HEALTH FORWARD FOUNDATION CAPACITY GRANT APPLICATION

Essential Families - Economic Mobility Program
$100,000 Capacity Building Grant Request

1. How does your current work align with Health Forward's purposes or strategies? Describe your proposed activities advance the goals of this purpose area.

Essential Families' Economic Mobility Program advances Health Forward's Power purpose area by strengthening community-based organizations and redistributing power to communities of color experiencing health inequities.

We've served 665 households and are on track for 851 by November 15, 2025, through City of Kansas City Digital Equity Office and Health Forward funding, serving predominantly Black (68%), Latino (18%), and immigrant/refugee (8%) families across urban and rural communities.

This $100,000 capacity grant advances:
• Multilingual AI Meeting Intelligence with NoW Video Real-Time Translation ($35,000) deploying AI-powered real-time translation in Spanish, Swahili, and Arabic while establishing subscription-based services (Starter $39/month, Professional $99/month, Enterprise $199/month) extending technology to 34 community partners.

• Grantor, Donor, Digital Case Manager, and Client Real-Time Impact Dashboard ($40,000) displaying Community ROI via Urban Institute's Upward Mobility Framework with 24 predictors showing 4.88:1 Social Return on Investment.

• New Year's Gala Fundraiser ($25,000) establishing sustainable donor revenue while creating collaborative fundraising benefiting our partner ecosystem.

These activities strengthen organizational effectiveness, fiscal capacity, and regional collaboration—Health Forward's core outcomes.

2. How will this project increase your organization's strength, fiscal capacity, or leadership effectiveness? Include how projects might strengthen collaborations, networks, or partnership in your region.

This project transforms Essential Families' infrastructure while positioning us as backbone organization for Kansas City's economic mobility ecosystem.

Enhanced Operational Efficiency
NoW Video AI integration automates meeting documentation with real-time translation, reducing administrative burden by 12 hours weekly per manager and eliminating $8,000 annual interpretation costs. As we scale to 851 households serving urban and rural communities, automated documentation maintains service quality without proportional staff increases. This extends to 34 partners including Full Employment Council, Habitat for Humanity KC, Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, and Legal Aid of Western Missouri.

Supporting Digital Case Managers Through Three-Month Engagement
The capacity grant strengthens our Digital Case Manager model, where case managers maintain continuous relationships with families for 3 months. This extended engagement enables families to navigate complex systems spanning workforce development, housing, healthcare, and education across our 34-partner network.

NoW Video Multilingual AI ($35,000) enables Digital Case Managers working with non-English speaking families (42% of households) to provide real-time translated support throughout the 3-month relationship. Case managers can conduct intake, coaching, and follow-up in Spanish, Swahili, and Arabic without delays—critical for time-sensitive crises like evictions or job loss.

Real-Time Impact Dashboard ($40,000) allows case managers to monitor family progress against 24 Urban Institute predictors throughout the 3-month relationship. Case managers can identify when families fall behind on mobility indicators and immediately adjust strategies or activate partner referrals, ensuring maximum impact.

New Year's Eve Gala ($25,000) generates sustainable revenue enabling continued case manager staffing. The Participant-Directed Fund ($5,000 net proceeds allocated by Family Advisory Council) provides case managers flexible emergency assistance for immediate barriers like car repairs or GED fees.

Strengthened Fiscal Capacity
Current January-October 2025 revenue demonstrates balanced but grant-dependent composition: Grants/Contracts ($663,305, 87.7%), Donations ($83,559.58, 11%), Carrie AI Agent Income ($5,643, 0.7%), T-Mobile Income ($3,920, 0.5%), totaling $756,427.58.

Transformative Revenue Model
NoW Video translation subscription establishes recurring revenue tapping $5.2 billion global real-time video translation market growing at 11.5% annually. Conservative projections with 50 organizations subscribing generate $5,550 monthly revenue ($66,600 annually).

Scaling to 200 subscribers within 24 months projects $266,400 annual recurring revenue—reducing grant dependency to 71% while providing unrestricted funding for innovation and advocacy.

Network Capacity Building
Offering dashboard access and multilingual technology to 34 partners elevates collective regional capacity and enables network-level outcome presentation for collaborative funding. This positions our ecosystem for multi-million-dollar regional grants requiring sophisticated collaborative infrastructure.