Letter of Inquiry
Typically, the Altman Foundation uses letters of inquiry (LOIs) to learn more about organizations working in its five program areas. When openings in the Foundation’s portfolio become available, candidates that are a strong fit receive more in-depth reviews by the Foundation’s staff and, potentially, are invited to submit a full application for funding.
Given the volume of proposals in the Foundation's current pipeline, including active grantees that are eligible for renewal consideration, opportunities for new grants are limited at this time. Please note that we have modified the LOI process; only LOIs for the Health portfolio are being accepted at this time. In the upcoming period, areas of specific interest for new grantmaking are outlined below. Once you have reviewed this guidance, if you wish to submit a Letter of Inquiry, please answer our eligibility questionnaire. Regrettably, our small staff is not available to provide additional guidance about the LOIs that are not accepted for further review.
HEALTH
- Expand and strengthen quality out-of-hospital health, behavioral health, and social care for the most underserved and vulnerable populations.
- Expand access to health, behavioral health, and related social care for underserved, uninsured, or vulnerable populations or communities.
Here, a particular focus will be:
-
- Projects that aim to strengthen and sustain the resilience and capacity of NYC safety net health, behavioral health, and social service providers -- and the ability of vulnerable and/or marginalized populations to find and obtain quality, accessible health and social services and supports -- in an era of reduced federal funding and public benefits;
- Projects that aim to document the value of, help mainstream, and sustain support for ‘whole person’ and/or integrated health, behavioral health, and related social care within New York’s Medicaid and safety net health care systems; and
- Projects tackling (i) barriers to health, behavioral health, and social services (such as affordability, immigration status, and accessibility) that -- at a structural, community, or individual level -- contribute to inequity and result in health disparities or (ii) social needs such as food and housing (when determinative of health outcomes and closely linked to health care)
Full Proposal
If we have suggested that you follow your Letter of Inquiry with a full proposal or if you are a current grantee applying for renewed funding, please log in to the grant portal where you will find the related application form in the “Proposals in Progress” section. Please fill out the application and submit it with the required documents. In the application form, please select from the three types of investments most relevant to your request:
- Investments in Direct Service
In this area we support programs and projects that create human gain for people in our areas of focus. Historically, most of the grants in our portfolio have fallen into this category. - Investments in Capacity Building*
At times we believe that making an investment in an organization so that it can achieve and sustain stronger gains for those served is the best investment we can make. - Investments in Systems Change
At times we believe that the most pressing need is to make an improvement in the larger context of factors and forces that affect programs and organizations. The Foundation will consider requests for strategic policy, advocacy, and applied research initiatives that advance the Foundation's grantmaking priorities.
* Please note that if you are providing technical assistance services to other organizations, they are your clients and you should designate your request as a “direct service” application. The “capacity building” designation refers to organizations seeking to build their own internal capacity.
Additional Documents Required: All full proposals should include the items listed on the Application Checklist. We cannot review your request until all required attachments have been received.