Money, funds, and financing to support local wellness funds efforts can come from a number of different sources operating within and across the private and public sectors. Traditionally, funds to support these kinds of efforts have been derived from health care (e.g., health systems, hospitals, and health plans), public health (federal, state, and local), and philanthropy (health nonprofits and individual giving).
Some local wellness funds diversify their funding streams by identifying and engaging nontraditional and innovative sources. These sources include:
- Nonhealth and health care agencies
- Community Development Financial Institutions
- Banks
- Other socially engaged businesses
Innovation can also be achieved through the use of new and different types of funding or financing structures and attempting previously untried mechanisms of pooling or linking funds and reallocation of resources.
Hospitals Aligned for Healthy Communities Toolkit
This is a toolkit from the Democracy Collaborative, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The toolkit series provides hospital and health system leadership with place-based investing strategies, including case studies, checklists and performance measures. Local wellness funds can use these tools to develop place-invested investing strategies to produce positive outcomes in community health.
Western Idaho Community Health Collaborative: 2020 Legislative Session Handout
This two-page handout from the Western Idaho Community Health Collaborative is an example of messaging to request and advocate for funding from a state legislature. The Western Idaho Community Health Collaborative, a local wellness funds cohort site, used this document to make their case for 2020 legislature funding. Local wellness funds can utilize this example to create their own funding proposals geared towards a state legislature or policymaker.
Embracing an Anchor Mission: ProMedica’s all-in strategy
This report by ProMedica offers an in-depth look at how the Toledo, Ohio based health system aligned its institutional operations and clinical practices to address the social determinants of health. The report’s exploration of ProMedica’s decade-long journey to understand how their resources as a health care anchor could be used for the well-being of the communities, they serve is a useful guide for local wellness funds working closely with hospitals and health systems embarking on similar journeys.
Tapping into a Collective Vision: Emerging Strategies for Integrating Health and Housing
This report is by the Urban Institute and tells the story of a neighborhood-based collective impact initiative, Vita Health & Wellness District, in Stamford, Connecticut. The Vita Health & Wellness District has positioned itself as a “health-themed neighborhood,” offering mixed-income housing, health care services, community farming, early childhood education programming, and supportive services to residents. Local wellness funds interested in efforts to build physical and social capacity in distressed neighborhoods can use this report to learn from the Vita Health & Wellness District.
