Go Back

Grant Programs

Smile Train funds hundreds of partners and programs throughout the world that help children in need receive cleft treatment their families could otherwise never afford.

Smile Train van

Grant Types

Becoming a Partner

All of our partners are united by a common goal: helping children who have no place else to turn. If this is your goal, too, we'd like to partner with you. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

Comprehensive Treatment Grants

Smile Train’s vision is to ensure every child with a cleft can lead a full and productive life. Our comprehensive treatment grants cover essential services such as specialized nutrition, speech therapy, dentistry, and orthodontic care for people with clefts throughout their lifetimes.

Education and Training Grants

Smile Train is committed to educating and training community health workers in cleft care. Our financial support ensures that healthcare professionals have access to first-rate educational opportunities, helping to improve the proficiency, safety, and quality of care they provide, even in areas with the least resources.

Equipment Grants

Safety and quality are Smile Train’s top priority. Equipment Grants are one of the primary means through which we improve the quality of cleft care services around the world while increasing the number of children we help. They provide funding for everything from cleft sets to pulse oximeters to the vans that help transport patients to treatment and allow medical professionals to expand their reach. 

Smile Grants

This program targets the most vulnerable families, those who could never make it in for treatment without additional financial support for travel, food, and lodging.

Outreach Grants

While local empowerment is at Smile Train’s core, there are high-need areas where no qualified treatment teams exist. In places like these, we help regional medical professionals reach these patients and build the capacity of local providers.

Awareness Grants

These grants support campaigns to educate people about clefts and treatment options, reducing stigma and ensuring people in need can reach our partner hospitals.

US/UK Cleft Team Grants

This initiative aims to reach underserved cleft patients right in our own backyard. These grants generally cover the costs of non-surgical care or travel and accommodations.

Treatment Partnerships

Smile Train provides financial support for treating clefts, empowering local health systems and medical providers in low-resource areas to treat local children with clefts whose families would not otherwise be able to afford this life-changing surgery.

Our Funding Principles

We Do:

  • Focus exclusively on programs related to cleft lip and palate.
  • Focus on the poorest countries with the highest incidence of clefts.
  • Support programs that provide free treatment for children whose families could not otherwise afford it.
  • Support doctors and hospitals that need financial assistance.
  • Leverage our support by cost-sharing with our partners.
  • Foster self-sufficiency in our partners.
  • Closely monitor and manage all of our programs and partners.
  • Require all of our partners to adhere to the highest standards of safety and quality.

We Don't:

  • Pay for treatment for children whose families can afford it.
  • Replace funding, or pay for surgeries that other organizations will pay for (government, insurance, charities, etc.).
  • Support organizations that do not provide safe and high-quality treatment.