Elevance Health Foundation Maternal/Infant Health Grants 2026: Historical Reference for U.S. Nonprofits Addressing Maternal and Infant Health Disparities

Elevance Health Foundation Maternal/Infant Health Grants 2026: Historical Reference for U.S. Nonprofits Addressing Maternal and Infant Health Disparities

The Elevance Health Foundation’s Maternal/Infant Health program is a substantial funding opportunity for nonprofit organizations working on measurable maternal and infant health outcomes. The official grantseeker page lists the 2026 application deadline as July 31, 2026. That date has now passed, and the same official schedule does not announce a later Maternal/Infant Health deadline. This page is therefore a historical reference, not an invitation to submit a late application or a claim that a new round is open.

The Foundation’s official Maternal/Infant Health page and its 2025 RFP remain useful for understanding the program’s structure and for preparing for any future announcement. The notes below distinguish the closed 2026 opportunity from information that may carry forward: the funding range was open, grants generally ran for one to three years, and the Foundation expected applicants to show both program fit and a credible measurement plan. Before using this page for a future application, check the Foundation’s grantseeker hub for a new RFP, deadline, application link, and any changed eligibility rules.

Key Details at a Glance

Use the table as an archive summary. It records what the Foundation published for the 2026 round; it is not a live application notice. The sections below explain the program’s focus, eligibility, award structure, evidence requirements, and the application path that applied to the closed cycle.

What the Program Funds

The Maternal/Infant Health program supports nonprofit programs that address disparities, social needs, and barriers to care throughout the pregnancy journey. The Foundation describes the scope as running from preconception support to postnatal care for mothers and babies. Its program page says the five-year commitment launched in January 2025 and takes a whole-person view of the maternal and infant health cycle, including physical, behavioral, and social needs. The RFP describes the postnatal portion as extending through 12 months after delivery.

The official goals for funded work are:

• Reducing disparities in preterm birth rates.
• Reducing disparities in severe maternal morbidity — the near-miss, life-threatening complications that disproportionately affect some communities.
• Improving maternal and infant health outcomes more broadly, including behavioral and social drivers of health.

The RFP also gives priority consideration to whole-person health, health-related social needs, culturally relevant interventions, trust-building programs, scalable solutions, and measurable outcomes. A proposal could therefore include clinical services, community-based support, workforce expansion, mobile or other non-traditional care settings, telehealth or digital tools, family-planning resources, or coordinated support around pregnancy and early infancy. The key is not the label of the intervention; it is the connection between the work, the population served, and specific outcomes the organization can track.

How Much You Can Receive

The Foundation does not publish a fixed award range for this program. Its official criteria say that grant ranges are open and that funding levels are determined using factors including the need and the plan presented to address it. The 2025 RFP adds an important budget constraint: the amount requested should be primarily limited to costs directly related to implementing the proposed program, although the request may include support for measurement, evaluation, and reporting.

The RFP describes a grant term of one to three years based on need, in 12-month increments. That makes the program potentially useful for a multi-year service or systems project, but it does not mean every applicant receives a multi-year award. A sound request should connect each budget line to implementation, explain the measurement work needed to demonstrate progress, and make the requested term match the organization’s milestones.

The Foundation’s Maternal/Infant Health page reports that it invested $30 million during 2021–2024 and awarded that funding to 46 nonprofit organizations across the country. Those historical figures describe the Foundation’s prior investment; they are not a promised allocation or award size for a future applicant. Use them as context only, and do not reverse-engineer a request from a past grantee announcement.

Who Is Eligible

The 2025 RFP provides more precise eligibility information than a general statement that a nonprofit is tax-exempt. Applicants were required to provide proof of status as a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization under one of these Internal Revenue Code categories:

• 170(b)(1)(A)(vi): organizations that receive substantial support from governmental units or the general public.
• 509(a)(2): organizations whose support is generally structured around contributions, fees, and gross receipts related to exempt purposes, within the limits described in the RFP.
• 509(a)(3): organizations operated solely for the benefit of and in conjunction with other exempt public charities, including Type I, Type II, or Type III functionally integrated organizations.

The program also considered qualified nonprofit organizations across the U.S. with an emphasis on two models: national programs promoting scalable and sustainable systemic change, and local programs implementing relevant interventions in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Texas, or Virginia. A local project outside those states would not fit the stated local emphasis merely by changing its wording; a national proposal would need a genuinely national, scalable systems rationale.

Topical fit matters just as much as tax status. The program is about maternal and infant health, disparities, social needs, and barriers to care across the pregnancy journey. General women’s health, unrelated pediatric services, or broad social services would need a clear, evidence-based connection to maternal and infant outcomes. The RFP also required clear measures and accountability standards, including key milestones, plus long-term tracking of program effectiveness and sustainable change.

Before you invest time, confirm all three of these: your tax status, your geography (national-and-scalable or in a priority state), and your topical alignment. Organizations that screen themselves honestly at this stage save the most effort.

The Application Process

The official process for the closed 2026 round was structured around the Foundation’s grantseeker page and the program RFP:

1. Review the program overview. The official Maternal/Infant Health page explains the goals, continuum of care, and geographic emphasis.
2. Download the RFP. The Foundation’s RFP specifies the eligible organization categories, grant range, term, program goals, reporting expectations, priority considerations, and submission route. It should be treated as the controlling checklist for any round to which it applies.
3. Use the grantseeker resources. The Foundation’s grantseeker hub provides a webinar for potential applicants and an FAQ resource. These are useful for understanding the process, but a future round’s RFP and application page should control if they differ.
4. Complete the online application using the official Apply link. For 2026, the grantseeker page directed applicants to an online application through the Foundation’s grants process, with the Apply link pointing to Benevity. Applicants needed to supply the information requested in the RFP and submit by the published deadline.
5. Recognize that the 2026 submission window is closed. No late-submission route or new Maternal/Infant Health deadline is announced on the official schedule reviewed for this update. An organization preparing for a future round should monitor the grantseeker hub instead of submitting through an old link or treating the archived deadline as live.

