VNA Foundation awards grants to support nonprofit organizations that provide home- and community-based health services to medically underserved populations. Priority will be given to organizations with operating budgets of $30,000,000 or less.

The majority of our grants are made to organizations serving Cook County. Our extremely limited funds mean that, at present, we are generally unable to fund in DuPage Lake, McHenry, Kane, and Will counties except under special circumstances.

As the successor organization to the Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago, we appreciate programs in which care is provided by nurses; however we consider funding programs utilizing any appropriate staffing structure. We approve and disburse grants 4 times per year. 

We will consider funding program, operating, and capital grants, including indirect costs and salaries that support core staff. Generally, only grant requests of $40,000 or more will be considered, unless smaller grants are required due to organization size or other identifiable factors. We prefer that the requested grant amounts be rounded to the nearest $500. For more information about our funding guidelines, visit our FAQ page.

Please note VNA Foundation is pausing its acceptance of unsolicited LOIs for FY 2027 as we update our procedures (July 2026 – June 2027). We will share an update about the grantmaking process for FY 2028 on or before May 1, 2027.