Thousands of nonprofits around the world are implementing community-based approaches to health. Our team handpicked nine organizations to illustrate the wide range of geographies, approaches, and innovations in community-based health that donors can support. Each of the nine is a pioneer in a particular region, health solution, or implementation strategy, and an excellent example of how philanthropic support can help improve the health of communities. In this toolkit, you will find profiles of the following nonprofits:

Last Mile Health, which serves communities in post-war Liberia and offers a bold vision for educating community health workers worldwide

Lwala Community Alliance, an organization started by two brothers to prevent needless death and ill health in Kenya, starting with their own community

VillageReach, a leader in Africa of supply chain logistics—a vital yet often overlooked aspect of reaching communities

BRAC Manoshi Project, which has adapted community-based approaches previously used mainly in rural areas to reach women and children in urban slums of Bangladesh

Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH), which has led the way for millions of newborns worldwide to receive a proven home-based package of life-saving interventions, starting in India

The Comprehensive Rural Health Project, Jamkhed, one of the oldest organizations using these approaches to transform entire villages in India through its proven community development model

Curamericas Global/Curamericas Guatemala, an organization committed to serving indigenous communities in Guatemala that face particular cultural barriers to accessing health services after civil war

Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, which has committed to strengthening an entire system of health in rural Haiti for over 60 years, despite ongoing economic and political turmoil

Partners in Health, which has applied community-based approaches to chronic health conditions such as HIV in Haiti and drug-resistant tuberculosis in Peru, which were previously regarded as untreatable in community settings

While differing in size, stage (new vs. established), and location, we believe that the nine profiled organizations share a similar strong potential for improving health. Beyond our impact screen, we have found that donors often choose among options based on their own preferences around geography, population served, and organizational characteristics such as size. Those donors can use this checklist to identify additional effective programs in the geographical areas they care about, or to bring these approaches to an organization they’re already supporting.