Since 1986, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation has been working to improve the health of all communities throughout Minnesota. This includes efforts to increase access to quality, affordable childcare, expand access to healthcare coverage, support safe, welcoming, and connected communities, and respond to urgent community needs.

To reach our goals, the Foundation strategically assesses the current state of health in Minnesota every four years. We listen to our grantee partners, learn about demographic trends, and reflect on recent accomplishments and challenges to best determine how we will continue to advance racial and health equity and build healthy generations.

Focusing for impact

The world has changed significantly since we unveiled our last strategic plan in 2019. Over the last four years we’ve experienced a global pandemic and a reckoning for racial justice throughout our country and state. These watershed moments continue to impact and influence the work and lives of our grantee partners and the communities we serve.

Over the next four years, the Foundation will continue its legacy of partnering with nonprofit organizations that are meaningfully engaged with the people they serve, with an intentional focus on addressing the root issues of health inequities – namely racism, discrimination, and marginalization of communities.

This work will focus on three key social drivers of health where we have strong partners, momentum, and history:

Equitable Care and Coverage

Uninsured people are far more likely than those with insurance to delay healthcare or go without it entirely – the effects of which can be devastating, particularly when preventable or life-threatening conditions are left untreated, or chronic diseases undetected.

Through the Equitable Care and Coverage program, the Foundation partners with nonprofits across the state to increase healthcare coverage, support community solutions to accessing equitable care, and increase awareness about communities most impacted by a lack of healthcare access.

Healthy Start

What happens in the first five years of life sets the stage for lifelong health – with children from low-income families receiving the greatest gains. Children who have access to quality, early childhood care and education go on to:

• Achieve higher levels of education
• Have increased employment and income in adulthood
• Have decreased crime and incarceration rates
• Have lower BMIs and rates of obesity

These outcomes all correlate with indicators of lifelong health. This strong connection to health is why the Blue Cross Foundation is continuing its nearly 20-year commitment to increasing access to early childhood care and education.

Healthy Connections

When people are connected to their community and feel a sense of belonging, they can experience better health outcomes. The opposite is also true, with social isolation potentially leading to increased stress, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and an increased risk of unhealthy behaviors like commercial tobacco use and excess alcohol consumption.

Through Healthy Connections, we work with grantee partners to build connections within and across communities and generations, and support efforts to address community trauma. This work helps create communities where all people feel a sense of belonging and have the support and resources needed to achieve their healthiest life.

Being intentional and responsive

Our state is rapidly aging and becoming more diverse. The Foundation will continue to evolve to meaningfully address community needs and support community partners. Keeping community at the center of all we do will help us build healthy generations so everyone can achieve their healthiest life.

Learn more

Download a summary of the Foundation’s strategic plan

Read more about Equitable Care and Coverage, Healthy Start and Healthy Connections

Subscribe to our newsletter to learn about future funding opportunities