West Virginia First Foundation opens applications to distribute opioid settlement money

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — After receiving $200 million in opioid settlement funds, the West Virginia First Foundation announced earlier this month that it would be opening applications for their initial opportunity grants for programs that combat the opioid crisis.

The West Virginia First Foundation is a private nonprofit the state legislature formed to distribute money from West Virginia’s opioid settlement.

“I think we understand as well as anyone that every dollar we have is because someone suffered or sadly passed away and so that duty and that responsibility is very clear to us,” Executive Director Jonathan Board said.

Board told 12 News that this initial round of grants is budgeted at $19.2 million and that more than 100 organizations have expressed interest in applying. The rubric that the organization uses to select organizations can be found here and includes criteria like the transparency of the organization, how evidence-based they are, and the measurability of impact.

With hundreds of millions of dollars in West Virginia First’s control, many have called for transparency and accountability in how the nonprofit distributes the money. Board said that there are mechanisms to address these concerns, including open board meetings. He also said that organizations applying for the grant money agree to impromptu visits and detailed reporting.

“We not only serve as an aggregate funding, but an aggregate of data, and we have to publicly publish these reports that come back, and we want eyes on from ourselves, our board members, our committee, the expert panel, but also every West Virginian,” Board said.

West Virginia will see soon enough how this opioid settlement money will be spent. The applications for the initial opportunity grant are due on Oct. 5 with West Virginia First planning to announce the recipients on Dec. 31.

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