Opportunity Fund
Through our Opportunity Fund, we’re challenging outmoded ways of thinking and testing concepts that explore ways to disrupt the status quo.
What kind of ideas are we looking for?
We are looking for ideas that align with our mission and core values and will create impactful and sustainable systems-level change on significant health issues. We are interested in concepts that challenge systems that create and perpetuate inequities by shifting the conditions that hold them in place.
The Opportunity Fund enables us to respond to emerging issues and test new or innovative approaches that may be unique to the state. Ideas can also be based on existing, promising, or effective models that can be tested with new audiences or geographies. Projects may also test the viability and sustainability of an idea on a small scale.
Through previous Opportunity Fund projects, we have made strategic investments in ideas that have worked to tackle structural inequities and shift power structures, built collaborative networks, reached broad populations, or generated community-led solutions.
Some of the most promising Opportunity Fund ideas have authentically engaged impacted communities, had policy or practice implications that reached beyond an individual organization, or used creative problem solving. We want to partner with you to build on those successes.
How can a strategic investment turn into sustainable change?
One illustration of systems work is our partnership with Missouri Appleseed that used the changemaker model to create the kind of change we’re looking for. Appleseed identified a health issue – a lack of access to period products for women in Missouri prisons – that was potentially causing high rates of vaginal infections. By working with us, Appleseed was able to perform the necessary research to support their assumption.
Changemaker model
Thanks to Appleseed’s efforts, findings from the research were passed to Missouri legislators. With bipartisan support, more than $113,000 was set aside in Missouri’s 2020 budget to purchase period products for state prisons. Through our partnership with Appleseed, we were able to turn a strategic investment into long-term sustainable change.
Other Opportunity Fund projects
Clean, Safe Neighborhoods
Healthy Teeth and Gums
Ready to get started?
The next round of Opportunity Fund will open in late June.
Make sure you sign up for our mailing list to be notified when the next round opens. You can also reach out to one of staff to discuss your idea. Please use this form and select Opportunity Fund from the drop down menu.
