Be Wise — Immunize Local Impact Grants

TMA’s Be Wise – Immunize^SM offers grants of up to $2,500 to fund vaccination events. County medical societies, TMA Alliance chapters, medical student chapters, and TMA member-physician practices/clinics can apply.

Grants can fund shot clinics to vaccinate underserved and uninsured children, adolescents, and adults. And, new in 2020, grants can be used for an event to educate about vaccinations. 

During 2020, applicants who host events in areas of greatest need will receive priority funding. These include Texas counties with high exemption rates, low vaccination coverage rates, or both.

Apply for a Grant

Shot Clinic Action Plan: Use this worksheet to start planning your shot clinic.

Grant proposals (log-in required) are accepted on or before March 15 and July 1. Be Wise will award grants two times annually following these submission deadlines. TMAF should receive grant applications by a submission deadline that is four to six months in advance of a shot clinic to ensure adequate time to process funding before the event.

For help planning a vaccination event, check out the Be Wise — Immunize Quick Start Manual: A Step-by-Step Vaccination Outreach Guide.  

For more information, contact Tammy Wishard, TMA’s outreach coordinator, at (512) 370-1470. 

Preparing for Your Event

Local Impact Grant Checklist: Follow this step-by-step guide to planning your event.

Sample Letters to Request Donations for Your Event:  

• Here’s a letter to help you solicit monetary donations for your event. 
• Here’s a letter to help you solicit in-kind donations for your event.  

Educational Materials/Merchandise Order Form (PDF): TMA’s one-stop shop to order your Be Wise promotional and educational materials, and giveaways for the kids, and to reserve our bee mascot costume.

Sample news release: Publicize your event using this sample news release.

Photo release forms: Children (English and Spanish), or adult (English and Spanish). Taking photos at your event is important. TMA can use these in our publications or you can send them to the newspaper for follow-up coverage of your event. Use this form to permission to photograph a child or adult. Without this form, a photograph cannot be reprinted.

Event Photography Tips: Use these tips to capture winning photos at your event.

Read What Others are Saying About the Local Impact Grants

2020 Local Impact Grants Awarded

The TMA Foundation approved these Be Wise – Immunize Local Impact Grants this summer to help TMA Family members host events to vaccinate Texans:  

Naureen I. Agha, MD, will provide flu shots at a drive-through event at City of Knowledge in The Colony. 

Stephanie Diehlmann, MD, and The Well Health Center, Cactus, will provide vaccinations for school children in various Panhandle communities with the addition of a portable refrigerator. 

El Paso Pediatric Associates will provide flu vaccinations to children and their families at a drive-through Healthy Halloween Health Fair in El Paso.

Lamar-Delta County Medical Society and Paris-Lamar County Health District will give flu shots to local adults at its seventh annual drive-through clinic in Paris.

McGovern Medical School at UTHealth TMA Chapter will partner with the HOMES Clinic, a student-run medical clinic for homeless people, to offer flu vaccinations at the Beacon homeless shelter in Houston.  

Nueces County Medical Society Alliance will provide flu shots with two organizations that serve the homeless and low-income residents of Corpus Christi.

Travis County Medical Society Alliance will host a drive-through flu shot clinic in Round Rock for uninsured and underinsured residents. 

The University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine Family Medicine lnterest Group will give flu shots in Galveston at The Luke Society Clinic, an open-air clinic serving people who are homeless.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School TMA Chapter and Café Momentum, in conjunction with the Care Van®, will provide flu shots in Dallas. Other childhood vaccinations will be available for Café Momentum interns and their families. 

Rodolfo Uriegas, MD, along with Sacred Heart Community Clinic in Round Rock, is offering flu shots to its clients during clinic appointments this fall. 

These grants were approved in the spring: 

Bell County Medical Society will vaccinate patients at Body of Christ Community Clinic against flu. Uninsured residents from Belton, Salado, Temple, and Troy are treated in the clinic.

Lata Joshi, MD, and Lone Star Family Health Center, Conroe, will provide back-to-school vaccinations, along with a well-child visit, for at least 100 uninsured kindergarteners through 12^th graders in Montgomery County this summer.

David Krusleski, MD, and Spring Branch Community Health Center will provide back-to-school vaccinations to Houston elementary and middle-school students at its clinics in Cypress, Houston, and Katy.

Lubbock County Medical Society Alliance, along with the South Plains Immunization Network, will give flu vaccinations in conjunction with two local food pantries, one that serves homeless residents and another that serves families who are food insecure in a multi-county area. Hepatitis A and pneumococcal vaccinations also will be provided for the homeless residents.

University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM) TMA Chapter will work with Refugee Health Initiative, a student organization at TCOM, to vaccinate residents against flu in two refugee communities.

UT Health San Antonio Long School of Medicine TMA Chapter will vaccinate women at Alpha Home, a rehabilitation center, against flu. Most center residents are uninsured. Pride Community Clinic (PCC) patients also will receive flu shots at a separate event. PCC is a student-run clinic that provides medical care to local uninsured adult LGBTQ+ patients.

See all the Be Wise – Immunize Local Impact Grant Recipients

2019 Grant Recipients

2018 Grant Recipients

2017 Grant Recipients

2016 Grant Recipients

2015 Grant Recipients

2014 Grant Recipients 

2013 Grant Recipients   

2012 Grant Recipients  

  Be Wise — Immunize main page