OUR APPROACH

The bi3 Fund believes everyone should have a full, fair and just opportunity for well-being. Yet health is shaped by more than individual choices. Policies, practices, resources, relationships, power and shared beliefs all influence whether people and communities can thrive.

bi3 works alongside community members, nonprofit organizations, healthcare partners and public leaders to improve these conditions and create lasting change. We bring a racial and health equity lens to our grantmaking, build trust-based partnerships, foster collaboration and share what we and our partners are learning so promising approaches can grow and spread.

Systems Change

Lasting improvements in health require us to look beyond individual programs and services to the broader conditions shaping people’s lives. Systems change means working together to address underlying barriers and redesign structures so they work better for everyone.

No single organization—including bi3—can create this change alone. Progress happens when community members and organizations of different types and sizes bring their knowledge, experiences and resources together around a shared goal.

bi3 leverages FSG’s Six Conditions of Systems Change as a framework to help us understand the conditions impacting our focus areas and guide thinking around action opportunities. These conditions include: 

• Policies, rules and regulations (e.g. advocating to expand Medicaid coverage for health conditions or services) 

• Practices, procedures and activities (e.g. creating a new practice or approach to delivering mental health services) 

• Resource (money, knowledge, etc.) flows (e.g. launching a training program to increase community support for mental health)  

• Relationships and connections (e.g. bringing together new partners to collaborate on a health issue) 

• Power dynamics and decision-making power (e.g. supporting community leadership in designing approaches to improve health) 

• Mental models, beliefs and assumptions (e.g. conducting community listening sessions to address stigmatized health issues) 

Across each focus area, bi3 seeks to build a portfolio of investments that addresses these interconnected conditions. We partner with organizations working to change one or more of these conditions and invite them to learn, adapt and share insights alongside us.

Grantmaking is only one of the tools bi3 brings to this work. We also use our relationships, knowledge, voice and convening power to strengthen collaboration, advance effective ideas and help create the conditions in which everyone can thrive.