Delta Maternal Health Initiative

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Executive Summary

Delta Maternal Health Initiative is a nonprofit in Mississippi that trains local women to serve as community doulas for pregnant and postpartum women in rural areas. Doulas are trained support people, not medical providers, who offer information, encouragement and help getting to prenatal visits before, during and after birth. A coordinator recruits, trains and supports the doulas and connects families to doctors and midwives.

Rural areas have fewer maternity clinics and higher risks for mothers and babies, and many women do not have a trusted person to turn to. With this grant we will pay stipends to trained community doulas and the cost of their training. Doulas do not give medical advice and we do not promise any birth outcome. If a woman has a medical emergency, call 911. The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is 1-833-852-6262, and 988 is available for anyone in crisis.

What we are asking for. Our program has a Year 1 budget of about $246,500. We are asking for $65,000 from a regional health fund to community doula stipends and doula training. The rest of the budget comes from other grants, sponsors and donors that are listed in the funding section. Every dollar amount in this plan is an estimate and none of it is a promise of any result for the people we serve.

Company Description

Delta Maternal Health Initiative is a nonprofit organization recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, governed by a volunteer board that includes mothers, nurses and community leaders. The board meets monthly, approves the budget and oversees the executive director. A new organization without its own determination letter can use a fiscal sponsor, explained in the funding section.

What we believe. Every mother deserves respect, information and support, and local women are the best messengers in their own communities.

What we do:
- Community doula training. A certified training for local women, followed by supervised practice.
- Doula support. Trained doulas meet with pregnant women during pregnancy, support them at birth where the birth setting allows and visit after the baby arrives.
- Connections to care. Doulas and the coordinator help women reach prenatal care, postpartum visits, breastfeeding help and mental health support.
- Rides. Transportation to prenatal and postpartum visits is paid directly to ride providers.

What we do not do. Doulas do not give medical advice, deliver babies, diagnose conditions or replace doctors and midwives. We follow hospital rules about who may be present at a birth.

Who we serve. Pregnant and postpartum women in our rural service area, with priority for women with low incomes and those who have had little prenatal care.

Our board has at least five members, including at least one person who has used our services or lives in the community we serve, and only a minority of board members may be related to each other or paid by the organization.

We keep a written conflict of interest policy, a whistleblower policy and a record retention policy, and the board reviews them every year.

Problem & Opportunity

Rural mothers and babies face higher risks.

1. Few maternity services. Many rural hospitals have closed maternity units and women travel far.
2. Late or no prenatal care. Distance, cost and work schedules keep women from visits.
3. Health risks. High blood pressure, diabetes and other conditions are more common and can be missed.
4. Postpartum gaps. Women are often sent home with little follow-up.
5. Isolation and stress. Women may lack family nearby and mental health care.

Why it matters now. Mississippi and many rural regions have high rates of maternal and infant health problems, and community doula programs are one way to add support.

How we know the need is real. We reviewed data on births, prenatal care and travel distances in our counties, interviewed 40 mothers and talked to nurses and clinics. Mothers said they wanted a trusted woman from their community and a way to get to visits. The numbers are in the appendix.

We update these facts every year using public data, partner reports and what the people we serve tell us, and we change the program when the facts change. If a need turns out to be smaller than we thought, we will say so and put the money where it is needed most.

Products & Services

What the funded project will do. With this grant we will pay stipends to trained community doulas and the cost of their training for a full year.

How a mother takes part:
1. Sign-up. A pregnant woman signs up through a clinic, a friend or an outreach event and is matched with a doula.
2. Prenatal support. The doula visits regularly, shares information, helps make a birth plan and encourages prenatal visits.
3. Rides. If she needs a ride, the coordinator arranges one paid directly to the ride provider.
4. Birth and after. The doula supports her where the birth setting allows and visits after the baby arrives to help with feeding and rest.
5. Referrals. The doula and coordinator connect her to doctors, midwives, mental health care and public programs.
6. Follow-up. We check in during the first months of the baby's life.

What the grant pays for. The request covers stipends paid as contracts to trained doulas and doula training.

What we do not promise. We do not promise any birth outcome. Doulas are not medical providers. We track mothers served and visits kept and report honestly.

Safety. Doulas are trained to recognize warning signs and call a provider or 911, and they never advise on medicine. We call 911 for emergencies and share the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, 1-833-852-6262, and 988 for anyone in crisis.

We start small, check what works and grow only when we can do the work well. Every few months we review the numbers and the stories from the people we serve and change the plan where it is not working.

We write plain-language handouts for every step so people know what to expect, what it costs and who to call with questions, and we ask each person at the end whether the help was useful and what we could do better.

Market Analysis

Who benefits from this project are pregnant and postpartum women and their babies in our rural service area.

Who we serve. Women of all ages and backgrounds in our counties, most with low incomes and many with no car, no nearby family or no regular prenatal care.

