The background

Genentech is one of the world's leading biotech companies, with cutting-edge therapies to treat cancer, multiple sclerosis, and a wide range of other serious and life-threatening diseases. The company's Giving and Social Impact (GSI) function manages a catalytic grantmaking portfolio to advance health equity in the U.S.

One component of the GSI portfolio is a bi-annual, $10 – 15M Health Equity Innovation Fund that seeks to support teams that are pioneering historically under-resourced, community-driven solutions that have the power to promote lasting, widespread improvements in healthcare.

The approach

For the past two rounds of the Innovation Fund, Afton Bloom has partnered with Genentech's Giving & Social Impact team to facilitate cross-project learning. This learning is an essential component of the Fund, to ensure that funded projects are able to catalyze broader impact beyond the grant by elevating and sharing best practices and lessons learned and building connections across the grantee cohort.

As learning inputs, the Afton Bloom team conducts an annual "learning survey" for all grantees, in-depth interviews with select grantees, debrief sessions with GSI grant portfolio managers, and reflection sessions with the GSI team and the broader grantee cohort.

The result

This learning has resulted a series of learning briefs and case studies that have informed GSI's engagement with key internal and external stakeholders, including current and prospective Innovation Fund grantees. Learning has been most important for the Fund's inclusive research portfolio, which invests in cutting-edge strategies to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical trials for complex therapies.