2025 Oral Health Impact Grants

Application Information

Does your organization support the oral health of people in Washington state from under invested in and underserved populations? You may be eligible for one of our 2025 oral health impact grants for up to $75,000.

The projects should do one of the following:

  • Support or increase access to culturally responsive dental care.*
  • Increase water consumption (fluoridated water if possible), decrease consumption of sugary beverages, or promote access to healthy food.

Application due date: Oct. 10, 2025, 5 p.m. PST.

Information session: Sept. 17, noon-1 p.m.

Focus populations: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, rural communities, and other populations experiencing health disparities.  

Funding available: Arcora Foundation has $500,000 in funding available. You can request up to $75,000 per project.  

Evaluation criteria:  

  • Population served. (6 points)
  • Organization’s leadership demographics reflects the communities that the project will serve. (3 points)
  • Projects’ alignment with Arcora Foundation’s Oral Health Impact grant priorities (support or increase access to culturally responsive dental care; promote and increase access to healthy food—and if possible, fluoridated water). (3 points)
  • Project’s impact—project milestones and budget should be clearly aligned. (5 points)

Eligibility:

  • Project grant funding is limited to projects with an impact in Washington state.   
  • Applicants must be tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or similar status, including tribal organizations.
  • Funding is for projects that take place in the 2026 calendar year.
  • One application per organization.

*Culturally appropriate dental care is defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as care that respects diversity in the patient population and cultural factors that can affect health and health care, such as language, communication styles, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. 

Example Projects

These examples are not meant to limit your creativity.

Support or increase access to culturally responsive dental care.

Examples:

  • Implement motivational interviewing in a dental practice to increase patient/provider communication, patient/provider satisfaction, and the delivery of culturally appropriate care.
  • Develop, implement, and/or enhance a community health worker program that addresses oral health and connects people with culturally appropriate care. 
  • Implement or expand care coordination services to address barriers to care—for example, transportation, childcare, access to specialists, etc.
  • Develop and implement a community-led campaign to decrease the type/number of sugary beverages young children consume regularly. 

 Promote and increase access to healthy food (and if possible, fluoridated water).

Examples:

  • Develop and implement resources for immigrant families to identify traditional foods from their culture(s) that are healthy and supporting families in obtaining them.
  • Partner with patients/families to support their access to healthy food—bringing vendors/food to the community or supporting people in identifying easy ways to travel to locations that provide healthy foods. If possible, also promote drinking water (fluoridated, if available in the community) instead of sugary beverages.

(NOTE: Arcora Foundation funding cannot be used to pay dental providers for individual dental care or treatment – for example, uncompensated/free care or co-pays. Additionally, in some instances we may choose to fund a project at a lesser amount than initially requested.)

Apply for an Oral Health Impact Grant

Please read the Instructions for Oral Health Impact Grant Application Submission. Complete and submit the grant application form at the bottom of the page. At the end of the grant application, you’ll see prompts to upload the Oral Health Impact Project Budget Support and Timeline Template. You can find the template in the additional links section below. Upon a positive funding decision, we will ask you to sign a grant agreement, and fill out a W-9 and ACH Form.

Additional Links:

If you have submission questions, please refer to the instructions above or email Heather Knaplund at hknaplund@arcorafoundation.org.

If you have problems with account set-up or other technical issues please refer to the instructions above or email, arcora-it@arcorafoundation.org.

Start the Application