American Heart Association

The Social Impact Funds

Funding Equitable Health and Well-being for All

A man standing in rows of vegetable plants at Bread and Butter Farms

Where you live shouldn’t determine how well, or how long, you live … but it does. The conditions in which we are born, live, learn, work, play and age — the social drivers of health — are a better predictor of health and life expectancy than our genetic code. In communities nationwide, people living in locations just a handful of miles apart can have a dramatic difference in life expectancy.

The American Heart Association’s Social Impact Funds were established to level the playing field.

Our financing fills a critical resource gap for traditionally overlooked and underfunded organizations — both for-profit and nonprofit — and catalyzes solutions that overcome barriers to high-quality, accessible health care, food security and economic empowerment. And for donors, we offer a unique opportunity to turn philanthropy into action that makes a real and exponential difference in peoples’ lives.

A collage of various American Heart Association Social Impact Funds portfolio members — Inspired by the vision and legacy of Bernard J. Tyson, we channel funding to organizations that use their leaders’ lived experience to tackle the social drivers of health so that all people have the opportunity to live longer, healthier lives.

Ensuring Equitable Health and Well-being in 3 Key Areas

Funding solutions that help ensure equitable health and well-being is one of the many ways the American Heart Association is advancing health and hope for everyone, everywhere. We tackle inequity by leveraging the power of our trusted brand, scientific expertise and grassroots network — tens of thousands of staff and volunteers across the U.S. and around the world.

See how the Social Impact Funds improve health equity and expand entrepreneurs’ access to capital

Accelerating Viability, Scalability and Sustainability

Our model pairs financing with capacity-building support, a combination that accelerates viability, scalability and sustainability for the organizations we fund. It’s also a model that can generate potential financial returns — all of which we recycle back into the program to improve health equity in more communities.