EHDI 2023 Evaluation Capacity Building RFP Questions and Answers
Topics:
General
Funding and project dates
Eligible applicants
Grant tasks and deliverables
Eligible and ineligible expenses
Review and selection process
Application submission and instructions
General
Question: Of the approximately 30 EHDI grantees that have been funded for the 2023-2027 grant period, about how many are new and how many have been previously funded?
Answer: Nine of the grantees would be considered new to this EHDI grant cycle.
Note: The Minnesota State Legislature established the Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative (EHDI) in 2001, so it’s possible that the nine new grantees were funded at some point during EHDI’s history. We consider them new if they have never received EHDI funds or have not received the funds within the past 10 years.
Question: I am seeking clarification regarding the following statement from the RFP: “EHDI Grants 2019-2023: Current Cycle Final funding decisions for the 2023-2027 EHDI grants were made in April 2023 based on recommendations of Review Panels comprised of community members with content expertise. All applicants were immediately notified.”
Does this mean that you are no longer accepting application for the following grant: Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative Request for Proposals: 2023 Evaluation Capacity Building Grant - MN Dept. of Health?
Answer: MDH is accepting applications for the 2023 Evaluation Capacity Building Grant through June 9, 2023 (until 11:59 p.m. CDT).
The approximately 30 community organizations awarded 2023-2027 EHDI grants have been notified; these grantees are pursuing equity-related work in their communities. (They will begin their work July 1, 2023 or when their grant agreement is fully executed, whichever is later.)
The organization(s) chosen for the Evaluation Capacity Building Grant will begin their work October 1, 2023 or when the grant agreement is fully executed, whichever is later. The Evaluation Capacity Building grantee(s) will work in partnership to provide evaluation capacity building support for the approximately 30 grantees pursuing equity-related work in their communities.
Question: Have the grantees for the 2023-2027 EHDI already been selected? If yes, can you share who they are? And can you share the breakdown of what percentage or # of grantees fall into each of the Priority Health Areas?
Answer: Yes, the grantees for the 2023-2027 EHDI grant cycle have been selected.
Final funding decisions were made based on community recommendations in April 2023 and applicants were immediately notified. State law prohibits the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) from sharing the names of those selected for funding until we have completed negotiating all grant agreements. We expect to share the names of those selected for funding in July 2023. When it becomes available, a list of those selected for funding will be posted on 2022 Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative Request for Proposals.
While MDH cannot share any data related to the upcoming 2023-2027 EHDI grantees, we invite you to view the list and Priority Health Area (PHA) of the current 2019-2023 EHDI grantees: EHDI Grantees 2019-2023 (PDF).
Funding and project dates
Question: Is MDH awarding only two awards for this grant? How many will be awarded?
Answer: MDH will likely award this grant to one or two applicants. The organization(s) receiving funds will provide technical evaluation assistance to a cohort of EHDI community grantees. You can read more about the funding (page 10), grant tasks and deliverables (page 15) and the scope of work (pages 16 and 17) in the Request for Proposals (RFP) document (PDF).
Eligible applicants
Question: Our non-profit organization has a program division and a research division. One of the programs in the program division was recently notified that they were awarded an EHDI grant. Is the research division still eligible to apply for the evaluation capacity building grant?
Answer: Yes, the research division would be eligible to apply. If awarded the grant, MDH would engage in conversations with the organization and create a written plan to minimize risks around any real or perceived conflicts of interest related to this.
Question: Can you confirm that an organization does not need to be an EHDI grantee in order to be eligible to serve in the evaluation capacity building role?
Answer: No, an organization does not need to be an EHDI grantee in order to serve in the evaluation capacity building role.
Question: The Grant RFP states that MDH policy caps indirect costs at either a grantee’s federally negotiated rate or at 10 percent. And the budget spreadsheet has us lay out personnel costs by salary and fringe. As a private, for-profit consulting firm, we invoice our clients based on our fully loaded hourly consulting rate that includes salaries, fringe, and overhead costs. And we only charge for personnel time/hours that is spent directly on the project using that fully loaded hourly rate. May we simply include these hourly rates in breaking down our budget?
Answer: Yes, you may incorporate these loaded hourly rates into your budget. In the event that your organization is awarded this grant funding, the Center for Health Equity (CHE) may require your organization to provide a more detailed breakdown of these rates to ensure that your organization does not receive an indirect amount that exceeds the allowable limit.
Question: Hello, are small business eligible to apply? We are CERT certified - women, minority, small business. Thank you!
Answer: Yes, small businesses are eligible to apply.
Question: We are a non-profit but under Section (170 (c) (1)) as a political subdivision. Are we eligible to apply?
Answer: Yes.
Question: We are a nonprofit, dental clinic, serving low-income and underserved communities across the state of Minnesota. Are oral health projects likely to receive funding?
Answer: No. To clarify: This grant does not provide funds for an individual agency to improve upon, expand, or evaluate their individual program.
When a person or organization submits an application for this grant, they intend to provide evaluation, technical assistance, capacity building, and support for approximately 30 EHDI grantees that have already been selected (see page 11 of the RFP). Page 16 of the RFP outlines the Scope of Work with an emphasis on how this technical assistance and support may be provided.
Grant tasks and deliverables
Question: Two of the key tasks listed on page 17 are to develop a shared outcome measurement system (SMS) and build a Community of Practice (CoP). Based on EHDI's recent legislative report (dated 2/23/23), we understand that EHDI has a shared measurement system that was first implemented in FY18 and the EHDI CoP was started in early 2017. To what extent does MDH want the EHDI capacity building grantee to develop new SMS and CoP systems, or improve upon the existing systems that are already in place?
