Astrazeneca Foundation Awards 12 Nonprofit Organizations More Than $2M to Advance Health Equity

As the AstraZeneca Foundation celebrates its 30th anniversary, the organization has awarded 12 nonprofit organizations $2,170,318 in grants across eight US states and Washington, D.C., for innovative approaches to address healthcare disparities at the community level, a reflection of AstraZeneca’s broader commitment to advance health equity efforts.

Six grants were awarded through Creating Health Access for Next Generation Equity (CHANGE), its new signature program launched earlier this year, which aims to improve access to quality healthcare for people experiencing disadvantages due to their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and other characteristics. Additionally, six grants were awarded to current grant awardees of the Foundation’s Connections for Cardiovascular Health^SM (CCH) Next Generation program, which has worked to help improve heart health across the US since 2020, particularly among underserved communities, and will sunset later this year. These final grants will provide mission support for their efforts to improve health equity in their communities.

“As the AstraZeneca Foundation proudly reflects on its legacy and healthy changes made in partnership with nonprofits, these new awards demonstrate our expanded commitment to advancing health equity in the US,” said James W. Blasetto, MD, MPH, FACC, Chair and Trustee, AstraZeneca Foundation. “Together with our grant recipients, who collectively serve many diverse populations across the country, we aim to strengthen the long-term health and wellbeing of underserved patients and optimistically look forward to the positive impact that can be achieved.”

CHANGE builds on more than a decade of impact and learnings from the Connections for Cardiovascular Health^SM and CCH Next Generation programs and was designed with key community insights to help address urgent, unmet medical needs, particularly within low-income and remote/rural areas of the US. Following an open call for applications and rigorous review process, six nonprofit organizations were selected for the first cohort of the CHANGE program, serving communities across the Mid-Atlantic US in locations where AstraZeneca operates including in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.