Tri-Counties Blood Bank Fund Grant Guidelines

Request for Proposal Guidelines

In August 1997, Tri-Counties Blood Bank (TCBB), a nonprofit public benefit corporation, sold all of its assets to Haemonetics Corporation, a Massachusetts for-profit corporation. In accordance with the California Corporation Code, after payment of liabilities and expenses, the remaining TCBB funds were transferred to the Santa Barbara Foundation, the San Luis Obispo Community Health Foundation, and the Monterey Community Foundation.

In July 1998, the Santa Barbara Foundation (the Foundation) entered into an agreement with TCBB to establish the Tri-Counties Blood Bank Fund (the Fund). Valued at nearly $5 million, it is now part of the Foundation’s restricted funds. Through an annual Request for Proposal (RFP) process, the Foundation will distribute the income generated from the Fund to qualified nonprofit organizations. The Fund is restricted to activities that support blood and blood-related products and services in accordance with the plan of disposition.

The plan of disposition is divided into three distinct sections. This RFP covers the implementation of Indigent Care Grants, Education Grants, and Scholarships as prescribed by the plan.

 

Funding Amounts and Duration

The proposal amount varies upon the nature of the request. The grant period is up to one year from the award date. A final report is required and due within 13 months of the grant award, preferably no later than 30 days following the project completion.

 

Eligibility Requirements
  • Organizations must be certified as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or use a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)(3) tax status. Applications that do not contain a valid EIN (tax ID) number will not be considered. Organizations using a fiscal sponsor must include a one-page letter signed by the fiscal sponsor’s executive director signifying the intent to serve as such and describing the relationship between the fiscal sponsor and the sponsored organization.
  • Hospitals operated by the federal government (i.e., veterans administration hospitals) and facilities operated by the State of California (i.e., hospitals operated by the Department of Corrections) are not eligible to apply.
  • The geographic service area for the Fund is Santa Barbara County.
  • Qualified applicants may apply for an Indigent Care Grant, Education Grant, and/or Scholarship. If you are applying in more than one category, separate applications are required for each.

 

Types of Support

This RFP covers the implementation of Indigent Care Grants, Education Grants, and Scholarships as prescribed by the plan and described as follows:

Section A:  Indigent Care Grants
Purpose of Section A

To reimburse “qualified hospitals” for “un-reimbursed costs” directly related to providing blood or blood products to “qualified patients” within Santa Barbara County.

Definitions for Section A
  1. “Qualified hospitals” are hospitals with one or more licensed acute care facilities in the county that are organized as nonprofit public benefit corporations under the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Law, or as nonprofit corporations under the laws of another state, and that are described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The term “qualified hospitals” does not include hospitals operated by the federal government, such as veterans administration hospitals, and it does not include facilities operated by the State of California, such as hospitals operated by the Department of Corrections or the Department of Health Services. Please note: A qualified hospital may not request reimbursement for more than the purchase price of blood and blood products. Only direct costs are reimbursable and must be separated from indirect costs. Applications that “bundle” charges related to providing blood and blood products to qualified patients will NOT be accepted.
  2. “Qualified patient” is a patient in a qualified hospital who is not covered by any form of private or government insurance whose income is 200% or less of the federal poverty line.
  3. “Unreimbursed costs” are the qualified hospital’s direct cost of obtaining blood and blood products from a blood bank (i.e., the amount the qualified hospital actually pays to the blood bank for the blood or blood products), without regard to what the hospital charges its patients or their insurers for blood or blood products, and without regard to any expenses of the qualified hospital, including storage, handling, administrative fees, testing, etc.
Application Procedures for Section A: Indigent Care Grants

The application will consist of the required components:

  1. A narrative question on the online application which will include:
    • The amount requested.
    • How the amount was determined. (The total amount requested for funding must be based on prior-year statistics and records on un-reimbursed costs.)
    • The number of qualified patients represented by the request.
    • The percentage that blood and blood products represent of the hospital’s total costs, and the percentage that blood and blood products represent of the hospital’s un-reimbursed costs.
  2. Scanned copies of the invoices from the county blood bank for the qualified patient(s) under your care for whom you seek reimbursement. In order to ensure patient confidentiality, please eliminate any information that would identify the patient(s).
  3. To be considered “qualified,” the patient must have no private or public health coverage and be ineligible for coverage under Medicare, MediCal, the County Adult Indigent Care Program, or any other existing public insurance program.

