Bright Beginnings Maternal Mental Health Program

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Executive Summary

Bright Beginnings Maternal Mental Health Program is a nonprofit in Texas that helps pregnant and postpartum mothers with depression and anxiety get support and care. We train clinic staff to screen and refer, run free weekly groups led by a licensed clinician and a trained peer, match mothers with peer supporters and help them book appointments with licensed providers, with child care and rides provided.

Depression and anxiety around birth are common and treatable, yet many mothers go without help because they do not know where to turn, cannot afford it or fear being judged. Untreated, they can affect a mother, her baby and her family.

With this grant we will serve about 100 mothers in Year 1 at 2 sites. We are not a crisis service and we do not replace treatment. Our crisis plan names 988, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline and 911. We promise confidential, respectful support, trained staff and honest limits.

Our Year 1 budget is about $203,500, growing to about $284,000 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 5 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director, a Clinical Program Manager and two part-time peer support specialists) and 8 by Year 5.

We are asking the Mother and Baby Wellness Foundation for $60,000 for the Clinical Program Manager. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

Bright Beginnings Maternal Mental Health Program is a nonprofit organization in Texas. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. No mother should struggle alone with depression or anxiety during pregnancy or after a baby is born.

What we do.
- Screen pregnant and postpartum women for depression and anxiety at partner clinics with a short, confidential tool.
- Run free weekly support groups for mothers, led by a licensed clinician and a trained peer.
- Pair each mother with a peer supporter who has been through it, by phone or in person.
- Connect mothers with licensed therapists and psychiatric care, and help them get an appointment.
- Provide child care during groups and rides to appointments.
- Train clinic staff and community workers to recognize signs and make a warm referral.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We are not a crisis or emergency service and we do not replace treatment. Peer supporters are not clinicians and do not diagnose or treat. If a mother is in danger we follow a written plan that includes 988, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline and 911. We explain the limits of confidentiality at the first visit. We do not promise any outcome. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of nurses, a licensed counselor and mothers who had lived through postpartum depression began meeting with new mothers at a library. The groups grew every month and mothers asked how to find a therapist. We kept simple records of who came and what they asked. This proposal asks for support to move from library meetings to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

Depression and anxiety during pregnancy and after birth are common and treatable, and many mothers go without help because they do not know where to turn.

Cost. Therapy can cost more than a family can pay, and a mother with a new baby may not have child care, transportation or time.

Access. Waits for perinatal mental health providers are long, and many areas have none. Many mothers fear being judged or losing their children.

Safety and trust. Mothers and families want a private, respectful place, and funders want a program with trained clinicians and clear safety plans.

Missed benefits. Untreated depression can affect a mother's health, her bond with her baby and her family's stability.

What we hear.
- A mother says she smiled at every visit and cried every night.
- A nurse says she screens for depression and has nowhere to send women.
- A father says he did not know what was wrong with his wife.
- A peer supporter says one phone call changed her first week.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that early screening, a trained peer and a warm connection to care can help mothers feel like themselves again.

Products & Services

Bright Beginnings Maternal Mental Health Program gives pregnant and postpartum mothers a safe, welcoming place to get support and find care.

How the program works.
1. Partners. We work with clinics, hospitals and WIC offices that screen mothers and refer them to us.
2. Screening. Clinic staff use a short, confidential screening tool and offer a warm handoff.
3. Groups. A licensed clinician and a peer lead weekly groups with child care provided.
4. Peer support. Each mother may be matched with a peer who calls weekly.
5. Care connections. A care navigator helps mothers book therapy and psychiatric appointments and arranges rides.
6. Crisis plan. Every staff member follows a written plan with 988, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline and 911.
7. Follow-up. We check in at three and six months after a mother joins.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our clinician is licensed, our peer supporters complete training, and all pass a background check and are paid for their time.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Services are free. We welcome every pregnant and postpartum woman and offer groups and materials in English and Spanish.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Pregnant women and mothers of children under age two who live near our partner clinics. Eligibility is based on pregnancy or a child under two and where a mother lives, and no mother is turned away for lack of insurance.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our library groups we served full rooms and kept a waiting list. Clinics told us that many more mothers screen positive than they can refer to care. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 100 participants at 2 sites. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 260.

Where participants come from.
- Clinics, hospitals and WIC offices.
- Pediatric offices and doulas.
- Churches and community groups.
- Mothers who tell a friend.

Who else benefits. Babies gain a healthier caregiver. Fathers and families gain information and support. Clinics gain a place to send mothers.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a mother who asked for help and got it. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. Obstetric and pediatric clinics. Screen mothers and have few places to refer. We provide the next step.

