A New Chapter for Missouri Foundation for Health
For 25 years, Missouri Foundation for Health has worked alongside communities, nonprofits, advocates, and leaders to create a region where everyone has a fair chance to live their healthiest life.
In 2027, we’re entering a new chapter.
Our mission remains the same: to eliminate the underlying causes of health inequities, transform systems, and enable individuals and communities to thrive. What is changing is how we pursue that mission.
Through the years, we’ve learned that lasting change happens when communities hold the resources, relationships, and power to identify their own priorities and shape their own solutions. That’s why we’re evolving our approach to ensure communities are at the center of progress.
Rather than organizing our work primarily around Foundation-designed initiatives, we’ll focus on supporting community-led efforts, strengthening local capacity, and investing in the conditions for change that will help communities thrive over the long term.
Our Plan for a Healthier Missouri:
Communities Leading the Way
Our work will focus on three connected approaches that support communities in our service area at different stages while strengthening the broader conditions needed for lasting change.
We’ll forge long-term partnerships with a select number of communities across Missouri, working alongside local leaders and organizations to strengthen relationships, build capacity, and support collective action around the issues that matter most to them.
These collaborations will be shaped by community priorities and informed by local knowledge, lived experience, and data.
We’ll support promising opportunities that are emerging across Missouri – whether they’re new ideas, early-stage collaborations, or unconventional approaches.
These investments may include learning and relationship-building efforts, convening sponsorships, planning grants, technical assistance, and other flexible supports designed to help work take root and grow. This approach allows us to remain dynamic and responsive, helping nurture innovative concepts and explore new possibilities.
Lasting progress requires more than local action. It also depends on strong statewide infrastructure that connects communities, amplifies their priorities, and fosters opportunities for people across the state to work and advocate together. We’ll invest in organizations, networks, and resources to build collective power, support learning, strengthen policy and advocacy efforts, and build public will.
Looking Ahead
As we move forward, we remain committed to listening, learning, and working in partnership with communities across our state. While some details are still being developed, our direction is clear: support the people and communities closest to the challenges and help create the conditions for them to lead enduring change.
We look forward to sharing more in the months ahead as we continue building this next chapter together.
“We Believe Communities Have Power”
In this short video, Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis shares what excites her about our new direction, what it means to put communities at the center of our work, and how this new direction builds on 25 years of partnership across the region.
Frequently Asked Questions
Over 25 years, we’ve learned that lasting change happens when communities hold the resources, relationships, and power to identify their own priorities and shape their own solutions. This evolution is in response to the urgency of our current moment, along with feedback from the communities and partners we work alongside.
We’re changing how we go about working with communities and defining issue areas. Over the long term, our previous initiative work will move to the website’s Legacy section. This is not to say that we won’t work in these issue areas again, but they will be set up and led in a different way than before.
We are being thoughtful about the off-ramps of our work and how we sunset and transition current efforts.
Yes! We’re committed to investing in communities, organizations, and people across Missouri. As our strategy evolves, some funding approaches will look different than they have in the past, with greater emphasis on community-led collaborations and ecosystem building. We are also honoring all current, ongoing grants.
Some opportunities will move with us in this new strategy, like MoCAP. As we transition to our new approach, the way we make investments will evolve. We’ll be able to answer questions about how the mechanics of grantmaking will change as our approach develops.
We are in the early stages of identifying potential long-term partner communities. Community interest is one factor we are considering, but at this stage we are not soliciting direct requests or applications. We’ll share more as the process develops.
We plan to officially launch in early 2027; some elements of the transition are already underway.
Remember that the launch date marks a beginning, not a finish line. Our strategy will keep evolving – shaped by our partnerships with communities across the state. We see this as a living process, and learning and adjusting is part of the work.
Have Questions?
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