Five years ago, five organizations shared a vision to advance health equity and sought to develop innovative approaches that could foster new norms grounded in community health. Their idea would become The BUILD Health Challenge® and eventually go on to influence and inspire more than 500 collaboratives—including community-based organizations, hospitals and health systems, and public health departments—to focus on cross-sector and community-driven partnership as a way to develop sustainable solutions to improve health in their communities.
Foundation Review Article
BUILD worked with the Foundation Review Journal to release, for the first time ever, the story behind BUILD’s funding collaborative and the origin of the program. In the new article titled, “Is More Always Better? A Reflection on the Dynamic Nature of Nationally and Regionally Focused Funder Collaboratives” BUILD funders reflect on the evolving composition, challenges, and outcomes related to the work of the funding collaborative.
In looking back at the last five years, it is worth pausing to reflect, and share what we have learned and experienced with this dynamic funding collaborative. To our knowledge, BUILD is the first such funding collaborative designed to include both nationally- and regionally-focused groups with an aim to change norms in community health.
Fundamental to BUILD is the acknowledgement that no one organization or individual can tackle our most pressing challenges alone. Alliances such as the one shared by the 16 funding collaborative members of BUILD are becoming increasingly important in the quest for social change. Large scale challenges like climate change, political polarization, and racial and economic inequity require contributions from across sectors to create meaningful impact. We share this article in the hopes that it will inspire, inform, and invite further exploration into funding collaboratives as an approach for greater change.
