The concept of Wellness Funds, or Trusts, is emerging in policy and practice discussions across the nation. Wellness Funds are seen as a critical strategy for pooling and aligning resources for greater impact and creating financial management capacity that complements innovative intervention and infrastructure-building work of multisector health collaboratives. Conditions such as diabetes, trauma, substance use, asthma and others necessitate dedicated and coordinated effort and funding that supports health improvement at a population or community scale.
However, there is little guidance on how to design and implement a Wellness Fund, particularly a Fund that is governed locally and includes multiple funding sources for a variety of purposes. In the spirit of inquiry and iteration, this issue brief shares early insights on critical dimensions of Wellness Fund development, including governance, funding sources, an administrative model, and key capacities.
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