HWPP has been established for perpetuity. RFPs will be issued approximately every 12-15 months.

The process for requesting and receiving funding from HWPP may take up to nine months to complete. The timeline begins at the due date of all Letters of Intent, which occurs once per funding cycle. Following acceptance of your Letter of Intent, you may be invited to submit a full proposal. All proposals are then carefully reviewed through a layered process that may last approximately three months. Proposals that are awarded funding, are then provided appropriate time to finalize the funding agreements and Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval prior to project commencement.

Development Awards are available for a maximum duration is two (2) years and direct cost budgets are generally $50,000 to $200,000 with a maximum award amount of $200,000 over the life of the award. New partnerships as well as previously and currently funded community-MCW academic partnerships are eligible to apply for awards to build synergy and strength around the development of a pilot project aimed at testing or demonstrating the feasibility of an idea. Activities may include the creation of a strategic plan, action plan, or planning and/or community needs assessment activities related to the development of a project or program or smaller implementation projects.

Impact Awards are only available to established community-MCW academic partnerships for up to 5-year awards to support expansion of their community-MCW academic partnership project with the implementation of a health promotion or health-related prevention project and/or program. The maximum duration is five (5) years, and direct cost budgets are generally $200,000 to $750,000 with a maximum award amount of $750,000 over the life of the award. Applicants must clearly demonstrate measurable outcomes from their prior partnership project(s) and how new funding will expand the scope and impact of their partnership. Project activities should include capacity building strategies, evaluation, dissemination and translation of successful project results.

It is acceptable for your project to have varying timelines and for your budget to fluctuate accordingly. The key is that the budget and timeline be designed to fit the needs described in the proposal. Propose what's right for your project.

Letters of Intent are required for all requests for funding. Letters of Intent (LOI) must be submitted to HWPP on or before the designated due date for each funding cycle. Only the designated forms, available on the program website, will be accepted.  The MCW Consortium will review eligible LOIs for fit with the MCW Consortium’s Principles of Stewardship and the program’s core components. A limited number of applicants whose LOIs best fit with the program’s core components will be invited to submit full proposals. Expression of interest in a project should not be construed as an indication of funding or grant approval.

All proposals must be submitted and implemented by community - Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) academic partnerships consisting of Wisconsin partners, in Wisconsin communities, for the benefit of Wisconsin residents. Eligible community partners are non-profit organizations and public organizations including:

- state and local governments

- voluntary associations

- civic groups

- foundation

- scientific or professional associations

- universities

- schools

- technical colleges

- citizen groups

- religious organizations

- healthcare organizations

- federally-recognized Indian tribal governments

- Indian tribes

- Indian tribal organizations

Eligible MCW academic partners include:
Full-time, part-time or full-professional effort status MCW faculty members (considered eligible MCW Principal Investigators - PI); and, full-time MCW academic staff with a minimum of a Master’s Degree in public health or a related field and relevant experience working with communities. The staff person may serve as the Primary MCW Academic Partner; however, an eligible MCW PI must approve the MCW staff person’s participation and provide oversight of this staff person throughout the lifecycle of the award.

Additional MCW academic partners may be involved in a range of activities dependent on the project design and partnership structure. Additional MCW partners may include other faculty, staff and students from multiple MCW departments.

Yes, but it is recommended that you choose your best projects and submitting your strongest proposals. The review process is competitive and, given limited funding, only the most meritorious projects will be successful.

After you have received an invitation to submit a full proposal, you may make slight changes for purposes of clarification to the information previously submitted through your Letter of Intent.

No, it is not required, but it is entirely possible that the total cost of your project might exceed the amount that you are asking for from HWPP. If matching and / or in-kind funds are provided, an explanation in the budget narrative should clarify how those funds will be used to supplement or leverage HWPP funding.  Matching funds may include other third-party grant or contract funding, fees-for-service, in-kind service contributions or volunteer time. Please note that HWPP funds must not replace existing or matched funds.

Funds can only be used for direct, project-related expenses. Funds may NOT be used for: indirect expenses; debt reduction; capital expenditures costing $3,000 or more with a useful life of two years or more (exceptions may be made for capital expenditures if such equipment is crucial to the primary objectives of the project); supplanting; projects outside of the state of Wisconsin; reimbursement of clinical service delivery, unless the service is a direct and necessary component of the broader project; and lobbying.

The RFP clearly restricts funding to projects that involve lobbying-related activities.  These are defined as any attempt to influence local, state or federal legislation or administrative action including providing information on MCW research or HWPP projects.  Costs associated with lobbying efforts not allowable with HWPP funding include lobbying to attempt to influence specific legislation.  For further information, visit the Wisconsin State Ethics Board website.

