Summary: AIM’s Mental Health Funding Circle ran its latest round of grants this spring, distributing $367,000 across six grantees.
About the MHFC: Global mental health continues to be highly neglected despite contributing more to cumulative suffering than many more highly-prioritized physical health conditions. A handful of effectiveness-minded funders come together twice a year for an open grants round, looking to find and fund the most impactful mental health projects. If you or someone you know may be interested in joining us, we would warmly welcome new members! If you give (or are interested in giving) at least $50,000 annually to effective global mental health projects, please reach out or apply here to join.
The Grants: As all circle members make their own funding decisions, the justification given for each grant may not represent the thinking behind each funder’s actions. That being said, I’m writing some justifications because it’s fun to do so, and otherwise this is just a dry and boring list. It's worth noting that due to limited resources, we were unfortunately unable to fund some highly promising applicants. Nonetheless, we are thrilled to support the following grantees:
- $83,000 to Restore Hope Liberia (RHL): RHL provides interpersonal group therapy (IPT-G) to depressed individuals in (you guessed it) Liberia. IPT-G, made famous by the likes of Strong Minds and Friendship Bench, is the gold standard therapy for cost-effective mental health treatment (as documented extensively by the Happier Lives Institute). RHL is one of the few mental health organizations operating in Liberia, a country and greater region with well-documented rates of depression and trauma. In addition, RHL is developing a tailored LLM that will help train their facilitators, eliminating one of their biggest bottlenecks to scaling.
- $125,000 to Overcome*: This organization provides free digital and phone-based therapy to sufferers of a variety of mental disorders in LMICs. By exploiting a unique demand for client-facing practice hours by highly-trained graduate students in high-income countries, Overcome can provide extremely cheap mental health treatment for sufferers with truly no other options. In addition to being potentially highly cost-effective, Overcome has shown great potential in its first year as an organization.
- $80,000 to the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute*: This grant supports the work of Irene Falgas-Bague on suicidality in Zambia. Given the scarcity of suicide data in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the proven success of initiatives like the Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention, this research could inform highly cost-effective interventions to reduce suicide rates. Preliminary data suggests that a significant percentage of suicides in Zambia may involve pesticides or other poisonous materials.
- $50,000 to VIMBO: This digital startup provides mental health support for individuals with depression in South Africa. Digital mental health interventions offer enormous scaling potential, and VIMBO's promising financial model could potentially become self-sustaining at scale.
- $50,000 to FineMind*: This grant supports FineMind's work on stepped care in northern Uganda. Their increasingly cost-effective intervention shows significant scaling potential. The stepped care model allows for the assessment of a large population and the provision of appropriate care based on symptom severity.
- $69,000 to Phlourish*: This funding supports Phlourish's work on guided self-help for adolescents in the Philippines. Guided self-help is one of the most promising interventions, and Filipino adolescents have disturbingly high rates of depression and self-harm. Phlourish is a promising young organization working in a highly scalable and potentially replicable region.
*Renewal or former MHFC grantee