Answer: SMS - This is a new cohort of grantees. The SMS is developed with 100% input from grantees. Grantees within a priority health area (PHA) decide what they want to track as a group, and select the specific indicator(s) on which they will report data. The data could be something they are already collecting, or data that they are not collecting but feel would be of value to their program and thus want to start collecting. The shared measures have to be relevant to grantees’ current work, therefore the previous SMS cannot be used - the old SMS since that was specific to the grantees at the time it was developed. It would be up to the applicant to propose what the selection process will look like, but in the past, it took two to three meetings per PHA before the grantees were able to select their shared measures.
The applicant can take the last set of shared measures and give grantees the option to use them, if such measures fall within their scope of work and would be of value to them.
The last SMS was developed with the 2017-2019 grantees. Due to the challenges posed by COVID-19 on grantee activities, a SMS was not implemented during the 2019-2023 grant cycle in order to reduce the burden on grantees. Reach categories that appeared in the last two EHDI legislative reports were based on reach numbers reported by grantees, and were not determined by them.
CoP - The CoP is a learning community, a space for grantees to stay in touch; collaborate; share ideas, news and resources; learn together; and ask questions. So the basic elements of the CoP (learning, sharing, collaborating, etc.) can stay the same, but how the applicant will make them happen will be up to them.
As it relates to the online CoP presence: Mobilize was used as a platform in the last two grant cycles. The EHDI community account was owned and managed by the evaluation capacity building grantee, and is therefore not easily transferable unless the current account owner/manager agrees to make the transfer to the new evaluation capacity building grantee. If this is the case, then the EHDI online CoP as it is designed now can stay the same, with the caveat that a redesign is always possible depending on feedback received from grantees regarding its usefulness. However, since Mobilize ended its free version in 2022 (a free trial is still available) and the current evaluation capacity building grantee assumed the cost, they may not want to handle any billing issues that might come up with the account transfer. The applicant may propose to continue using Mobilize or a different platform (free or paid).
The CoP does not need to be exclusively online. MDH is interested in learning about any realistic ideas applicants may have to improve upon and foster a strong CoP, which could include consulting with grantees for their ideas.
Question: Would you accept a proposal that represents a only portion of the scope of work rather than the full scope of work?
Answer: Yes, we will accept a proposal that represents only a portion of the scope of work, rather than the full scope of work. If this is an applicant’s intention, please make this clear right away in the application (page 2 or 3 of the application, for example). Please also state an Annual Funding Request for the portion of the work on page 2 of the application.
Reference - Page 11 of the RFP notes: MDH reserves the right to award the grant to more than one applicant if it deems those applicants are strongest in certain qualifications or have proposed the strongest approach related to a specific deliverable.
Question: Is there flexibility in how the outlined deliverables are achieved? Or do you require that they are achieved using the scope of work that is detailed in the RFP?
Answer: There is flexibility in how the Grant Tasks and Deliverables are achieved (page 15 of the RFP).
Reference - Page 16 of the RFP notes EHDI Evaluation Capacity Building Grant applicants are asked to submit a proposal that outlines how they would assume the areas of responsibility to meet the terms of the grant. MDH and the chosen applicant will engage in discussions and negotiations to execute a final grant agreement.
Do note that page 29 of the RFP, the Attachment A: Application Scoring Criteria, asks several questions directly related to items listed in the Scope of Work (page 16 of the RFP). Specifically, page 30, Section IV. Project Narrative, Question #9: Project Implementation: Project design and timeline address how the following grant activities will be carried out:
a. Participate in meetings with EHDI grantees and MDH.
b. Conduct an initial and post evaluation capacity assessment.
c. Conduct one-to-one evaluation technical assistance and support.
d. Develop and implement a shared outcome measurement system.
e. Build and sustain an evaluation Community of Practice (CoP).
f. Support grantees to learn from and take action on evaluation findings, including disseminating and articulating evaluation findings.
Question: Should each grantee have their own TA plan, or do you expect one overarching TA plan to be developed for the total cohort of grantees?
Answer: Each grantee will have their own TA plan based on multiple program dimensions, priorities, Priority Health Area(s) and more. It is reasonable to expect the TA provider to begin with an overarching TA plan, then support grantees to develop a plan that is compelling for their organization and work. We would encourage you to review the Scope of Work section (RFP page 16), responsibility #3. One-on-one evaluation technical assistance and support.
Question: Are there specific activities that you expect to take place in-person? Is the selected grantee expected to attend the 2 half-day annual meetings in-person?
Answer: Activities may be offered flexibly (in person, remote, or hybrid) in consultation with Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) staff.
Eligible and ineligible expenses
No questions have been submitted on this topic.
Review and selection process
Question: I do not currently have a grant. Can I still apply for these funds?
Answer: To clarify: This grant does not provide funds for an individual agency to improve upon or build their individual program.
When a person or organization submits an application for this grant, they intend to provide evaluation, technical assistance, capacity building, and support for approximately 30 EHDI grantees that have already been selected (see page 11 of the RFP). Page 16 of the RFP outlines the Scope of Work with an emphasis on how this technical assistance and support may be provided. If this does not answer your question, please feel free to ask a follow-up question!
Application submission and instructions
Question: What level of detail do you recommend we provide for Years 3 and 4 of the grant [application]?
Answer: This is up to the applicant. While most questions have character limits for responses, Question #9 (Project Implementation) of the application indicates that applicants may include a logic model or logic map as an optional attachment. If the applicant chooses to include an attachment, they are invited to note the time span they are referring to.
The budget is to note estimated expenses for the first two-year period of the grant.