āQ1: | āCan you speak a little to how abortion access/care will be rated in the applications? In the communities many of us serve, the right to have children safely and with bodily autonomy and ability to parent with dignity and respect are of greater concern than access to abortion. If we are focused on the needs of our communities (such as care for and prevention of miscarriage, or addressing the experience of racism in maternity care, or addressing the dearth of linguistically and culturally competent postpartum education) will these kinds of programs be rated below projects that focus on abortion?āā
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āA1:
| āPrograms
that focus on promoting reproductive justice are allowable if they satisfy the other
program requirements listed in RFA Section 2.2 Funded Program Requirements, including
the requirement to provide medically accurate, culturally congruent
reproductive and sexual health education that is inclusive of information on
abortion rights, care, and services. If education on abortion access, care, and
services is not the primary focus of the proposed program, applicants must
describe, in detail, how providing information on abortion rights, care, and
services will be included in the proposed program. Applicants must not exclude
information about abortion access, care, and services in their proposed program,
to the degree that it is relevant to the nature of the proposed activities. If
it is determined that the proposed activities are adequate in promoting
reproductive justice, the extent to which abortion is included in the proposed
program does not pose a scoring advantage or disadvantage.ā
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āQ2:
| āFor the staff resumes, should that be in the narrative or as an attachment?
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āA2:
| āPlease include staff resumes as a separate attachment.ā
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āQ3:
| āCan you please clarify the $1.5 million operational budget requirement? Can a smaller program (less than $1.5 million operational budget) apply if it operates under a larger nonprofit?ā
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āA3:
| āApplicants are the contracting entity and it is the applicantās average annual budget over the past three (3) fiscal years, inclusive of the budgets for any offices, divisions, or other bodies that are part of and subordinate to the organization, that will be assessed to determine eligibility under this requirement. The budget of a program operating in a nonprofit organization is not what will be assessed to determine eligibility under this requirement; this is distinct and separate from an independent organization that utilizes a fiscal agent/sponsor to manage aspects of its administration. When a fiscal agent/sponsor is utilized, it is the sponsee's average annual budget over the past three (3) fiscal years, inclusive of the budgets for any offices, divisions, or other bodies that are part of and subordinate to the organization, that will be assessed to determine eligibility under this requirement.ā
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āQ4:
| āCan funds be used for a new office space and new staff to grow capacity?
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āA4:
| āGrant recipients can use funds to pay for office space that is or staff who are dedicated to supporting the program. If this space or staff is not exclusively dedicated to the program, then a pro-rata share of their costs can be expensed to the program.
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āQ5:
| āQuestion on the grant amounts, is it $X amount over 3 years or $X amount every year for 3 years?
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āA5:
| āUnder the Statewide and Regional Grants RFA 23-10467, statewide program applicants will receive a total of up to $750,000 to expend in three (3) years and regional program applicants will receive a total of up to $500,000 to expend in three (3) years. Under the Local Grants RFA 23-10468, Tier 1 applicants will receive a total of less than $150,000 to expend in three (3) years and Tier 2 applicants will receive a total of between $150,000 and $500,000 to expend in three (3) years.
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āQ6:
| āOn page 12 of the Statewide and Regional Grants RFA 23-10467 it says applicants will be scored higher if they have wider geographic coverage. Can you clarify further how this will be assessed and if the shift to ātwo or moreā for the statewide service area definition may change this?
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āA6:
| āCDPH will issue an addendum to change this specification.
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āQ7:
| āWhat is the distinction between a statewide and regional program?
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āA7:
| āWhereas regional programs must primarily serve one specific region (i.e., Northern California Region, Central California Region, Southern California Region, or Los Angeles), statewide programs must primarily serve two or more of these four regions.
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āQ8:
| āFor online programs focused on one county but open access to folks throughout the state- would these be considered statewide?
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āA8:
| āUnder the Statewide and Regional Grants RFA 23-10467, applicants should consider the geographic location of the primary audience to which they are marketing their online program and decide if they should select only one of the four regions (regional) or two or more regions (statewide) as their service area based on that assessment. For example, online programs focused on only one of the four regions (or part thereof) but may be accessible to people in two or more regions could be considered regional. Applicants that propose a regional online program should demonstrate marketing and outreach is primarily limited to the region it proposes to serve. Applicants that propose a statewide online program should demonstrate marketing and outreach to two or more regions (or parts thereof).
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āQ9:
| āIn the allowable activities section, it mentions CEUs for health professionals. Is it considered a focus on one of the priority populations if these CEUs are directed towards health professionals who are not from/of the communities but serve the priority populations?
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āA9:
| āProfessional training opportunities that provide continuing education credit are allowable if they support activities that serve priority populations. The trainees need not be members of the priority population(s).
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āQ10:
| āProfessional training section mentions a number of types of health care providers, are midwives (Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) and Licensed Midwife (LM)) and doulas considered professionals that could be educated under this grant?
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āA10:
| āYes, programs that fund education for midwives (CNM and LM) and doulas are eligible if they also satisfy the program requirements under RFA Section 2.2 Funded Program Requirements.
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āQ11:
| āAre Continuing Medical Education (CME) rated higher than other types of education for providers? (E.g., education on how to become a Medi-Cal provider for doulas and midwives from priority populations)
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āA11:
| āNo, continuing education opportunities will not be differentially rated by specialty or professional type.ā
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āQ12:
| āIn terms of scoring higher for geographic reach, how will that be assessed in Los Angeles?