The exact application fields and supporting materials belong to the RFP and the live application form, not to this archive entry. Keep the organization’s tax-status proof, outcome data, milestone plan, implementation budget, and reporting approach ready, but confirm the required format and attachments when the Foundation publishes a new round. The 2025 RFP says successful grantees will provide semi-annual reports demonstrating progress against program-specific metrics, so reporting capacity should be part of the project design rather than an afterthought.

What Reviewers Are Looking For

A corporate health foundation reviewing maternal and infant health proposals tends to weigh a consistent set of qualities. Position your application around them:

• A clear disparity you are closing. The program is explicitly about reducing disparities. Name the specific gap — which population, which outcome (preterm birth, severe maternal morbidity, postpartum access), in which place — and back it with data.
• Evidence that your approach works. Show the model, the evidence base behind it, and any outcomes you have already achieved. Reviewers funding multi-year grants want confidence that the intervention is sound, not experimental hope.
• A credible measurement plan. Because the Foundation’s goals are framed around measurable reductions, you need defined metrics, a baseline, and a realistic method for tracking change over the grant term.
• Scale or systemic potential. For national applicants especially, articulate how the work spreads — through policy, replication, provider networks, or infrastructure — rather than staying confined to a single site.
• Reach across the continuum. Programs that connect stages (preconception, prenatal, delivery, postpartum through 12 months) or that address social and behavioral drivers alongside clinical care align well with the Foundation’s holistic framing.
• Organizational capacity. Multi-year grants go to organizations that can execute. Clean financials, relevant partnerships, and a track record all reduce the reviewer’s perceived risk.

Preparation Strategy

For the closed 2026 round, a practical preparation plan would have been:

• First: Confirm the eligible 501(c)(3) category, download the RFP, and watch the webinar. Decide whether the proposal is a national/systemic program or a local program in a priority state, and commit to that framing.
• Early: Draft your problem statement and the disparity data behind it. Line up the outcome metrics you will promise and the baseline you will measure against.
• Middle: Write the program narrative and build a defensible multi-year budget tied to the plan. If partnerships strengthen your reach or credibility, secure letters or commitments now rather than in the final week.
• Before the deadline: Proofread against the RFP checklist, confirm every required attachment is uploaded in the online application, and submit before July 31, 2026.

That preparation advice is retained for historical context. The official page does not announce a subsequent Maternal/Infant Health application date, so organizations should not assume that the Foundation will repeat the same schedule or requirements. A future announcement may change the eligible categories, locations, goals, reporting requirements, or application route.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Applying from outside the geography. Local programs must be in one of the ten priority states, or the work must be authentically national and scalable. A local project outside those states, dressed up as “national,” rarely survives review.
• Vague outcomes. “Improving maternal health” without a named disparity, population, and metric reads as unfunded good intentions. Be specific and measurable.
• Ignoring the RFP. The downloadable RFP is the real rulebook. Skipping it means missing required attachments, formats, or questions — an avoidable way to weaken an otherwise strong application.
• Anchoring on a dollar figure. The Foundation sets amounts based on need and plan. Build an honest budget rather than reverse-engineering a number from press releases.
• Last-minute submission. Portal problems near a deadline are common and preventable. Give yourself margin.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the 2026 deadline? The official grantseeker page listed July 31, 2026. That 2026 round is closed.

How much could an applicant request? The 2025 RFP described the grant range as open. It said the request should be primarily limited to direct implementation costs, with possible support for measurement, evaluation, and reporting. The stated term was one to three years in 12-month increments.

Who was eligible for the 2026 round? The RFP required proof of a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization under section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi), 509(a)(2), or 509(a)(3) as a Type I, Type II, or Type III functionally integrated organization. It also required clear measures, accountability standards, milestones, and long-term outcome tracking.

Did an applicant have to be in a specific state? The Foundation considered qualified organizations across the U.S., emphasizing national programs that promote scalable and sustainable systemic change and local programs in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia.

How did applicants apply? They reviewed the official program page, downloaded the Maternal/Infant Health RFP, used the grantseeker webinar and FAQ resources, and submitted online through the official Apply link. The 2026 page directed that link to Benevity. The 2026 window is closed, and the old deadline should not be treated as a live submission opportunity.

Has a next Maternal/Infant Health round been announced? Not on the official grantseeker schedule reviewed for this update. The Foundation says it will update that page with current RFP schedules, so a future applicant should verify the page and a new RFP before relying on this archive entry.

Official Links and Next Steps

The official sources for this archived opportunity are the Foundation’s Maternal/Infant Health program page at https://www.elevancehealth.foundation/maternal-infant-health, the grantseeker hub at https://www.elevancehealth.foundation/for-grantseekers, and the Maternal/Infant Health RFP linked from that hub. The grantseeker page is the place to check for a replacement RFP, a new application schedule, and an active Apply link.

The closed 2026 program was designed for qualified nonprofits addressing maternal and infant health disparities through work that could demonstrate specific outcomes. Its open grant range, one-to-three-year term, broad pregnancy-to-postnatal scope, and emphasis on measurable change made it relevant to organizations working in care access, social needs, workforce, family planning, postpartum support, or related systems change. The important status conclusion is simple: July 31, 2026 is the real closed-cycle deadline, no later maternal/infant date is published on the official schedule reviewed here, and any future application should wait for a new official announcement.