WW Wellness Impact Award | WW USA
Health access is a human right. It’s a core WeightWatchers® belief, but not all communities have access to the resources they need to live a healthy life. To help fight systemic injustice faced by marginalized groups, the WW Wellness Impact Award empowers organizations that are breaking down barriers to health in communities of color.
Meet our past honorees
2022 winners | 2021 winners
The “why” behind the award
For the third-annual WW Wellness Impact Award, we’re channeling the boundary-breaking energy of our founder, Jean Nidetch. In 1963—more than 10 years before a woman could get a credit card without her husband’s permission—Jean founded WeightWatchers to help members take control of their health.
Now, as part of our 60th anniversary celebration, we’re honoring her legacy by amplifying female-founded organizations dedicated to improving the health of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Three winning groups will receive a $20,000 grant and more.
Community has always been at the heart of WeightWatchers, and while we’re dedicated to making healthy living accessible to all, major disparities still exist:
- Research shows that BIPOC communities face staggeringly worse health outcomes than their white counterparts. For example, BIPOC people have disproportionately higher rates of chronic diseases, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and certain forms of cancer.1
- And due to systemic bias toward these historically-excluded communities, they also face lack of access, unequal treatment, and distrust in the system when seeking care. Consider this: Zip codes with predominantly Black populations are 67% more likely to have a shortage of primary care physicians.2
These statistics can feel defeating and hard to overcome. But community-led organizations are committed to doing the work—giving BIPOC communities the tools and agency to change their health narrative.
2 Access to care: Health Services Research. (2012.) “Residential segregation and the availability of primary care physicians.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3416972
What we’re looking for in an organization
Community-centered: Focusing on the distinct needs of the community served, by integrating community voice and lived experience into all efforts
Barrier-breaking: Addressing one or multiple barriers to health for Black, Indigenous, and communities of color
Impactful: Centering on tangibly improving the lives and well-being of individuals and communities using an evidence-based approach
The details
Eligible organizations must:
- Be a 501(c3), fiscally sponsored organization or mutual aid organization without political or religious affiliation located in the U.S.
- Be female-founded in honor of WeightWatchers’ founder, Jean Nidetch
- Be substantially run by BIPOC leadership or a BIPOC leader, as only 10% of grant dollars currently go toward people of color.3
- Submit only one application per organization.
3 Grant award disparity: The Bridgespan Group. (2020.) “Racial Equity and Philanthropy: Disparities in Funding for Leaders of Color Leave Impact on the Table.” https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/disparities-nonprofit-funding-for-leaders-of-color
Questions? We have answers!
Check out our FAQs below. If you don’t see your question answered, send an email to lucy.shanker@ww.com
Unfortunately, we are no longer accepting applications - the submission window ran from May 8 through September 30.
Applications were accepted until midnight ET on September 30, 2023.
After all applications are submitted, WW Good evaluates all applications based on the criteria listed on the website and selects five finalists. The five finalists will then participate in final round interviews and three award winners will be selected.
All finalist organizations will be notified by October 10, 2023.
All winners will be selected by an expert committee, based off of the outlined evaluation criteria and finalist interviews.
No! If your organization is a 501c3, fiscally sponsored organization, or mutual aid organization with no political or religious affiliations located within the US, we encourage you to apply.
The $20,000 grant can be used towards program, operating and/or marketing costs. The funds may not be used for lobbying or political purposes.
- Submit founder bio, organization description, logo, and 2-3 photos for WW marketing
- Provide approvals on promotional content (Expected time commitment: 5 hours total)
- Participate in one one-hour partner phone call in December 2023 to discuss program updates and opportunities for collaboration
- Participate in potential media requests, including member engagement opportunities (Expected time commitment: 5-10 hours total)