Futures Fund Community Health Incubator

VOA Futures Fund Community Health Incubator

Accelerating health equity through community partnerships.

Volunteers of America (VOA), one of the nation's largest and most experienced nonprofit providers of housing, healthcare and supportive services, launched this first-of-its-kind Incubator to accelerate social enterprises that improve quality, equity, and access to care for Medicaid and at-risk populations. Sponsored by the Humana Foundation, the VOA Community Health Incubator powered by SEED SPOT supports early-stage entrepreneurship that develops innovative products and services for equitable community health outcomes.

Leveraging VOA’s vast portfolio of assets – 16,000 employees, 400 communities, 22,000+ units of affordable housing, 15+ senior healthcare facilities, 2 million people served annually, hundreds of programs and service models – this 14-week program will benefit founders through expertise and collaboration with the VOA network, business training, and tailored mentorship while tackling the most challenging community health disparities. This is a fully funded opportunity with non-diluted grants and the potential follow-on investment of up to $200,000.

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Key Programmatic Highlights

Business Skills

Participants test, pilot, and scale their ventures through interactive workshops and customized mentorship from health industry experts and business leaders.

Partnerships

Participating ventures are introduced to prospective partner representatives from the Humana Foundation and Volunteers of America (VOA) network. Founders are guided through the partnership development and scoping process.

Funding

Founders receive a $15,000 non-dilutive capacity grant for participating in the Incubator. An additional $10,000 may be accessed for implementation pilots with VOA Affiliates. Graduates are eligible for follow-on investments of up to $200,000.

What to Expect

Important dates

The final application deadline is February 1, 2024.

The program will kickoff with a virtual orientation and meet and greet, April 2, 2024.

All participants must attend the Volunteers of America National Conference in D.C., May 4 through 7, 2024. Travel costs of up to $1,700 will be covered per venture.

The program runs from April 2 to October 22, 2024.

The large-scale showcase will be held on July 23, 2024.

Additional INCUBATOR OUTCOMES

Prepare for venture capital by fine-tuning your fundraising strategy with guidance from investors.

Join a community of diverse founders committed to social impact, including 900+ creating innovations in health and wellness.

Leverage a national network through lifetime Alumni Program benefits such as mentorship, funding resources, and legal support.

Develop a strategic growth plan with experts, including developing sales strategies, increasing marketing capabilities.

Multiply your impact to better support your community.

Who Should Apply

This program is designed for entrepreneurs creating innovations toward community health equity. Innovations can range from apps that provide culturally sensitive medical advice to a meal service for the elderly. Both for profit and nonprofit enterprises are supported through the Community Health Incubator.

Eligibility criteria:

The solution has reached a minimum viable product with demonstrated traction.
There is a clear value proposition for VOA partnership.
A strong preference is given to businesses able to agilely partner with VOA Affiliates in Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, or Texas.
Focus issue areas include solutions supporting seniors, veterans, youth, unhoused, and/or working in mental and behavioral health.

MEET THE 2023 COHORT

bEHR Health Systems

bEHR Health Systems is a health company that provides medical, lifestyle, and social solutions for the healthy aging of Black people.

The Cook's Nook

The Cook's Nook provides “food as medicine" with culturally relevant prepared meals designed to cost-effectively improve patient health.

Malama Health

The Malama Health app leverages data collected during pregnancy to tailor diabetes management both during pregnancy and postpartum.

Samaritan

Samaritan is a support platform, when deployed by health and human services, gets resources, such as critical utilities and housing, swiftly to the unhoused.

TrainingGrounds

At TrainingGrounds, families receive support services and resources to improve their children’s health as well as educational outcomes.

Welfie

Welfie puts community health workers in schools to deliver health education and care coordination to families on Medicaid.

SEED SPOT FOUNDERS HAVE:

Generated $399M in revenue

Raised over $122M in captital

Created more than 9,719 jobs

Participating in the Community Health Incubator helped our team learn how our solution could support healthcare partners and payors, and laid the groundwork for larger partnerships down the road. We were also able to partner with a few VOA affiliates to share our solution with their clients and communities."

- Clare Herceg, Founder/CEO, Let's Get Set

Let's Get Set, founded by Clare Herceg, supports low income families with tax return filing to maximize refunds.

About Volunteers of America Futures Fund

Launched in 2018 as a subsidiary of Volunteers of America Inc., The Futures Fund is a social impact investment fund that supports the development and expansion of high impact health, housing, and social service models and enterprises within Volunteers of America and as joint-venture partnerships with external community health entrepreneurs.

The Futures Fund provides catalytic capital, training, and coaching to test new ideas, launch social enterprises, and expand successful service lines that improve the social determinants of health.

To date, VOA’s Futures Fund has invested over $3.1M in a portfolio that spans 40 communities in 22 states, in six key domain areas: Early childhood development, Healthcare, Youth, Food Security, Economic Empowerment, and Housing Stability.

Check out the VOA Advisory Board!