The Healthy Communities Challenge provides a flexible opportunity for resident-led and resident-engaged projects that promote healthier Kansas communities. Please note: Healthy Communities Challenge match funding may be used for projects aimed at mitigating or responding to the impacts of COVID-19 in your community. Please see examples of eligible projects below.

To access matching funds, your project must:

1. Be led by or be implemented in partnership with residents of the Kansas community the project serves. We welcome ideas from any leader of a local project that is aimed at improving health outcomes or responding to the impacts of COVID-19 in their Kansas community. We strongly encourage project ideas from those who are engaged with any Kansas public health initiative, including the following program partners:

• Kansas Health Foundation's Healthy Communities Initiative (HCI)
• Blue Cross Blue Shield's Pathways to a Healthy Kansas
• Kansas Department of Health Chronic Disease Risk Reduction (CDRR) grantees

2. Be focused on improving quality of life in your community (See eligible project examples below.)

3. Not be aimed at making private profit for a specific individual, family, or business entity.

4. Begin implementation by Fall 2020 at latest. It is a best practice in crowdfunding to raise funds for projects that will then use the funding within the following 3 months. So crowdfunding now in Spring or Summer 2020 should be for Summer or Fall impact.

5. Be specific and concrete. All ioby campaign pages must include a budget outlining how funds will be spent.

6. Projects may be led my informal groups of residents, local nonprofits, community based organizations, schools, places of worship, or municipal staff. Informal groups will be asked to identify a local fiscal sponsor nonprofit, or ioby can serve as the fiscal sponsor.

Eligible Expenses:

Funds raised as part of the Healthy Communities Challenge can be used to cover any cost directly related to your specific project, including, and not limited to:

- food and other event costs

- event permitting fees

- volunteer rewards such as T-shirts

- advertising and marketing

- materials and equipment

- educator, performer, speaker or intern stipends

- local travel

- software and hardware

- contracted services

- consultant fees

- nonprofit staff salaries and administrative overhead

Examples of eligible projects:

COVID-19 Response - Projects that help your community respond to and recover from the impacts of COVID-19, such as:

-Support for local charitable institutions (soup kitchen, food bank, senior center, etc) experiencing increased demand. 
-Educational events and materials to provide accurate COVID-19 information in your community. 
-Providing new online events or services that fight isolation, help neighbors connect, and lift spirits in your community.
-Providing new local initiatives that support vulnerable community members with food deliveries, child care support, etc. 
-Covering unexpected, COVID-19 related costs for your nonprofit or community-based organization, such as: 

• Technology needed to continue your work virtually.
• Expenses related to rescheduling events.
• Mileage or taxi reimbursements for staff and volunteers avoiding public transit.
• Additional supplies (masks, disposable gloves, cleaning supplies, etc) needed to provide services more safely.

Food - Projects that promote food justice, or improve the production, distribution, affordability or popularity of healthy food in your area, such as:

- Community gardens

- Farmers markets

- Healthy cooking classes for the community

- Kitchen facility upgrades in a community facility

- Soup kitchens and food security programs

- School gardens or school-based nutrition education programs

- Improving access to grocery stores

Active transportation and recreation - Projects that help to make your neighborhood more bikeable and walkable, or encourage people to choose active transportation and recreation, such as:

- Bike safety workshops and helmet giveaways

- Pedestrian and bicycle safety advocacy work

- Youth fitness programs and extracurricular sports activities

- Free exercise classes offered in a community space

- Community walking or running groups

- Free or affordable dance classes

- Active-living amenities such as exercise equipment in parks, new walking trails, improved lighting or signage along existing trails.

Green space - Projects that make your community greener through caring for parks, gardens, or street trees, or encourage resident use of and engagement with green spaces, such as:.

- Improving park playgrounds

- Free yoga or exercise classes in a park

- Planting new street trees

- Park clean-up days

- Community events held in parks or gardens

- Converting a vacant lot into a community garden or pocket park

Education and access - Projects that educate your neighbors about health and wellness, increase access to and understanding of health services, or encourage adoption of healthy lifestyle choices, such as:

- Block parties with free health tests and disease prevention information

- Awareness-building events about a specific disease

- Reproductive health initiatives or education programs

- Anti-violence work

- Programs that support those managing chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma

- Community organizing initiatives focused on health equity

- Anti-smoking campaigns

- Emergency preparedness initiatives

- Aging-in-place initiatives

Examples of ineligible projects:

- Events limited to the membership of a specific organization that are not reasonably accessible to community residents.

- Fundraising for a pool of funds to be re-granted to others or used for an unspecified purpose in the future.

- COVID-19 related campaigns that benefit one specific individual, family, or business.

Want to discuss your project and see if it’s a good fit? Contact ioby Partnerships Manager Ethany Uttech at ethany@ioby.org or 917-464-4515 x 5.

If your project isn’t the right fit for the Healthy Communities Challenge, you may still be eligible to fundraise on ioby without matching funds, which will still give you access to our training materials, low-fees, fiscal sponsorship, and one-on-one support from an experienced Leader Success Strategist.