January 5, 2026, New York, NY – Today, RTW Foundation, the philanthropic arm of biotech investment firm RTW Investments, announced over $850,000 in grant funding for 11 outstanding nonprofit organizations dedicated to expanding health access for underserved communities across New York City.
New York City residents face increasing barriers to healthcare access. Federal policy shifts have exacerbated already high medical costs for New Yorkers across all forms of healthcare coverage and 28% of adults say they delay or forgo medical care due to cost. Black and Hispanic adults, as well as uninsured populations, are even more likely to forgo care due to high out-of-pocket costs. On top of that, 60% of nonprofits surveyed by Brooklyn.org have experienced cuts in government funding in the last year. This is forcing many to scale back or suspend free health services at a time when barriers to care are rising in neighborhoods with unmet needs.
Given this reality, RTW Foundation increased its community funding by over 80% to strengthen the local healthcare ecosystem across New York City. RTW Foundation grant partners are on the front lines of New York’s emerging healthcare crisis, providing free primary and specialized care, transportation support, care navigation, and appointment incentives. “Supporting our partners through funding challenges is central to our mission of advancing health equity,” said Marti Speranza Wong, Co-Chair of RTW Foundation. “By standing alongside them and strengthening their organizations, we aim to ensure that access to quality health services remains available to every New Yorker.”
Since 2020, RTW Foundation has supported 35 New York City nonprofits through $3.9 million in community grants. Together, our health equity initiatives have expanded access to care, improved quality of services, and addressed social determinants of health, reaching over 122,000 New Yorkers. RTW Foundation will continue collaborating with exceptional partners, providing value beyond grant funding, through Days of Action and other co-created programming. “We are proud to support and work alongside trusted local leaders at this critical moment,” said Sarah Garwood, Director of Community Engagement at RTW Foundation. “Now and in the years ahead, many more New Yorkers will rely on community-based health services, given rising barriers to access, and we are dedicated to strengthening pathways for safe, affordable access to care across New York City. Healthcare is a human right, and we will continue to strengthen local organizations to ensure all residents can receive the care they need.”
Learn more about the 11 RTW Foundation grant partners strengthening health access across New York City below:
Floating Hospital
The Floating Hospital is a Federally Qualified Health Center providing comprehensive, affordable care to underserved patients in New York. Through their Good Health Shuttle, The Floating Hospital will provide free transportation to over 15,000 patients from shelters and safe houses across the five boroughs this year, building access to care. By offering unrestricted medical care paired with relief, health education and social support to vulnerable families, The Floating Hospital aims to ensure patients with the most needs can thrive.
“We can offer the most comprehensive healthcare and relief services imaginable, but it’s meaningless if our patients cannot get to them,” said Sean Granahan, President of The Floating Hospital. “The funding from RTW Foundation allows our Good Health Shuttle to continue to meet our patients where they live, in shelters often at the farthest reaches of New York City, and many blocks from public transportation.”
Karen’s Club
Karen's Club is a new grant partner dedicated to providing personalized and culturally responsive consulting to cancer patients of color. Before each patient’s initial consultation, Karen’s Club equips a research team with a concise summary of the patient’s concerns and barriers, which helps clinicians offer tailored education and guidance during 1:1 navigation sessions. Through this model, Karen’s Club empowers patients to make informed decisions about their care, strengthening their ability to self-advocate and understand treatment options — including potential clinical trial participation.
"I'm so proud of the work we've done in NYC to educate a subset of patients diagnosed with advanced disease, who are trying to navigate within the clinical research system and not really sure what comes next,” said Karen Peterson, Founder & Chief Patient Advocate at Karen’s Club. Their trust in our ability to support their goal of making an informed decision is a huge testament of our value to the community."
Community Health Action of Staten Island (CHASI)
Community Health Action of Staten Island is a returning grant partner whose project will educate 1,000 NYCHA residents on hypertension, deliver health screenings to 250 patients, and support 250 patients with care navigation and follow-up appointments. The project will also sustain a dedicated community health worker to lead its hypertension program, helping protect a critical service that was temporarily paused due to funding cuts. CHASI is dedicated to improving community health through trusted support that empowers residents to manage their health with confidence.
“Hypertension disproportionally affects Black men, and interventions to educate and change health outcomes can be hard to fund outside of traditional settings like hospitals and health centers,” said Jasmin Valentin, Chief Operations Officer at CHASI. “This funding allows Community Health Action to continue the health equity work we know makes a difference – embedding trusted health messengers in NYCHA community centers, barbershops, houses of worship, and other low-threshold community settings.”
East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP)
We're grateful to partner with East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP), the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai's student-run, physician-supervised, free clinic providing care to uninsured adults in East Harlem. Supporting EHHOP for the third year in a row, our grant will enable appointment incentives and transportation coverage for 300 patients to access regular primary and specialized care. This grant will also provide dental cleanings and treatments for 120 patients, hands-on training for 220 medical students, and free testing and vaccinations for New Yorkers. This year, EHHOP will also purchase a point-of-care Hemoglobin A1c machine and other durable medical equipment for patients to take home for improved condition management and quality of life.
“The East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP) is incredibly proud to partner with the RTW Foundation for a third year,” said Shaun Kohli, Co-Chair at EHHOP. “As a free clinic serving East Harlem’s uninsured adult population, we provide comprehensive, longitudinal primary and specialty health care at no cost to our patients. RTWF makes this work possible through their generous grants, ensuring that our patients can access the care they need and that the care we deliver remains of the highest quality through investments in medications, vaccines, and healthcare technologies.”
NYU Langone Health Undiagnosed Diseases Program
The NYU Langone Health Undiagnosed Diseases Program, provides long-awaited diagnoses for medically complex patients who have gone years without answers after standard clinical evaluations. With this grant, the team will enroll 25 families in the program this year, providing state-of-the-art genetic and genomic testing for rare disease patients regardless of socioeconomic status. With more detailed diagnostics, the NYU team aims to provide families with a better understanding of their child’s condition and can advise on next steps for treatment or care.
“We are honored that our program at NYU Langone Health is being supported by the RTW Foundation, and we look forward to helping families who have been searching a long time for answers for their genetic condition,” said Gilad Evrony, MD, PhD.
Hamilton-Madison House
Hamilton-Madison House is another second-time grant partner that expands access to behavioral health services for the Asian American community. The grant will support training for a postdoctoral fellow to provide linguistically and culturally adapted mental health care for the pan-Asian community in NYC, cultivate a pipeline of professionals committed to serving the mental health needs of this community, and provide in-depth care for an additional 30-40 patients with complex mental health care needs.
“This generous grant from the RTW Charitable Foundation will support a post-doctoral psychology fellowship that expands both immediate access to care while developing the mental health workforce serving Asian American communities,” said Barry Post, Director of Development & External Affairs at Hamilton-Madison House. “Through this fellowship, 30–40 New Yorkers experiencing mental illness will receive culturally responsive, linguistically proficient care while an early-career doctoral-level clinician receives advanced, supervised training in a high-need community setting. As the largest clinic specialized in serving Asian Americans on the East Coast, we face sustained demand that far outpaces available clinical talent. RTW’s continued investment expands equitable access to care for community members who would otherwise face significant barriers to treatment.”
Mixteca
Mixteca is a third time grant partner whose project will focus on providing health education and free screenings for over 2,125 Latino community members in Brooklyn through health fairs and Days of Action. The organization will also train 15 community health navigators, or Promotoras, in mental health first aid. Mixteca will continue empowering Indigenous and Latine immigrants across New York by expanding access to critical services that improve health access and quality of life.
"At Mixteca, expanding health access is not just a service, it is an act of dignity, equity, and community care. Every day we witness how language barriers, fear, and limited resources prevent immigrant families from receiving the health support they deserve,” said Lorena Kourousias, Executive Director of Mixteca. Our work is rooted in changing that reality by ensuring our community feels seen, welcomed, and empowered to care for their well-being. In the year ahead, we hope to deepen our partnership to expand culturally responsive health education, strengthen pathways to preventive care, and continue building a trusted, accessible system where our community knows they belong."
RaisingHealth Partners
RaisingHealth Partners is a third time grant partner whose project will provide free, bilingual individual and group mental health counseling to community members in Brooklyn. The team will also reach 2,000 New Yorkers in Brooklyn through psychoeducational outreach and monthly workshops. These services will help families navigate emotional stress, build resilience, and access mental health support that is often out of reach.
“RaisingHealth is thrilled to receive RTW Foundation’s support for the third year in a row, this time helping sustain our free, culturally tailored mental health services for uninsured immigrants,” said Hewett Chiu, President & CEO at RaisingHealth Partners. “This support comes at a crucial moment, when our immigrant communities are facing immense harms, stressors, and barriers to care. Over the next year, our team of bilingual therapists and peer specialists will deliver 370 counseling sessions; emotional support and health access navigation to 50 individuals; and psychoeducational workshops and outreach to 2,000 individuals, combating cultural stigma.”
Saving Mothers
Saving Mothers is another second-time grant partner that is dedicated to eradicating preventable maternal deaths and birth-related complications in New York City, where Black women are nine times more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth than white women. With this grant, Saving Mothers will provide 300 mothers with mPOWHER Mom’s Kits, tailored self-advocacy tools, medical devices to target key risk factors, and mental health journals. Saving Mothers will also pilot virtual support groups for new and expecting mothers as a response to primary mortality risk factors and patient feedback. They aim to increase access to low-cost and no-cost health care by partnering with insurance companies to reach more communities with insurance companies to reach more communities.
"The Saving Mothers mPOWHER Program is a dual-track, hands-on educational program designed to save lives by training frontline maternal healthcare workers and informing and empowering the pregnant women they serve,” said Re Perry, Programs Coordinator at Saving Mothers. “When we encourage positive interaction and lift up pregnant women together with their healthcare providers, the result is true empowerment and a self-sustaining resilience in families and across communities. The program’s overarching goal is to deliver significantly improved maternal health outcomes within NYC’s highest at-risk communities."
Grameen America
Grameen Promotoras, a Grameen America community health program, is a new grant partner that supports thousands of underserved entrepreneurs across New York City with health education, screenings, and personalized referrals and care navigation. With our support, Grameen America will hire and train an additional community health worker who will deliver a 13-week health curriculum and create individual health action plans, provide system navigation support, and conduct chronic disease screenings. Together, the 14 person community health worker team will reach 32,000 New Yorkers. By integrating accessible, responsive health support with Grameen America’s existing financial empowerment programming, the organization is helping thousands of entrepreneurs in New York to safeguard their health, strengthen their families, and build more stable futures.
"Access to health services play a crucial role in realizing Grameen America’s vision for an inclusive New York City with pathways of upward economic mobility for its members," said Rajitha Swaminathan, Chief Program Officer at Grameen America. "Thanks to RTW Foundation’s investment in the Promotoras program, we can provide health education, resources, and navigational support for more members in underserved communities. Now, more than ever, we are committed to uplift small business owners and their families in New York’s most vulnerable communities."
Violence Intervention Program (VIP)
Violence Intervention Program (VIP) is a returning grant partner that will hire a new bilingual Healthcare Specialist to provide direct referrals and navigation for about 500 low-income Latina women and their children. The grant will also support intensive individualized healthcare case management for at least 150 mothers, including accompaniment to visits, advocacy with healthcare providers for billing, and care management. VIP is committed to educating at least 1,000 Latina community members on the importance of preventative and urgent healthcare access and the methods to obtain free or low-cost healthcare.
“The immigrant Latina survivors we serve often lack a clear path to accessing healthcare and have no support navigating the complexities of the system," said Claudia Guzman, Director of Community Programs at VIP. RTW Foundation's grant is helping us break down these barriers in a meaningful way. We look forward to improving health outcomes for hundreds of Latinx families in New York City over the coming year.”
About RTW Foundation
Founded in 2018 as the philanthropic arm of RTW Investments, LP, RTW Foundation works to power community initiatives and provide rare disease advising to improve the health of underserved populations. The Foundation supports the development of medicines for neglected rare diseases, empowers youth to explore careers in science, biotechnology, and medicine, and builds partnerships with local organizations to advance health equity in New York City. To learn more, visit www.rtwf.org