 

Section B:  Education Grants and Scholarships
Education grants are intended for:
  1. Advanced education in medical technology or nursing related to blood banking. This supports any relevant training that could improve blood banking or the ability of hospital staff to work with the National Blood Foundation. It covers the full range of continuing education options, including in-service training.
  2. Physician education on techniques and development of transfusion medicine. This covers the full range of enrichment and continuing education options including in-service training.
  1. Community education on blood and blood diseases. This covers continuing education of medical practitioners as well as broad-based education targeting the general population.  For example, community education might include the following: educating school-age children about blood and blood-borne diseases; conducting broad-based educational programs to reach the community-at-large in the event of a critical shortage of blood; the dissemination of new information to the community concerning a blood-borne disease.
Scholarships are intended for:
  1. Post-doctoral education in a non-medical discipline related to blood and blood banking. This program is only available to post-doctoral candidates enrolled at UCSB in departments such as, but not limited to, Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology; Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
  2. Medical education in the specialties of hematology/oncology.

Important Notes for Section B:  Education Grants and Scholarships

  • The Foundation strongly encourages cooperation and joint partnerships among and between hospitals, clinics, the county medical society, professional associations, and Blood Systems, Inc. (the local blood bank) in the implementation of the above educational grants.
  • Applications must reflect an understanding and analysis of the needs and interests of practitioners as well as current issues and emerging blood banking technologies in the field.
Application Procedures for Section B:  Education Grants and Scholarships

The application will consist of the required components:

  1. A narrative question on the online application which should address the following:
    • Describe the training/educational need and how that need was identified.
    • Describe the target population.
    • Describe the proposed provider of the training/educational activity.
    • Describe how the proposed activity will do any or all of the following:
      • Enhance existing training/education opportunities for medical professionals in blood diseases and/or the provision of blood and blood products.
      • Improve existing blood banking technology.
      • Improve blood banking in the service area.
    • Describe the project timeline.
    • List the cooperating partners in the project and explain the relationship if applicable.
    • Describe past and current success if this is an ongoing project.
  2. Organizational Financial Summary and Project Budget PDF forms are included in this packet.
  3. One scanned copy of the brochure or flyer for the agency providing the training/educational activity.

 

 

Important Dates
August 30, 2024 Application Deadline
Mid-September, 2024 Funds Awarded
October 2025 Online Final Report Deadline

Application Process

The 2024 Tri-Counties Blood Bank Fund Grant program utilizes an online application. Please follow the instructions below to access, complete and submit your application to the foundation.

  • The Santa Barbara Foundation has switched its grants management system to SmartSimple. Please follow the instructions below on accessing, completing, and submitting your application to the foundation.

To Access the SmartSimple Platform

  1. Visit the Santa Barbara Foundations online platform
  2. On the Santa Barbara Foundation SmartSimple platform landing page, on the bottom right, please click on “Register.”
    You will be asked to choose from 3 different entities:

    • Nonprofit
    • Fiscally Sponsored Entity
    • For Profit
  3. After identifying which entity fits your organization, you will be asked to provide some general information about yourself and your organization (If your organization is not found, please use the “click here to add a new organization” link in the instruction box to add manually).
  4. The initial staff contact is the first authorized representative to register and associate their profile account on behalf of an organization. This individual will also be responsible for providing accurate information in the organization profile and updating this information annually. They will also receive email notifications from the platform. Additional organizational contacts can also register and access applications on behalf of an organization already in the system. These additional users will follow the same registration process as the initial organization contact. The system will conduct a duplicate check and associate the user with the existing organization.
  5. You will receive a welcome email confirming that your registration is active. Please click the link included in the email to create a password. After creating your password, you can now access the platform to establish your Organization Profile.
  6. On the top right hand corner you will see the initial of the first name that you registered under. Please click there and a drop-down menu will open. Please select “Organization Profile.” You will be directed to a page with four separate tabs, General, Organization Information, Capacity Building, and Board Information. You will need to answer all mandatory fields in order to access the available grant applications on the platform.

PLEASE NOTE: Once an organization is registered and a profile has been created for a fiscally sponsored organization, please allow up to 24 hours (one business day) for approval to access available applications in the platform.

Contact Information

For questions about the Tri-Counties Blood Bank Fund, please contact De Vallejo, Grants Officer, at (805) 963-1873 or dvallejo@sbfoundation.org.