Grants

(Hindi Translation)

We seek to partner with innovative, inclusive and holistic initiatives that aim to make mental well-being accessible to the most marginalized communities and persons.

Grants Announcement:

Due to a high volume of applications received in the last grant cycle, MHI has temporarily closed applications for new grant requests until 1 March 2026.

Exceptions to this closure will apply from 5 January 2026, as outlined below:

  • Expression of Interest (EOI) submissions will be accepted for work in the areas of suicide prevention, climate change, and research. Organisations shortlisted through the EOI process may be invited to submit a full concept note.
  • Grant applications in Indigenous Mental Health will be accepted only from organisations founded by or led by Indigenous persons.

All other grant applications will resume on 1 March 2026.

We encourage organisations to review these guidelines carefully before applying.

Types of Grants

Program development
Conferences/Seminars
Continuing Support
Grants to activists / Collectives
Matching Support
Collectives
Operating Support
Capacity Building
Know more about our ideal partner profile >

Our funding priorities

MHI's core funding emphasis is on creating a well-rounded mental health ecosystem. We are interested in working with organizations and collectives that are invested in addressing needs – especially of variously marginalized communities – and using innovative methodologies to promote mental health and well-being.

We prefer to fund:

  • Organizations/ collectives without any existing institutional funder, foreign or domestic (an institutional funder is any philanthropy, foundation, funding agency, or CSR support)
  • Organizations/ collectives led by persons from marginalized communities
  • Organizations/ collectives in marginalized/low-resource geographical regions within India (i.e. Northeast region, Bihar, Jharkhand, J&K, etc ). Preference is given to organizations outside of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka.

360 ° Approach

We believe in a mental health ecosystem that addresses mental health concerns holistically, using five pillars: creating awareness; quality training; effective service delivery; a robust referral system; ongoing research.

Community-Based, People-Driven

Mental health and well-being require practices other than the prevailing models of blanket institutionalization and medicalization. We are looking for organizations informed by this premise, and working to evolve diverse methodologies.

Universal Access

We believe that mental well-being is a universal concern and that mental health services must, therefore be made accessible to marginalize persons and communities.

Demystification and Erasing Stigma

These are important strategies for encouraging people to access mental health resources, and to create a more open climate in which to talk about mental health.

Grant making for potential partner projects

Potential applicants must acquaint themselves with MHI's funding philosophy as outlined in these documents:

Application Guidelines

1
Basic Outline Email grants@mariwalahealthinitiative.org with an outline of the proposed project.
2
Project proposal & plan Once MHI has expressed interest, a detailed project proposal, an implementation plan with performance metrics, and a detailed budget is required, along with information about the applying organization.
3
Project Approval If accepted, the formal agreement between the parties will include the activities and indicators agreed upon, as well as the budgetary commitments to be met and reporting processes to be fulfilled by the applicant partner.

Project Phase

4
Progress Reports Partners must submit quarterly, or six-monthly, progress and financial reports. These would include targets met, descriptions of challenges and how these were mitigated, and activity outcomes.
5
Final Reports At the end of the grant period, organizations must submit a final project report and a final financial report.
6
External Evaluation & Future Plans A project evaluation report would be prepared by an external agency, based on previously agreed upon terms. The partner organization would be asked to detail if, and how, in the absence of the MHI grant, it plans to implement project goals in the future.