It is acceptable for your project to have a fluctuating budget according to your timeline. For example, you many anticipate higher start-up costs in year one, with lower program maintenance costs in years two and three. The key is that the budget be designed to fit the needs described in the proposal. Your Budget Narrative, a required piece of submission, should clearly explain changes from year to year.

No, the Health Improvement Priorities are designed to integrate three approaches to improving the health of Wisconsin residents.  Each approach contains a variety of potential project focus areas that have been developed using broad public input as well as a number of significant health assessments including Healthy People 2020 (the national health plan), Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 (the state health plan) and Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (MCW's Five-Year Plan for the endowment funds).

No, the full proposal process does not require projects to submit a project-specific logic model. However, projects may find it helpful to develop their own logic model to guide project planning, implementation, and evaluation and also to facilitate communication about their project. Although projects are not required to submit a logic model, each project is required to clearly demonstrate how the project’s activities and outcomes connect with the activities and outcomes documented in the HWPP Program Evaluation Model found in the RFP through the development of a project workplan.

Yes. Through the full proposal process, projects are required to connect their proposed efforts to each of the overall activities and outcomes of HWPP. This will allow HWPP to ensure that it funds projects that are in alignment with the intended outcomes of the HWPP funding initiative. It will also enable HWPP to describe the overall outcomes of all its funded projects taken together. As a result, projects must identify at least one project objective/activity/measurement plan for each of the HWPP activities and outcomes. 

Yes. In the full proposal, projects may identify as many objectives/activities as are relevant for each activity or outcome found in the Program Evaluation Model. However, each objective/activity identified must include a corresponding measurement plan and funded projects will be expected to report on each objective/activity identified in their application.

If applicants believe it is appropriate to do so, they may choose to apply a particular objective/activity to more than one of the activities or outcomes found in the Program Evaluation Model. The determination of whether or not this is acceptable will be made through the merit review process. As a result, it is recommended that projects provide a compelling rationale for choosing to apply an objective/activity to more than one of HWPP’s activities and outcomes. 

It is recommended that measurement plans be developed in partnership with the project’s primary academic partner. The measurement plan should be tied directly to the listed objective and be designed to document progress towards attaining that objective. Measurement plans may include the collection of quantitative (numeric) and/or qualitative (descriptive) data. Examples of measurement strategies include: document review, questionnaires or surveys, key informant interviews, focus groups, and direct observation. The determination of whether or not the measurement plans are acceptable will be made through the merit review process.

It is entirely appropriate to incorporate changes into a previously submitted proposal based on recommendations received from past reviewers.  There is no advantage nor disadvantage given to proposal re-submissions.

The review process for HWPP funding is a highly competitive process that includes a detailed, multi-level, qualitative and quantitative assessment. Both Letters of Intent and Full Proposals are reviewed by staff and the Consortium. A numeric score is assigned to proposals, complemented by discussion and critique at each level of the review process.  Full proposals are also reviewed by out-of-state national merit reviewers who are selected based upon experience in public and community health, community-based partnerships, academic-based programs, and the review/outcome evaluation process of proposals. They are matched to proposals based on their general expertise. Proposals are all individually reviewed and ranked; the highest ranked proposals are advanced to the MCW Consortium, along with the reviewer evaluations. Principles of Stewardship are taken into close consideration by the Consortium before they advance their determinations to the MCW Board of Trustees, for final funding decisions. Projects funded by HWPP are those that rank high in both qualitative and quantitative measures and reflect the MCW Consortium’s Principles of Stewardship and the program’s core components.

Grants & Contracts (eBridge) registration and approval is the responsibility of the MCW Principal Investigator. Completion of an eBridge Funding Proposal is an MCW internal process that is required for all funding requests. Just as community organizations must follow an internal review and approval process, all MCW Investigators must also secure appropriate internal reviews and approvals. eBridge allows MCW faculty and research staff to submit, track, report and archive applications involving funding proposals as well as human subject research conducted at MCW. For MCW Institutional Review Boards (IRB), this site enables effective management of federal and local regulatory requirements by monitoring the flow of information and the associated activities and tasks for all submissions. 

HWPP has dedicated staff and website resources to ensuring that applicants are equipped with the technical assistance needed to submit a proposal. In addition to attending an information session following the release of the RFP, it is also suggested to use the Helpful Links webpage for web-based resources. Please also contact staff directly with any questions: 414-456-4350 or healthierwisconsin@mcw.edu.