Five-year investment includes support for Mission Zero Initiative and Colby-Sawyer College MSW program

The Burkehaven Family Foundation announced a $3.75 million, five-year commitment to strengthen New Hampshire’s behavioral health system, the Foundation’s largest and most coordinated investment to date. The grants span workforce development, transitional housing, community mental health centers, and statewide advocacy, representing a comprehensive strategy to expand access, improve outcomes, and create lasting change for individuals and families navigating mental health challenges.

The Foundation’s largest single grant of $1.1M will support Colby-Sawyer College’s initiative to address that gap directly: expanding its Master of Social Work (MSW) program, funding scholarships to lower financial barriers to entry, and supporting graduates through licensure so they can enter the field as Licensed Independent Clinical Social Workers (LICSWs) and serve the communities that need them most.

“Our partnership with Mission Zero provides immediate, tangible relief while our commitment to Colby-Sawyer College looks to the future. One addresses the crisis in front of us; the other helps ensure we are building the workforce to prevent the next one,” explains Irfan Alibhai, president of the Burkehaven Family Foundation. “Our investment strategy emerged from a listening and research process that included conversations with grantees across New Hampshire, research on health workforce shortages, and field interviews with providers from grassroots organizations to statewide systems leaders. Together, these grants represent what we believe philanthropy can do at its best: serve the full continuum of need, from the most urgent to the most enduring.”

Read the full announcement here.