We envision a society where everyone lives in healthy communities and the benefit of good health is equally accessible to all.
Dr. Atul Gawande and FSG’s Mark Kramer discuss the untapped potential for community-based funders to transform the cost and quality of health care in the United States.
FSG helps clients understand and adapt to the changing and increasingly uncertain health care landscape. As focus and payments shift from volume to value of care, FSG can help organizations from the public, private, and social sector develop coordinated and comprehensive strategy and learning systems to enhance organization sustainability and improve community health.
FSG leverages our experience working in non-health areas, such as education and community development, to help clients address the social determinants of health to achieve their health improvement goals. We understand that factors outside the health care delivery system, such as housing instability and conditions, food insecurity, and neighborhood quality, contribute to persistent health disparities that have substantial human, societal, and economic costs. In order to help address this challenging national problem, we have placed health equity at the heart of our work.
FSG has extensive experience building and guiding cross-sector, collaborative, collective impact initiatives in health. Creating optimal health for communities and populations requires a systemic effort. We help clients identify opportunities to align health care efforts among a diverse array of actors, including foundations, hospitals and health systems, health insurers, public agencies, and corporations. Our combination of rigorous data analysis, skilled facilitation, comprehensive systems thinking, and deep passion for social change has helped these stakeholders jointly promote improved health for millions of people.
U.S. Health Projects
FSG has worked across the country with a wide array of actors, including public and private foundations; health care providers; state, local, and federal public and health agencies; and public and private payers, in both urban and rural settings. This diverse experience helps us appreciate the distinct context of each client and create customized insights and recommendations.
- Our clients include: Aetna Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, The California Endowment, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, GE Foundation, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, Kaiser Permanente Community Health, The Kresge Foundation, National Council of La Raza, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, St. David’s Foundation, The Tufts Health Plan Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
- Place-based health initiatives include: University of California San Francisco on preterm birth prevention in Fresno, Staten Island Foundation on infant mortality and youth substance abuse, Children’s Medical Center of Dallas on asthma and obesity, and Methodist Healthcare Ministries on diabetes prevention in San Antonio.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Methodist Healthcare Ministries
Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice
Ford Foundation
St. David's Foundation
Senior Director for Community Health Impact and Learning
Kaiser Permanente Community Health
How We Work
- Adept at working on complex problems through multi-sector collaboration: Improving the health of communities requires an ability and willingness to work with partners from other sectors to address complex health issues and enhance their ability to learn from one another. We have experience advising leading health-focused institutions across sectors (e.g., foundations, providers, insurers, governments), both individually and collectively.
- Fluent in health, health care, and social determinants of health: FSG has deep experience working with clients to design strategies that encompass a broad set of health and health care delivery issues. FSG has a deep understanding of the intersection between public health and health care delivery and has partnered with clients seeking to improve health at the population level through understanding and addressing the complex and interrelated social and environmental conditions that influence health.
- Facility working with clients facing a transforming health care and public health landscape: FSG understands the implications of changes in health care delivery and financing and has a proven ability to co-create solutions and innovate with clients. FSG teams can quickly customize and adapt content and process to meet the unique needs of individual clients. FSG can serve as a facilitative or strategy consultancy as clients’ needs change.
Research and Tools
- Health Care and the Competitive Advantage of Racial Equity
How advancing racial equity can create business value. - Breaking the Barriers to Specialty Care
Practical ideas to improve health equity and reduce cost. - Transforming Health Care Delivery
Two primers explore California’s transition from volume-based to value-based care, including opportunities for innovation and the increase in attention paid to factors outside of health care that influence a person’s wellbeing. - Better Outcomes, Lower Costs
An interview with Dr. Atul Gawande on how community-based funders can transform U.S. health care. - The California Endowment Strategic Review
Three years into its 10-year, $1 billion commitment to Building Healthy Communities, leaders of The California Endowment decided to “hit the pause button” and commission an external assessment of the implementation of its strategy to date. Two Decades of Investment in Substance-Use Prevention and Treatment
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation made an unprecedented philanthropic investment in substance-use prevention and treatment, driving substantial evolution in the field.- See all U.S. health resources >
- U.S. health blog >