Health

We help build equity-focused systems of health that create opportunities for all people to achieve well-being.

Program Overview

We recognize that the path to healthy communities involves aligning and integrating systems to better serve the health of people with low incomes. Over the past 10 years, our Health Program has partnered with communities to make sure people have access to resources that support health such as safe, affordable housing, fresh food, clean air primary care and economic opportunities. To continue our work to increase health in America’s neighborhoods, we will build equity-focused systems of health.

An equity-focused system of health offers everyone an opportunity to have a healthy life regardless of race, gender or income. To achieve health equity in the United States, we must work across sectors to influence institutions, advance policies and develop leaders with the ability to transform systems to support the health and well-being for people of color in low-income communities.

We invest through these focus areas:

INTEGRATION OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

In partnership with the Human Services Program, we bridge the health and human services sectors to create more seamless, effective, and sustainable interventions that advance social and economic mobility and improve the health and well-being of people and communities.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTMENTS IN COMMUNITY HEALTH

We aim to influence the investment policies and practices of institutions to create equitable and sustainable economies that contribute to healthy communities. We also build the capacity of community-based organizations to absorb and deploy investment.

COMMUNITY-DRIVEN SOLUTIONS

We partner with communities to drive locally determined solutions and policies that influence systems, services and practices to create equitable conditions that improve well-being. Through community-driven solutions, we will support communities to improve housing quality and stability, environmental conditions and food systems. Improving these conditions promotes health equity among people in low-income neighborhoods and fosters improved health for entire communities.

How We Work

Grant opportunities are listed on the Health Program focus area pages, linked above, and on the Current Funding Opportunities page.

As we evaluate proposals, we look for efforts that:

Adopt an explicit equity lens.
Represent genuine community priorities.
Build community leadership and power.
Facilitate cross-sector partnerships and connections to achieve the community’s vision of health.
Link practitioners to objective evidence and science.
Promote community or population health.
Direct resources to upstream solutions.
Promote access to opportunities that can improve health.
Employ effective communication strategies.
Evaluate and disseminate the impact of health initiatives, programs and investments.

We rarely fund:

Projects that are primarily focused on direct health or social services.
Health education, promotion or counseling programs.
Research projects.
Organizations with annual budgets of less than $250,000, except when invited or when specified during a formal request-for-proposal process.
Construction or renovation of facilities, including the acquisition of medical equipment.
Projects whose total cost is less than $100,000, except when invited or when specified during a formal request-for-proposal process.

Funding Process

We use a full array of funding and investment tools to foster change, including project grants, operating support, planning grants and program-related investments. Program-related investments may take the form of direct loans, guarantees that provide credit support to borrowers or linked deposits. (Learn more about our social investing.)

Most of our grants span 1-3 years. We also use resources to convene partners to learn and lead. And, in certain situations, when project proposals offer opportunities to advance the goals of multiple teams, those teams will jointly fund the proposal.

We accept and review inquiries for some grants on an ongoing basis. There is no deadline. Other portions of our portfolio are developed through a time-limited, request for proposal process.

We announce Kresge’s grant opportunities on our website and through our weekly newsletter. You may be notified of these opportunities by subscribing to our newsletter, or by following @kresgefdn and/or @kresgehealth on Twitter.

Featured Grants and Initiatives

BUILD Health Challenge
The BUILD Health Challenge works closely with communities throughout the country to facilitate high-impact, upstream solutions to prevent and mitigate complex and emerging problems before they escalate into downstream crises. BUILD launched as a partnership with five funding partners: Advisory Board, de Beaumont Foundation, the Colorado Health Foundation, The Kresge Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Within two years, the partnership has grown to include new partners such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, Episcopal Health Foundation, Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, New Jersey Health Initiatives and Telligen Community Initiative.
Climate Change, Health & Equity
A joint effort between the foundation's Health and Environment Programs, the Climate Change, Health & Equity Initiative includes three distinct, but aligned strategies that seek to: build the capacity of health care and public health institutions as leaders in promoting climate resilience and advocating for beneficial climate policies; shift the practice of health care and public health practitioners so they engage in climate advocacy, influence public policy efforts important to climate resilience and incorporate climate change into their practice; and strengthen the leadership of community-based advocates to accelerate the implementation of policies that improve climate resilience and reduce health risks equitably.
Emerging Leaders in Public Health
The Emerging Leaders in Public Health initiative equips local public health officers with knowledge and skills to transform the role of public health in their community. This ongoing leadership development initiative launched in 2014 to equip local public health officers with knowledge and skills to lead in today’s changing health care environment. Pairs of public health leaders embark on an 18-month, action-oriented experience to undertake projects designed to enhance organizational and leadership competencies in business, planning and public health systems development.
Fresh, Local & Equitable
FreshLo brings together organizations focused on a common goal: to drive equitable and creative development that increases health in underserved communities. A joint initiative from the Arts & Culture and Health Programs, FreshLo provides funding, networking and technical assistance to organizations that incorporate creative placemaking into holistic approaches to neighborhood revitalization. Twenty-three nonprofit organizations and coalitions from across the nation are currently working design neighborhood-scale projects demonstrating creative, cross-sector visions of food-oriented development.