individuals and grants from the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health. We have obtained an individual who pledged to donate a new laptop to aid in the delivery of online classes. The projector, which will also be used in online classes, ($300) will be funded from local sources. Rental costs are relatively low as the project operates from a property owned by one of the board members, who agreed to rent it out to Heal One World at a highly subsidized cost of $1,000.