The Rx Foundation was founded by Serena M. Hatch in 2002 with the goal of improving health care in the United States. Since its inception, the Foundation has made grants of more than $35 million to more than 100 organizations: hospitals and medical centers, other nonprofits focused on health and healthcare, community organizations, and research entities working on solutions to problems impeding the delivery of safe, high-quality, humanistic health care to all citizens.
The Rx Foundation’s initial focus was on improving the delivery of care within hospitals and clinics. It supported innovators and approaches to systemic change, and scaling that change. It funded initiatives in diverse areas including childbirth, eldercare, and patient safety.
Because improving health care includes improving who has access to care, the Rx Foundation broadened its grantmaking to support community-care models, health insurance reform outcomes, and the social determinants of health. It has thereby provided substantial support for the development, piloting, and implementation of community health models and to increasing access to preventive and primary care for historically disenfranchised and marginalized populations.
That grantmaking has led in turn to a recognition of the vital role of advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement in enabling communities – especially those historically marginalized – to empower themselves to champion change that improves their health care, and their health and wellbeing. That focus is now the Rx Foundation’s primary area of grantmaking.