Education and Workforce Development

The Cigna Group Foundation knows the importance of addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) in order to achieve greater health outcomes, including the vital elements of education and employment.

We are investing in students enrolled in pre-K, K-8, high school, and post-secondary and adult education. Additionally, The Cigna Group Foundation is taking a broader look at education by working to increase the cultural competency of health care professionals by helping them to better understand health disparities among vulnerable populations.

Program Overview

To further the mission of advancing the education and employment of tomorrow’s workforce, The Cigna Group Foundation has created new grant programs focusing on different stages of a person’s educational journey.

While every program will have specific requirements, each will have these common characteristics:

• Funding requests should be between $50,000-$125,000 and for one year only.
• All applicants need to be a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit at the time of application.

Successful submissions will clearly articulate the field of work that will be undertaken and should:

• Show support for persons who are residing in underserved, underrepresented or vulnerable communities or other geographic regions
• Demonstrate experience in working with and understanding success for vulnerable, disparate, and/or marginalized communities
• Address disparities among the specific population to be served
• Show a sophisticated understanding of the use of data to inform and evaluate the proposed work
• Intend to apply a racial equity lens to project design and data analyses
• Include a high-level breakdown of the estimated budget

The Cigna Group Foundation values innovation and we hope to leave space for diverse and creative ideas while being able to measure results to demonstrate impact. We have not recommended a prescribed approach to what implementation should look like, and leave that to the discretion of applicants. Please review the information below to determine program alignment.