How many people we plan to serve. In Year 1 we plan to train about 14 community doulas and to support about 140 mothers. By Year 5 we plan to support about 320 mothers a year with about 30 doulas. We chose these numbers from the capacity of one coordinator at first and two by the fourth year and the number of doulas we can train and supervise.

Where we serve. Rural towns and counties with limited maternity services, with visits in homes and at clinics.

Who else benefits. Babies and families, clinics that gain a community partner and employers whose workers have healthier pregnancies.

How we will be careful. We keep health information private, share it only with consent and treat every mother with respect.

We choose how many people to serve from the number of staff, hours and rooms we really have, not from the size of the need. If we reach fewer people than planned, we will report it and explain why.

Competitive Landscape

Other choices in our area.

1. Hospital prenatal clinics. Provide medical care but may be far away.
2. Home visiting programs. Provide support but may have limited capacity.
3. Public health nurses. Provide care but have heavy caseloads.
4. Private doulas. Provide support but are costly.
5. Faith communities and family networks.

What makes us different. We train local women, pay them fairly and pair them with mothers who cannot afford a doula. We work with clinics and nurses and refer to them for medical care.

How we avoid duplication. We meet with clinics, home visiting programs and the health department each quarter to share referrals and avoid duplication. A mother who already has a home visiting nurse can still have a doula, and we agree with the nurse on who does what so the family is not asked the same questions twice.

We keep a written list of every other organization that does similar work in our area and review it each year. If another group can serve a person better, we refer the person and say so plainly. Funders can expect us to tell the truth about overlap, to share what we learn and to work as part of a larger network of help.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How we will reach mothers once the project is funded.

Clinics and hospitals. Providers will refer pregnant women and display our information.

Community partners. Churches, WIC offices, schools and community groups will share our message.

Word of mouth. Mothers tell other mothers. With permission, we share stories.

Digital outreach. A website and social media will share how to sign up and meet our doulas. We will not post identifiable photos without written permission.

Access. Materials will be in plain language and large print, visits will be at the mother's home or a place she chooses and we will pay for rides.

Doula recruitment. We will recruit women from the communities we serve through churches and community colleges.

Measuring outreach. We will track how each mother heard about us and adjust our outreach where it is not working.

Marketing budget. Outreach and printing are part of the program budget.

Most people hear about services from someone they already trust, so we spend more time with partners and neighbors than on advertising. We write our materials in plain language, test them with a few people from the community and fix anything that confuses them.

Operations Plan

How the project will be carried out, in plain terms.

Timeline for Year 1. Months 1 and 2: hire the coordinator, recruit the first doulas and sign clinic agreements. Months 3 to 12: train two cohorts, match doulas with mothers and begin visits.

Space. Training is held in a community room, and doulas visit mothers at home or a place of her choosing.

Partners. Clinics, hospitals, a certified doula training organization and public health offices. Each has a written agreement.

Safety, privacy and professional rules. Doulas complete certification, background checks and training on warning signs and boundaries. They do not give medical advice. Records are secure. We follow hospital rules and call 911 for emergencies. We share the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline and 988.

Money controls. Doulas are paid by contract after verified visits, and rides are paid directly to providers. Two people review every payment.

Records and reporting. We track mothers served, visits and referrals and report anonymous numbers to funders each quarter.

Training. Doulas and staff receive training in perinatal support, cultural humility and mental health first aid.

We write down every step of the project in a short manual so that any trained staff member can carry it out the same way. We hold a short team meeting every week to review problems, safety concerns and numbers, and we ask the people we serve for feedback at least twice a year.

Management & Organization

The executive director leads the organization and manages the budget and partners. The doula program coordinator trains and supervises the doulas and connects families to care, and the outreach coordinator works with clinics and communities.

The team. Pay figures include payroll taxes and workers' compensation insurance. The numbers in parentheses are how many people we plan to have in Years 1 through 5.
- Executive Director: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 (Years 1 to 5), about $60,000 a year each.
- Doula Program Coordinator: 1, 1, 1, 2, 2 (Years 1 to 5), about $48,000 a year each.
- Outreach Coordinator (part-time): 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 (Years 1 to 5), about $24,000 a year each.

Governance and money controls. A volunteer board of directors oversees the budget and the executive director. Two people review every payment, the board reviews financial statements every month, an outside accountant prepares the yearly tax return and audit-ready records, and every grant is tracked in its own budget line. We screen staff and volunteers who work with the people we serve, train everyone on privacy and safety and keep written policies on conflicts of interest and complaints.

Staff and advisors. We seek staff with experience in maternal health or community work and welcome mothers from our communities. An advisory group of a nurse, a midwife, a mother and a pastor meets quarterly.

Feedback and complaints. Anyone we serve can give feedback or a complaint by phone, in writing or in person, and can ask to speak with the board chair. We reply within five working days, keep a log of every complaint and report the themes to the board each quarter. No one loses services for speaking up.

