Last Year's Grant Recipients

We are most thankful for your gracious support of our Authors Luncheon. We are proud to have funded the following recipients.

National Kidney Foundation of Arizona
Programs: Patient Assistance for Early Intervention Rent Support, Food Cards and Renal Education Cookbooks; The Path to Wellness Screenings; Drive for Dialysis Comfort Kits

National Kidney Foundation of Arizona programs provide awareness, assistance and hope to Arizonans at-risk and impacted by kidney disease. Patient Assistance programs include one-time Early Intervention Rent Support payments, grocery store Food Cards and a Renal Education Cookbooks. The Path to Wellness Screening program provides free point-of-care kidney screenings in under-served communities with on-site blood and urine testing, biometric measurement, blood pressure checks and one-on-one consultation with a volunteer clinician. Drive for Dialysis Comfort Kits provide comfort care packages for individuals undergoing dialysis.

Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation
Program: Nephrology Patient Assistance

Guided by a family-centric care model, the pediatric nephrology multidisciplinary team works closely with each family to identify barriers to treatment and connect them with tools and resources to ensure continuity of care. Nephrology Patient Assistance programs provide preventive, financial and ancillary support to pediatrics patients receiving dialysis, kidney transplants and treatment for kidney-related illness and disease. This includes transportation to dialysis and transplant appointments; emergency housing and utilities support; meal vouchers and temporary lodging for families traveling long distances for care; and clinical supplies not covered by insurance such as infant and child blood pressure cuffs for at-home measurement to avoid medication, 24-hour blood pressure monitoring machines, and urine test dipsticks for testing patients with nephrotic syndrome.

St. Joesph’s Foundation
Program: Kidney Transplant Patient Support

Kidney Transplant Patient Support programs ensure all patients receiving a transplant at St. Joseph’s Norton Thoracic Institute Kidney Transplant Program receive the best care possible. Funds will assist transplant patients with out-of-pocket essential expenses, including emergency housing costs, utilities, groceries, immunosuppressant medications, and transportation to and from services. The grant ensures patients can access and maintain life-saving care without undue financial strain and comply with long term treatments and follow up appointments.

TGen Foundation
Programs: Kidney Health Blood Markers and Spatial Transcriptomic Tissue Profiling in Native Americans

This grant funds two studies to identify population-specific markers predicting kidney disease onset, progression and treatment response, with a focus on diagnostic accuracy and therapeutic decision-making for Native American patients. Native Americans are profoundly underrepresented in genomic, molecular and clinical research, resulting in “precision” medicine tools that are not truly precise for Native American patients.

Using high-throughput technology to profile more than 9,500 proteins from blood plasma, the Kidney Health Blood Markers study will dramatically enhance the ability to detect subtle molecular changes associated with disease onset and progression in the Native American populations.

Spatial Transcriptomic Profiling study will apply this technology to kidney tissue of Native American patients to map kidney disease heterogeneity, microenvironmental features, and actionable molecular pathways to develop more population-specific strategies for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment decisions.

Transplant Community Alliance
Program: Living Assistance Fund

Living Assistance Fund provides relief from financial stress caused by a kidney transplant and allows low-income transplant recipients as well as candidates on the donor waitlist to focus on their care and healing. Assistance is a one-time payment to bridge a gap between loss of income from a transplant and living expenses. Eligible expenses include rent or mortgage payments, utilities, transportation, medication co pays, immunosuppressant prescriptions, and insurance premiums. Payments are made directly to providers on behalf of the kidney patient.

Valleywise Health Foundation
Program: Healthy Families Food Pharmacy

Health Families Food Pharmacy uses food as medicine for diverse, low-income patients and their families to reduce obesity, hypertension, pre-diabetes and diabetes, that left unchecked can lead to kidney disease. Valley Health partners with Activate Food Arizona and Home Assist Health to ensure patients have the knowledge and resources to manage their health effectively while gaining consistent access to fresh produce. Every two weeks, the Farm Express Mobile Food Market visits two Valleywise Health clinics, where patients receive vouchers to purchase fresh food on-site. Additionally, homebound patients will receive pre-assembled bags of fresh fruits and vegetables delivered directly to their home. Valleywise staff provide personalized outreach, assist with scheduling, and connect families with additional community based resources as needed.

We hope you are as impressed with the great work being done by these organizations to advance kidney health in Arizona as we are! Thank you again for your kind support and generous contribution to furthering the Arizona Women’s Board mission.

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