We are sharing the new strategy that will guide Point32Health Foundation’s work beginning in 2025. This reflects hundreds of hours of thinking, conversations, and reflections with communities in the states we serve. So it is with gratitude and deep appreciation that we acknowledge the community leaders and organizations who contributed wisdom and insights through listening sessions, focus groups and conversations. This could not have happened without you.

The work reflects a shared sense of urgency as communities grapple with growing inequities and changing demographics. It also affirms Point32Health Foundation’s commitment to being grounded in and responsive to community context.

This new direction is guided by the Foundation’s north star, our mission and the core principles of our philanthropic approach. It is relevant to where we are today, builds on the legacy of our predecessor foundations and is designed to grow as we learn from community.

This is an evolution for the Foundation. Still, we remain committed to following community's lead—engaging as an advocate, capacity-builder, catalyst, convener and funder.

View the webinar recording below to learn more about this transition.

   

Accumulated inequities influence aging

Renewing and deepening Point32Health Foundation’s commitment to equity in aging will improve conditions for those bearing the greatest risks and burdens of inequitable systems.  Essential for communities to thrive and for individuals to experience high quality of life, we must address issues upstream. Equitable access means eliminating systemic racism, including barriers that limit opportunities. Expanding age-friendly communities positively impacts people of all ages and abilities.

Relationships based on

Equity

• Being anti-racist
• Using inclusive language to advance asset-based approaches in our work

Transparency

• Monitoring our progress, engage in learning, increase our understanding, and identify where we can support strong work
• Identifying where we can address gaps (modified from redundant one in operating)
• Learning from community and sharing lessons

Humility

• Being grounded in and responsive to community context
• Being accessible, a "good listener" and follow those doing the work
• Trusting what community organizations say, act on what they share
• Have community define "older people“
• Learning about changing inequitable systems from community perspective  

Community-led solutions

What we will focus on for impact

• Upstream work addressing community factors that affect the health of older adults (i.e., root causes and the social determinants; we do not offer grant funding for medical care)
• Continue to support food systems and mental health, key factors to address when tackling equity in aging

What we will fund

• Capacity-building defined by in organizations that are for, by and about communities of color and others experiencing systemic barriers
• General operating grants
• Multi-year grants

We will support organizations that

• Work on community-based interventions
• Engage in initiatives with the potential to dismantle racist systems
• Work in communities historically disinvested—especially people of color and others experiencing systemic barriers—and connected to the people they serve
• Use disruptive approaches to influence systems beyond individual organizations
• Show promise—they may be unproven—and take risk

How to define older people

We believe those most proximate to an issue are best positioned to define older adults in their community because people's experience of aging is based on lived experience. When people of color, people with disabilities and people who face systemic barriers grow older, a lifetime of inequities exacerbate health disparities.