2. Therapists and psychiatrists. Essential, with long waits and costs. We help mothers reach them.

3. Crisis hotlines. Vital and not a regular source of support. We connect mothers to them.

4. Online forums. Plentiful and impersonal.

5. Faith groups. Caring and not set up for clinical support. We partner.

What makes us different.
- Free groups with a licensed clinician.
- Peer supporters who have been through it.
- Child care and rides provided.
- A care navigator who books appointments.
- A written crisis plan.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with clinics, hospitals, doulas and other perinatal mental health programs to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- Clinics and hospitals. We will train staff and give them a short referral form and a named contact.
- WIC offices and pediatric practices. We will share flyers and information.
- Churches and community groups. We will talk with leaders who know families.
- Social media and local radio. We will share short, clear messages.
- Word of mouth. Mothers tell friends.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit clinicians and peers through clinics, universities and maternal health groups.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, mothers screened, mothers connected to care and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Train partner clinics and open the first groups.
- Months 4 to 10: Hold weekly groups, peer matches and care navigation with monthly supervision.
- Months 11 and 12: Survey mothers and clinics, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. Groups meet in clinics, libraries and community centers, provided at low or no cost.

Safety and privacy.
- Every staff member is trained on the written crisis plan, which names 988, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline and 911.
- Child care staff pass background checks, and two adults are present with every group of children.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $6,000 of equipment once at the start: laptops and tablets for clinic partners and navigation ($3,000), group room furnishings and child care supplies ($2,000), phones and a secure call line ($1,000). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director. The Clinical Program Manager, a licensed clinician paid $60,000 a year, runs groups and supervises peers. Two part-time peer support specialists, each paid $22,000 a year, work with mothers. We add peer specialists as we add sites.

Management & Organization

Dr. Sofia Alvarez, Executive Director. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as a licensed counselor who sat with too many mothers who had waited too long. I will complete the training we require of our peer supporters so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Clinical Program Manager, a licensed clinician, runs the program and supervises peers, and part-time peer support specialists work with mothers. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a licensed counselor, an obstetric nurse, a mother who has been through it, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney and a pediatrician. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A perinatal psychiatrist, an obstetrician and a WIC coordinator give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director, paid $52,000 a year; clinical Program Manager, paid $60,000 a year; peer Support Specialist (part-time), paid $22,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 100 participants at 2 sites.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 140 participants at 2 sites.
- Year 3: About 180 participants at 3 sites.
- Year 4: About 220 participants at 3 sites.
- Year 5: About 260 participants at 4 sites.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 51 percent of our budget, down from about 63 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $60,000 from the Mother and Baby Wellness Foundation for the Clinical Program Manager, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Clinical Program Manager salary, $60,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 47% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $203,500, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $8,300 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $127,500; state Maternal Health Funding $40,000; hospital Partners $26,000; individual Donors $10,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director $52,000; clinical Program Manager $60,000; peer Support Specialist (part-time) $22,000; clinical Supervision about $8,000; child Care During Groups about $8,000; group Materials about $4,000; transportation about $4,000; perinatal Mental Health Training about $5,000; administration and Insurance about $9,000; about $2,800 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $15,000 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $3,000 for laptops and tablets for clinic partners and navigation; $2,000 for group room furnishings and child care supplies; $1,000 for phones and a secure call line; $2,500 for attorney review of the consent form, confidentiality policy and crisis plan; $1,800 for banners, bilingual flyers and a simple website; $2,200 for peer specialist training and background checks; $2,500 for first insurance payment.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($15,000), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $48,500, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $63,500. We start with $6,000 from our founding board and $60,000 in startup support from a community foundation and a hospital partner, $66,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $203,500 in Year 1 to about $284,000 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $127,500, $137,000, $124,000, $134,000 and $144,000 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: state Maternal Health Funding from $40,000 to $64,000; hospital Partners from $26,000 to $50,000; individual Donors from $10,000 to $26,000. Our surplus is planned at about $8,300 in Year 1, about $9,800 in Year 2, about $10,600 in Year 3, about $12,300 in Year 4 and about $13,800 in Year 5. We grow from 2 sites to 4 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $61,400, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $8,140 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per mother. In Year 1, our total costs are about $1,952 per mother served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more mother served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $1,039 per mother.

After the grant. State maternal health funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free maternal mental health option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of mothers and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $127,500 in Year 1, growing to $144,000 in Year 5.
- State Maternal Health Funding: $40,000 in Year 1, growing to $64,000 in Year 5.
- Hospital Partners: $26,000 in Year 1, growing to $50,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $10,000 in Year 1, growing to $26,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director $52,000; clinical Program Manager $60,000; peer Support Specialist (part-time) $22,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: clinical Supervision $8,000; child Care During Groups $8,000; group Materials $4,000; transportation $4,000; perinatal Mental Health Training $5,000; administration and Insurance $9,000. These grow between 4% and 5% a year.
- Equipment: $6,000 at the start, then $1,500 to $2,500 a year.
- Startup costs: $15,000, paid once from $66,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 100 in Year 1, growing to about 260 in Year 5. Sites: 2 in Year 1, growing to 4 by Year 5. Groups meet weekly all year, and peers call each mother weekly.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs