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    2. Mental Health
      1. Annual Mental Health Grant Guidelines
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      1. Annual Intellectual Disabilities Grant Guidelines
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Welcome > What We Fund > Mental Health

Mental Health

The Tower Foundation seeks to prevent or alleviate mental illness – particularly serious mental illness –  among children, adolescents, and young adults (to age 26). 

The Tower Foundation defines mental illness as:

Medical conditions that disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. (National Alliance on Mental Illness)

The Foundation has identified five goals it will pursue through its mental health funding. Grants will be awarded to projects that show the greatest promise of advancing one or more of these goals:

  • Stigma related to mental illness is eliminated. 

  • Children with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges are identified early and connected to appropriate services. 

  • Young people with mental health challenges understand and manage their conditions and behaviors. 

  • Families understand mental health challenges and help members live productive lives.

  • ​Communities offer meaningful opportunities and appropriate support to young people with mental health challenges and their families.

Our Mental Health Grant Guidelines are issued on an annual basis with letters of inquiry due in March. The grant guidelines provide information about the Foundation's target population, funding priorities, and application procedure.

We encourage you to review the grant guidelines carefully and to submit a letter of inquiry should you have a program or project that qualifies. If your letter is selected for further consideration, you will be asked to complete a full grant application. Grant applications are accepted by request only.