FUNDING

The letters “bi” honor the Bethesda Inc. heritage. The number “3” recognizes that Bethesda Inc.’s grantmaking initiative is built on three core elements – ideas, investments and impact.

The bi3 Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization, founded and funded by Bethesda Inc. to transform health in Greater Cincinnati.

Bethesda Inc. is bi3’s parent organization, a co-sponsor of TriHealth, and provides oversight for Bethesda Foundation.

Bethesda Foundation cultivates major gifts in support of specific projects at Bethesda hospitals, Hospice of Cincinnati and Fernside.

bi3 defines a racial and health equity lens as an approach that explicitly considers race, ethnicity and the social drivers of health when analyzing issues, designing solutions and defining success.

A racial and health equity lens helps us understand disparities in health and examine the root causes of inequities in order to more successfully design approaches and solutions that build a healthier future for all. 

bi3 has typically awarded two or more large-scale grants each year, in addition to smaller grants in our bi3 priority areas. The exact number varies from year to year.

Click here to learn more about current and future RFPs.

The bi3 Fund invests in partnerships, policies, and initiatives to achieve health equity in our community. Except in rare cases, bi3 does not sponsor community events.

The bi3 Fund has developed Indirect Cost Rate Guidance to support costs not directly attributable to projects or activities funded by bi3 grants. Learn more.

Yes. While each bi3 RFP is tailored and unique, below is a list of previous funding opportunities:

• April 2024 – Request for Applications: Building Health Equity in Butler County
• February 2024 – Request for Applications: Black Maternal Health Week 2024
• December 2023 – Calling Greater Cincinnati high school and junior high school students to participate in World Teen Mental Wellness Day
• August 2023 – Funding available for nonprofits seeking to improve equitable data collection and evaluation
• May 2023 – Black Empowerment grant program seeking funding applications
• January 2023 – Calling Hamilton County, Ohio high school students to participate in World Teen Mental Wellness Day
• September 2022 – Request for Proposals: Data for Equity Funding Collaborative
• January 2022 – Request for Proposals: Building Health Equity
• August 2020 – Request for Proposals: Transforming Health through Capacity Building

bi3 awards grants to 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations improving health outcomes in Hamilton County, Butler County, Warren County and Clermont County in Ohio.

No. However, we encourage you to list potential partners you have approached and/or are interested in working with to implement your project. That said, we encourage you to open a dialogue with potential partners before submission and include letters of support where possible.

bi3 aims to support a variety of grants that work across the Six Conditions of Systems Change in each of its focus areas.

An individual grantee may address one or more of the conditions in their work (such as policy and advocacy work to shift policy/regulatory conditions, designing and testing new practices or approaches, or building key relationships and collaborations), but bi3 does not expect an organization or project to address all of the conditions.

Our aim is that, as we look across all of our grantees in a focus area, our partners are collectively addressing the conditions for systems change and making it possible for our community to shift the systems holding our collective challenges in place. 

The bi3 Fund’s parent organization, Bethesda Inc. is co-sponsor of TriHealth. bi3 provides grant funding to its strategic partner, TriHealth, to accelerate innovation and address health disparities.

No. However, bi3 is interested in projects that have a relationship with TriHealth in some capacity, either as an active partner or through participation on boards or advisory committees.

bi3 works to co-create a definition of success with individual grantees that could include improvements in individual health outcomes, capturing learning, forming new partnerships, changing how an issue or population of focus is understood, and driving new approaches and ways of thinking. Ultimately, we aim to work with partners to impact the Six Conditions of Systems Change. 

After receiving a grant from bi3, the partner will be invited to an onboarding meeting with bi3 staff where we will review bi3’s approach to trust-based partnerships and the process of working with bi3.