Address: 1800 Concord Pike, PO Box 14537 Wilmington, DE 19850
Email: connectionsforcardivascularhealth@astrazeneca.com
Web: www.astrazeneca-us.com/foundation
The AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation (AZHCF) was first established in 1993 to advance health in the U.S. In 2009, the AZHCF received a $25 million contribution from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals to establish its signature program, Connections for Cardiovascular HealthSM(CCH) to address cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death in the United States. Since then, the AZHCF has received an additional $8 million to continue the work of the CCH program.
The AZHCF is a Delaware nonprofit corporation and a 501(c)(3) entity, separate from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, organized for charitable purposes including to promote public awareness and education of health care issues and support eligible nonprofit organizations in alignment with its mission.
The AZHCF’s CCH program provides grants to United States-based organizations that utilize innovative approaches to help people from diverse communities and populations, including African American, Asian, Caucasian, Latino, and Native American, across the country improve their heart health and include underserved and uninsured children and adults from urban and rural areas.
Program Information:
The AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation focuses on three key programs:
Connections for Cardiovascular HealthSM (CCH) is the signature program of the AZHCF, with a mission to improve cardiovascular health across the United States. Since its inception in 2010, CCH has provided grants to over 50 United States-based nonprofit organizations with innovative community-based programs that work to address specific unmet cardiovascular needs of the communities they serve. The AZHCF engages with its university evaluation partners to rigorously assess each program several times throughout the grant cycle and, more recently, has supported its Grant Awardees in their efforts to share lessons learned from their CCH-funded programs, so that other organizations may benefit from their work.
The AstraZeneca Employee Disaster Relief Fund provides modest respite and relief support to AstraZeneca employees impacted by federally-qualified natural disasters in the United States.
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), now a legacy program, began as a collaboration of national public service organizations, professional medical associations, and government agencies that came together to promote breast cancer awareness, share information on the disease, and provide greater access to services. NBCAM lives on through the work of its previous collaborating partners who are dedicated to educating and empowering women to take charge of their own breast health. From 2013 to 2017, the AZHCF provided small grants to the collaborating partners to support their efforts.
Financial Information:
Total Assets: $6.1 million FY18
Amount Dedicated to Health-Related Grants: $1.16 million (2018)
- Special Initiatives and/or Representative Health and Human Services Grants:Connections for Cardiovascular HealthSM (CCH)—The AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation awarded CCH grants to 11 nonprofit organizations in 2018 working to help prevent and/or manage cardiovascular disease by conducting programs for at-risk groups and tailoring activities and information to the needs and culture of their community members.The programs focus on screenings, education, disease management, and access to healthcare and reach out through clinics, community centers, schools, and more. Techniques such as support groups, mobile health units, grocery store tours, and high school interns serving as community health workers are utilized to engage and support program participants. Eight of the 11 organizations also received funding to share lessons learned from their CCH-funded programs through conference presentations, program toolkits, and publications and/or by mentoring three newly-funded organizations to help them successfully launch and manage their programs.The nonprofit organizations that received funding include: Asian Health Coalition, Catherine’s Health Center, Chesapeake Charities Inc., Mallory Community Health, Mercy Hospital Foundation Inc., Sankofa Community Development Corporation, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, St. Mary’s Health Wagon, University of Mississippi, West Virginia Health Right Inc., and Westminster Free Clinic. ($1,166,757)
The Role of Philanthropy in Meeting Pressing Needs
“We believe the role of philanthropy has the potential to be impactful beyond simply funding organizations. Through capacity building and collaborative efforts, funders can assist grant awardees in increasing program impact and sustainability—and when this happens, it’s their community members that benefit most. We look forward to discovering new ways to further this ripple effect.”
– Rich Buckley, President, AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation