Better Health Foundation

The mission of the Better Health Foundation (BHF) is to mobilize philanthropy to measurably improve community health for all the people of the 9-county greater Quad Cities region. BHF is committed to collaboration and the community, and uses its funding to produce community health results. The Foundation defines the greater Quad Cities region as encompassing nine counties, as follows: (Iowa) Cedar, Clinton, Louisa, Muscatine and Scott; (Illinois) Henry, Mercer, Rock Island and Whiteside. The vision of the Better Health Foundation is a region that thrives because all of the members of its communities are engaged in improving their health and that of their neighbors. BHF envisions engagement of individuals and communities in their own health improvements. The Foundation's role, and that of its grantees, is to enable community action. Better Health Foundation organizes its grantmaking into three thematic and one general area of work: Capacity Building and Service Support grants are intended to strengthen the operations and programs of nonprofits and nonprofit partnerships in the region so as to increase their service reach and their ability to generate significant community health results. Innovation grants are intended to bring new players, new methods, or new partnerships to community health priorities to improve community health results. The focus is on identifying and trying new ideas and new approaches, either created de novo in the region or replicated in the region from elsewhere in the nation where success has been experienced. Solutions at Scale grants are intended to enable initiatives with clear evidence of effectiveness to be adopted throughout the region by a significant number of organizations serving a significant number of communities. Discretionary grants are intended to respond to organizational emergencies of the region's nonprofits or to unexpected operational needs.