Celebrating 30 years of excellence
The GSK IMPACT Awards is celebrating 30 years of excellence in community health. To celebrate, this program is now launching for the first time in the Boston area! This annual awards program honors up to 10 local nonprofit organizations in recognition of their exceptional achievements, overall excellence, and best practices in contributing to a healthier Boston Region. Awards of unrestricted funding are $50,000.
GSK is proud to partner with The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), part of the Boston Foundation, in the administration of this awards program. This program is one of several charitable programs GSK offers in the United States as part of a commitment to building healthier communities and a healthy America.
Please review all of the information below very carefully.
Challenge
Much of what influences our health happens outside the doctor’s office – in our communities. Factors such as access to healthy foods and recreational spaces undeniably contribute to our health. Where we are born, raised, live, and work matters to our health; yet too many individuals are living in communities that are hazardous to our health.
Solution
The more we understand the connection between our health and our community, the more we can improve it. GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together. GSK goes beyond discovering, developing and delivering medicines and vaccines and addresses health challenges where they often start: in our communities.
Award Process
GSK and TPI staff will review nonprofit registrations and invite eligible organizations to complete the application process. We work together to select 15 finalists. Site visits are managed and conducted by TPI. A panel comprised of community health experts and GSK representatives evaluates the finalist applications and site visit reports and selects up to 10 winners.
Note: This is an extensive application with specific eligibility requirements. Interested applicants should read the following information in its entirety before registering. If you have questions, please contact GSKIMPACTAwards@tpi.org.
Application Guidance
There are a variety of factors that contribute to a healthier community that have been identified in the Explore health topics | County Health Rankings & Roadmaps model developed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Through the GSK IMPACT Awards, we seek to recognize and honor exemplary nonprofit organizations with program(s) that are making measurable impact on the community health factors listed below. Please read more about each category below and visit Explore health topics | County Health Rankings & Roadmaps for more information, including examples of evidence-based programs and interventions:
- Health promotion & harm reduction – Health promotion and harm reduction are prevention and intervention services and activities. They foster health-promoting behaviors and reduce the negative impact of behaviors, such as alcohol and drug use, smoking and physical inactivity, as well as addressing the impact of food insecurity and access to healthy foods.
- Housing & transportation – Housing is a basic human need. Housing includes houses, apartments, and congregate housing like nursing homes or halfway houses. Transportation connects us to the places where we live, work, learn and play.
- Air, water and land – Promoting and protecting clean air, water and land necessary for healthy living, food production and recreation.
- Climate – building resilient communities that support all residents in withstanding rising temperatures, stronger storms and increased flooding by building parks and planting trees, creating local sustainable agriculture and food systems.
- Civic and community resources – participating in our communities strengthens our social connections and sense of belonging, which, in turn, benefits our physical and mental health.
- Education – Education can create opportunities for better health through higher incomes, better employment options, increased social benefits and healthier behaviors.
- Income, employment & wealth – Employment, and the income and benefits it provides, shape our choices about housing, child care, medical care and more. Wealth, or the accumulation of assets, makes it easier for people to manage job changes, emergencies, education costs and retirement.
- Safety & social support – Community safety and support includes work that builds belonging and social connection, meeting the needs of individuals and families, and violence and injury prevention efforts. Some examples are mental health services, housing support, community centers and financial assistance programs.
Note: GSK is a global biopharma company with business areas that include pharmaceuticals and vaccines. GSK’s US Charitable Investments charitable grants are not made and cannot be used to influence or promote the use of GSK products or services. For that reason, we refrain from providing grants and awards to organizations that give an appearance of a commercial business interest. Therefore, while we believe that organizations addressing all relevant health factors, including clinical care and access to care, are important, GSK charitable grants and awards must be limited to eligible organizations.
Criteria
IMPACT is an acronym that represents the guiding principles and criteria for this awards program. We seek organizations that demonstrate that they are:
- Innovative – continually improving with vision, creativity, and leadership in solving pressing community health challenges
- Measured – capturing quantitative and qualitative data to inform the design, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of the program(s) and can demonstrate measurable outcomes
- Partnered – engaging in meaningful collaboration within and across sectors
- Accountable – maintaining good governance, including sound financials, strategic and representative leadership, strong management and stable operations
- Community-centered – being inclusive, responsive, and adaptive to the changing needs and circumstances of the community
- Transformative – acting as a component of the larger community health plan that is influencing systemic reform and interventions and are being replicated and/or taken to scale
Eligibility
The following is the basic eligibility organizations must meet in order to apply for a GSK IMPACT Award:
- Organization must have a 501(c)(3) IRS letter of determination verifying status as an independent nonprofit organization and is not classified by the IRS as a church, religious, political, or private foundation.
- Organization must operate in at least one of the following Massachusetts Counties: Middlesex and/or Suffolk.
- Organization’s annual gross revenue must be at least $100,000 for the current fiscal year (2026) and previous fiscal year (2025) and cannot exceed $5 million for those years. (Note: Gross revenue should not reflect in-kind donations or pledges.)
- GSK funding cannot exceed 50 percent of annual total operating expenses for those years.
- Organization must address at least one of the following categories that affect health:
- Organization must meet IMPACT criteria by improving community health, being innovative, measured, partnered, accountable, community-centered, and transformative.
- Organization must not be a GSK customer or affiliate of customer organizations/institutions, including academic medical centers, foundations of customer organizations, clinics, home health or visiting nurse agencies, medical treatment centers, hospices, hospitals, payers, wholesalers, and retailers. (Note: If your organization is engaged in the delivery of healthcare, or facilitating access to healthcare, then your organization is likely not eligible.)
- Organization cannot employ any healthcare professionals as listed in the FAQ document.
Application
This is a two-step application process:
Step 1 – Registration: Organizations must first register online using TPI’s portal. The registration period will close on Friday, July 24, 2026 at 11:59pm. GSK and TPI will assess the eligibility of your organization. If your organization’s registration is approved, you will be sent an email with information to access the portal again to complete the application for a GSK IMPACT Award.
Step 2 – Application: Eligible registrants will be invited to submit an application online using TPI’s portal. Completed applications are due on Friday, September 4, 2026 at 11:59pm.
FAQ
Please click here for a list of frequently asked questions.
If you have any further questions, please reach out to GSKIMPACTAwards@tpi.org.
GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together. For more company information, go to us.gsk.com.