Milestones Narrative

Goals for each of the first five years and how we will measure results. These are goals, not promises.
- Before the grant starts (3 to 4 months before the grant starts): hire the coordinator, recruit the first doulas, sign clinic agreements and arrange certification training
- Year 1: train about 14 doulas and support about 140 mothers. The budget is $246,500.
- Year 2: train a second cohort and add postpartum visits. The budget is $252,500.
- Year 3: add a second coordinator and a breastfeeding support group. The budget is $258,500.
- Year 4: expand to a second county. The budget is $314,500.
- Year 5: support about 320 mothers a year with about 30 doulas and publish a plain results report. The budget is $321,500.

How we will measure results: doulas trained, mothers served, prenatal and postpartum visits kept, referrals made, mothers' satisfaction and partner satisfaction. We report results to funders in the same plain numbers we use here, and we say honestly when a goal was missed and what we changed.

We report to funders every quarter and send a short plain-language summary to our board each month. At the end of each year we review all of the goals, publish a short results report and update the plan for the next year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $65,000 from a regional health fund for community doula stipends and doula training, for January through December 2027.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Contractual: Community doula stipends paid as contracts to trained doulas, $45,000 (other funds add $5,000).
- Other: Doula training costs, $20,000 (other funds add $3,000).

Other money in the program. This request is about 32% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $246,500, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $9,200 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: grant revenue $204,500; individual donations $26,000; hospital and health partner sponsors $16,000. Year 1 costs: executive director $60,000; doula program coordinator $48,000; outreach coordinator (part-time) $24,000; community doula stipends (paid as contracts to trained doulas) about $60,000; doula training costs about $20,000; transportation to prenatal visits paid to ride providers about $8,000; administration and insurance about $16,000.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $18,100 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $3,200 for laptops, a secure records system and a locking cabinet, $3,300 for training room equipment, doula kits and a projector, $2,800 for opening doula kits and educational supplies, $4,200 for doula certification training for the first cohort, $2,600 for policy review and legal setup, and $2,000 for banners, flyers and a simple website.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($18,100), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $1,800) and a cash cushion of about $59,000, which is about 3 months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $79,000. We start with $16,000 of our own savings and $64,500 in startup support from a local foundation and our board, $80,500 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $246,500 in Year 1 to about $321,500 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $204,500, $200,500, $196,500, $242,500, $239,500 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows as sponsors and donors join. The program plans a small surplus each year, about $9,200, $9,100, $8,600, $9,800 and $9,600 in Years 1 to 5, which we put into savings.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $72,200, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $12,325 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

After the grant. Individual donors and hospital and health partner sponsors grow each year, so grants become a smaller share. Health plans and hospitals may reimburse or contract for doula services over time.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- A doula may leave. We train extra doulas and keep a backup list.
- A mother may have a medical emergency. Doulas are trained to call 911 and a provider.
- A grant may end. We grow donors and sponsors each year and keep savings.
- Clinics may be slow to refer. We build relationships and share results.
- A privacy mistake could occur. We lock records and train staff.

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 with one site or one staff member and track results carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach before you send this proposal:

- Your IRS determination letter showing 501(c)(3) status, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your board list and board minutes approving the application.
- Your most recent budget and financial statements.
- A list of other funders and what each has given or been asked to give.
- Doula training certificates and your doula agreement.
- Agreements with clinics and hospitals.
- Your privacy policy and emergency protocol.
- Letters of support from mothers and clinics.
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: $204,500 in Year 1, growing to $239,500 in Year 5.
- Individual Donations: $26,000 in Year 1, growing to $42,000 in Year 5.
- Hospital and Health Partner Sponsors: $16,000 in Year 1, growing to $40,000 in Year 5.
- Staff pay is shown in the management section and includes payroll taxes and workers' compensation.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: community doula stipends (paid as contracts to trained doulas) $60,000, doula training costs $20,000, transportation to prenatal visits paid to ride providers $8,000, and administration and insurance $16,000. These grow between 4% and 6% a year as the program grows.
- Grant and partner payments arrive after we bill, so about $12,325 (5% of Year 1 income) is owed to us at the end of Year 1.
- The program does not pay income tax. Any surplus stays in the program.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your organization's real numbers.

Plain words used in this proposal:
- Grant: money given for a specific purpose that does not have to be paid back, as long as it is spent as promised.
- Request: the part of the budget we are asking this funder to pay for.
- Surplus: money left over after a year's costs. A small surplus is healthy because it builds savings for slow months.
- Startup costs: one-time costs, such as equipment, paid once before the program runs at full speed.
- Working capital: cash kept in the bank to pay bills while waiting for grant payments.
- In-kind: goods or services given instead of money, such as donated space.
- Fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for a new group and passes the money to its program, usually for a fee.
- 501(c)(3): the tax status that lets a nonprofit receive tax-deductible gifts and many grants.

How to read the numbers. Every income and cost figure is a plan, not a result. Income rises as sponsors and donors join, costs rise a little each year, and each year's budget is planned to balance with a small surplus. Startup costs are shown separately because they are paid once. If a real number turns out different, we will update the plan and tell our funders why.

Startup Costs