GlaxoSmithKline Issues Call for Applications Totaling $400,000 in GSK IMPACT Awards

PHILADELPHIA, April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- GlaxoSmithKline (@GSKUS) today issued the 2013 GSK IMPACT Awards Call for Applications.  This annual awards program will honor up to ten local nonprofits in the Greater Philadelphia Region with $40,000 each in recognition of their achievements and innovations in improving community health. 

"At a time when so many families and communities are facing increasing health challenges, local nonprofits – particularly smaller organizations – continue to play a vital role in improving the health of our state," said Katie Loovis, Director, U.S. Community Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement, GlaxoSmithKline. "We are seeking to honor ten unique and exemplary local programs for their commitment to our region and positive influence on the communities they serve."

The GSK IMPACT Awards honor innovative, collaborative, and evidence-based programs that are helping people – especially underserved populations – live healthier lives, and contributing to the health of the Greater Philadelphia Region.

To qualify for a GSK IMPACT Award, applicants must be physically located in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties and have annual total operating expenses between $160,000 and $5 million.  To view the additional criteria and to apply, visit www.gskimpact-us.com. The application deadline is Friday, May 31, 2013 at 4:00 p.m. EDT. For questions, contact GlaxoSmithKline Community Partnerships at (215) 751-5171 or GSK [email protected].

"The work of improving community health is complex, critical, and urgent," said Martha Davis, MSS, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Safe Families, a 2012 GSK IMPACT Award Winner. "The GSK IMPACT Award provided us with a welcomed boost in funding as well as a national spotlight on the innovative community health improvement strategies that we have created in Philadelphia that could be replicated in other communities throughout the country."

The scope of this year's GSK IMPACT Awards has expanded to focus on improving access to health.  Eligible programs now include ones that promote healthy lifestyles, advance educational outcomes, and address other determinants of our health. The expanded focus aligns with GSK's efforts to explore what it means, and what it takes to be a healthy community. In 2012, GSK kicked off an initiative to better understand how it can more effectively partner to build healthy communities, and this work continues in 2013.

A panel comprised of local and national health experts and representatives from GSK will evaluate the applications. Finalists will be notified in the summer, and winners will be notified in the fall following site visits to observe the submitted projects. The GSK IMPACT Awards will be presented at a ceremony at GSK's new facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in late 2013.

The History of GSK IMPACT Awards:

• For seventeen years, GSK has honored outstanding nonprofit programs that are improving access to health in and around our U.S. corporate campuses in Durham, North Carolina and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with GSK IMPACT Awards.
• To date, 157 exemplary U.S.-based nonprofits have been honoured with $6,214,000 in GSK IMPACT Awards. And more than $5 million has been awarded to 129 local nonprofit organizations in the Greater Philadelphia Region.
•  The name 'IMPACT' derives from the focus that winners must have demonstrated in their application submissions: Innovation, Management, Partnership, Achievement, Community Focus, and Targeting Need.

About GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline – one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies – is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. For further information go to us.gsk.com, follow us on twitter.com/GSKUS or visit our blog (www.morethanmedicine.us.gsk.com/blog/).

Join the conversations online @GSKUS #HealthyCommunity

SOURCE GlaxoSmithKline