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āA12:
| āCDPH will issue an addendum to change this specification.
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āQ13:
| āTo clarify, we are part of a large community action "umbrella" agency that has a huge budget but does not contribute financially to our program. In fact, we pay 8% of every dollar we raise via fundraising and/or grants for administrative services such as HR, Payroll, IT, etc. In this way, we operate as an independent program and the Community Action Partnership (CAP) agency performs administrative functions only. Would we still not qualify if the agency budget is over 1.5 million but ours is not?
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āA13:
| āPlease refer to A3.
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āQ14:
| āIf youāre not a lead applicant on an application, could you possibly have an application in the Local Grants RFA 23-10468 and the Statewide and Regional Grants RFA 23-10467?
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āA14:
| āOrganizations that are partners, but not the applicant, can partner in one or more applications in both the Local Grants RFA 23-10468 and the Statewide and Regional Grants RFA 23-10467.
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āQ15:
| āI want to ensure I understand the distinction of statewide and regional: It sounds when determining if an online program is regional vs. statewide, we should look to our marketing and recruitment efforts. If we are actively recruiting and/or marketing outside of our region, then it is considered a statewide grant. If we market and recruit in our region, but also end up serving people from throughout the state, it can still be regional. Is that a correct interpretation?
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āA15:
| āYes, that is a correct interpretation. Please refer to A8.
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āQ16:
| āBack to the grant amount since it is funding over 3 years, if the organization spends through that before the 3 years are they eligible to reapply for additional funding?
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āA16:
| āNo, the State of California authorized one-time funding for this purpose and any future funding will be determined by the California budget process.
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āQ17:
| āHow will you reconcile multiple applicants with tied scores if the requests exceed your budget?
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āA17:
| āIn the case of a tie, CDPH will award to the applicant that submitted its final application first.
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āQ18:
| ā"Must have at least five (5) years of experience in providing education, resources, or services to the priority population(s) defined in RFA Section 2.3." - Our organization has only been in existence for 1 year, however our partner organization has been in existence for well over 5 years. Would this partnership qualify us as to apply?
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āA18:
| āThe applicant must meet the minimum qualifications, regardless of the experience of their partners. In this scenario, an applicant that has less than five (5) years of experience in providing education, resources, or services to the priority population(s) defined in Statewide and Regional Grants RFA 23-10467 Section 2.3 would not be eligible to apply for a regional or statewide grant.
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āQ19:
| āCan organizations providing education and outreach through CDPHās Black Infant Health program also apply for this grant?
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āA19:
| āYes, current CDPH grant recipients are not precluded from applying to the Statewide and Regional Grants RFA 23-10467 and/or Local Grants RFA 23-10468 if they satisfy the requirements outlined in the RFAs.
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āQ20:
| āWe are exploring the possibility of applying for a regional grant at an amount less than $500,000. Is that allowable? If so, then can you provide insight into how that factors into your proposal evaluation process? To illustrate my question, below is an example: Hypothetically, letās say we applied for a $250K grant at the regional level. It is the second-highest scoring application in our region, beating out several other applications, which are all at the $500K level. In this scenario, would you award us $250K based on our high score? Or would you only award us at $250K (or another amount) if you are able to award a separate $250K proposal, enabling you to expend the maximum amount of funds.
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āA20:
| āIf it is determined that the funding request is adequate to implement the proposed program, applying for less than the maximum funding amount does not pose a disadvantage.
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āQ21:
| āGiven the recent RFA releases from your office, I am reaching out to see if OHE/RFAA might have any resources related to the development of RFA, using an equity lens. [My organization] recently wrapped up its RFA process and is looking for ways to improve the next round. More specifically, we are looking at how to make the application process more accessible to applicants who may not have many resources and capacity to invest in a high-quality application. Some have funds to hire a grant writer. Some have grant writers on staff. Some have nothing. How can we make the process more inclusive and somewhat equitable given the uneven starting points among applicants?
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āA21:
| āCDPH is aware of the challenges some organizations may face in preparing competitive applications and continues to operate using an equity lens. CDPH is committed to equity in the grant making process and welcomes discussions with partners with the goal of developing strategies and resources for future solicitation.
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āQ22:
| āCan multiple organizations applying for the grant propose to partner with the same organization? For example, if two or three different 501(c)(3) orgs that are working in different areas/with different populations may want to work with [a professional organization that represents midwives in the state which is not a 501(c)(3)] to ensure their education/training is reaching midwives and/or to be able to bring midwifery expertise to their community project, would that be acceptable?
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āA22:
| āYes, applicants can share the same partners.
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āQ23:
| āCan a 501(c)(3) organization apply for itself and also be a fiscal sponsor for other projects and/or can it be a fiscal sponsor for more than one project?
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āA23:
| āAn applicant is allowed to apply for itself once and/or be a fiscal sponsor for one or more proposed programs.
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āQ24:
| āWe noticed that the reference to consultants was removed from the RFA under the Public Awareness and Marketing examples of allowable activities on page 14 of the RFA. Does this mean that consultants are not an item CDPH would like proposals to include, either for the Public Awareness/Marketing activities or any other activities?
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āA24:
| āNo, applicants can fund a wide range of external organizations and/or professionals to provide necessary technical assistance to ensure successful implementation of proposed programs.
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