Gary and Mary West Foundation

About Gary and Mary West Foundation

The Gary and Mary West Foundation’s largest 2023 grant went to the Gary and Mary West Health Policy Center Inc for work on innovative healthcare delivery models and alternative payment models to improve care and access for seniors. That single award shows the foundation’s core approach: fund system-level changes that can alter how older adults receive care, while also supporting direct-service organizations that reach seniors day to day. Across its grantmaking, the foundation backs senior oral health, integrated care coordination, aging policy, PACE-related models, and efforts tied to safer aging in place. Some grants are aimed at policy and research organizations, while others support clinics and community providers delivering services such as oral health care, benefits counseling, home repairs, and senior wellness programming. The foundation also supports collaborations and model-building efforts. In 2023, it funded the Gary and Mary West Senior Dental Center Inc to provide low-income seniors with oral healthcare through an integrated, community-based model of care, and it supported The Scan Foundation on California’s Master Plan for Aging work. The mix of policy, delivery, and community services defines how the foundation funds.

What Gary and Mary West Foundation Funds

Senior oral health is one of the clearest themes in the foundation’s grantmaking. In 2023, it gave $900,000 to Gary and Mary West Senior Dental Center Inc to provide low-income seniors with oral healthcare through an integrated, community-based model of care, and another $306,000 to the same organization for oral healthcare for PACE and community seniors at the San Marcos outpatient dental clinic. It also supports integrated care for older adults. Serving Seniors received $112,500 for integrated care coordination, while Creighton University received $50,000 for the geriatric collaborative care project. These grants point to interest in coordinating services across settings rather than funding isolated programs. Aging policy and planning is another thread. The Scan Foundation received $150,000 for the California Master Plan for Aging project and $25,000 for the Sacramento conference tied to that work. The foundation also backed The Milken Institute with $25,000 for the Alliance to Improve Dementia Care steering committee, linking policy work with dementia-focused systems improvement.

How Gary and Mary West Foundation Gives