With its third and final round of awards for 2025, Vaccines Defend What Matters (VDWM) has now invested in 23 projects across the state this year – each designed to fund healthy Texas communities.
VDWM is the Texas Medical Association’s integrated, multimedia public health education and advocacy effort to overcome vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccination rates in Texas.
As part of this effort, TMA Foundation (TMAF) offers grants of up to $3,500 to fund vaccination activities, educational resources, and community outreach events. County medical societies, TMA Alliance chapters, medical student chapters, and TMA member-physician practices/clinics can apply. In 2025, more than $70,000 was awarded in total through VDWM to support immunizations in Texas.
The VDWM grant program funds a wide range of local efforts, from mobile vaccine clinics to back-to-school immunization drives. Awardees are expected to be involved in programs or events that either directly provide vaccinations or promote vaccine education.
Round three awardees represent a mix of rural and urban regions across Texas, ensuring broad reach for the initiative’s community-based approach. Meet the grant recipients bringing vaccines to their communities:
- Frontera de Salud, which, partnered with the UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine student groups, will provide free flu vaccines and health education to improve health literacy and reduce barriers to care.
- Internal Medicine Associates of Houston, which will host a free flu vaccination and education drive in the Pearland/Houston area, targeting underserved, high-risk, and elderly populations.
- The Smith County Medical Society, which will provide free flu vaccines and health screenings to uninsured adults and children in Smith County.
- Titus Regional Medical Foundation, which will provide free flu vaccines and health screenings to uninsured and at-risk adults in Titus County.
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, partnering with Cameron County Public Health, which will expand Frontera de Salud’s Brownsville mission trip by adding free flu vaccinations and targeted education for uninsured and medically underserved adults.
- The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, which will host multiple vaccine fairs across the Rio Grande Valley, offering free flu and COVID-19 vaccines and health screenings to uninsured children and adults.
- The University of North Texas Health Science Center Foundation, which will provide free flu vaccines and health education to uninsured adult refugees, underserved residents, and unhoused individuals in Tarrant County.
TMAF issues three rounds of VDWM grants per year, meaning funding is now closed for 2025. Grant applications for 2026 open in December.
Applicants whose focus is in areas of greatest need receive priority funding. These include Texas counties with low immunization rates and high rates of conscientious exemptions.
For more information, visit TMA’s VDWM webpage.
Last Updated On
October 22, 2025
Originally Published On
October 22, 2025
Alisa Pierce
Reporter, Division of Communications and Marketing
(512) 370-1469