Building Healthy Communities
Building Healthy Communities (BHC) successfully built community power across the state with the goal of working towards a California where all people have the opportunity to thrive.
As a signature program of The California Endowment, BHC combined 10 years of continuous funding in 14 historically disinvested communities with state-level and regional policy campaigns and coalition building.
During this time, we learned it begins and ends with people power. This is the most important lesson we’ve learned in and over a decade of BHC evaluation, and is the guiding north star from which we continue to do our work.
This wasn’t our initial hypothesis. Yet 10 years of listening and responding to our partners, questioning and testing our assumptions, and being flexible as we learned is what ultimately brought us here.
BHC shifted the narrative toward a deeper understanding of systemic inequities and the potential of people power to transform them. As we worked in local communities, we gathered data to evaluate in real time and sought feedback on our role as a funder and change-maker in order to become a more effective leader.
The lessons learned help us be more provocative in our questions, and more confident in our assumptions about how change happens.
All in all, BHC was a novel approach to health improvement that encompassed the social determinants of health and led to our focus on power building to promote systems change and advance racial equity.
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14
Communities Transformed -
1,526
Policy, System & Physical Wins -
$1B
Invested Over 10 Years
“Racial injustice, structural inequality are made by the human hand. Which means that they can be dismantled by the human hand. Dismantled by human leadership, human action, human voice, human advocacy, human activism.”
DR. ROBERT K. ROSS President & CEO, The California Endowment
Browse Other Changes Planted by Dr. Ross
Health4All 38.6 million lives impacted
Youth Awards 37 total awards given
Schools Not Prisons & BMOC Millions reached since 2016
Farmworker Health $50M initiative
TCE Grant Making 2023 $381M awarded
Parks for All Hundreds of millions leveraged for parks investments in CA
Youth on the Board 1st of large foundations in US to have youth on the board
Childhood Obesity & Freshworks $272M to expand access to fresh and healthy foods in low-income communities
CHIS 20,000 households interviewed annually to find health gaps in CA
Kids Health Coverage Campaign $4M to help enroll children in health programs
Cultural Competency/Health Workforce/PRIME $78.2M to CA organizations working to boost the size and diversity of the state's healthcare workforce
TCE Headquarters 125,000+ use our facilities every year
Wishing Wall
Dr. Ross,
Best wishes on your journey. Thank you for everything!
-SAJE
Thank you for your leadership and keeping justice at the center of LA philanthropy!
Dr. Ross,
Well wishes on this next adventure! Enjoy this time!
- Stephanie Ghayouri
With deepest gratitude for all of your service, your love, & leadership. May you have abundant joy and connection and all good things.
- Sharon
The force is strong in our family.
- D. Wash
Dang Bob! You really leaving? You really reading all this good stuff?! Ok man! Among so many of the things I already said, you baaaad, Dude. Much love!
You inspired me to keep endeavoring in education even when it's hard. Thank you.
Dr. Ross! You are a blessing and have changed the world we live in. Thank you.
- H.S.F.
Dear Bob,
Well done, good and faithful servant! Remember: you don’t get to retire from Saint Marks - ever.
- Carri
Dr. Ross,
Thank you for your unwavering support of the HCA and the BHC. You made a difference in the world, and supported us to do the same.
In gratitude,
- Yvonne Maria Jimenez
NLSLA
Dr. Ross,
Deep gratitude for your leadership and commitment to equity and justice.
Dr. Ross! Congrats on your transition. I am grateful for the opportunity to have grown up with your support. You inspired me to chase my dreams.
- Corleone (BMoC)
It’s been a blessing to us and the movement to have you. Wishing you lots of love in your next chapter.
Dr. Ross,
Wishing you special times with your daughter. Relax and enjoy the beach.
Love,
- Marie P.
Best wishes for the next act!
- Joel
Thank you for doing the true work of a doctor… HEALING! I heard you speak early in my career and was very inspired. Thank you!
- Leslie Johnson (Community Coalition)
Your words at the Liberty Hill dinner always stuck with me and I continue to share the message today.
Thank you,
- Darryl
Bob,
We wish you good health, adventure, and lots of love in your life’s journey.
- Julie & Pete Brown
Wishing you all the love you can handle…. And wonderful memories of years at TCE!
- Elwood
Thank you for your guidance and leadership!
Unveiling Our
2025 Annual
Report
The California Endowment is proud to present our 2025 annual report. Read about the work we are supporting and our partners who are changing California to a state of belonging and inclusion.
View Report