How a leading pharmaceutical company’s foundation and MATTER helped community-based organizations scale their solutions

Woman Speaking at Support Group Meeting for Mental Health or Dep

Industry

Nonprofit/Charity

Challenge

MATTER partnered with a leading pharmaceutical company‘s foundation to run an accelerator for innovative nonprofits. The foundation’s goal was to accelerate community-driven health solutions, build durable organizational infrastructure and create a scalable model for health equity —and MATTER enabled them to support, scale and sustain these efforts in novel ways.

Results

Nonprofit leaders gained stronger organizational strategies, new healthcare industry connections and tools to sustain their work. The program created a replicable model for how pharmaceutical company foundations can drive meaningful health equity outcomes by supporting community-based innovators at scale.

Many community-based organizations across the U.S. are doing incredible work to bridge these gaps through innovative solutions that meet communities where they are. We launched this accelerator in partnership with MATTER to empower these community-driven solutions.

Senior Leader

Pharmaceutical Company Foundation

Being a CEO or an executive of a nonprofit is not easy, but understanding that there’s support, there are partners and there’s a community available to help — that’s what I feel like, leaving here, I have people to go to if I need advice.

Chief Executive Officer

D.C.-based Healthcare Nonprofit

The Challenge

Expanding access to care

Historically marginalized communities face significant barriers to quality care, stemming from a complex mix of factors, including geographic limitations, rigid care delivery models, inadequate payment models and systemic bias.

Innovative, community-based organizations have developed solutions with great potential to improve and enhance quality by providing tailored services to address the needs of diverse populations. These organizations are often unable to scale their solutions, due to resource constraints and operational challenges.

Our Approach

A strategic partnership: Foundation meets innovation infrastructure

A U.S. -based, Fortune 100 life sciences company’s foundation partnered with MATTER to launch Chicago’s first health innovation accelerator for nonprofits. The eight-week program was designed to increase community impact and long-term sustainability.

The model included:

Strategic capacity building: Tailored support and workshops to strengthen organizational infrastructure, enhance solutions, refine models and forge partnerships.
Expert mentorship: Guidance from subject matter experts to help refine strategies and maximize impact.
Peer collaboration: Connections to other nonprofit innovators facing similar challenges.
Healthcare innovation network: Access to MATTER and the foundation ’ s extensive innovation networks.
Financial investment: Operational stipends plus a $50,000 competitive grant opportunity.

Man speaking to a group of coworkers at an office

Outcomes

After receiving submissions from 25 states and territories, five nonprofits were selected to participate in the inaugural cohort, each representing a unique approach to advancing health equity.

Collectively, they:

Expanded access to care and resources for populations.
Built pathways for workforce growth and community health.

The accelerator fundamentally shifted how nonprofit leaders approach organizational development and long-term strategy. Participants consistently emphasized the transformational value of mentorship and access to industry expertise. It allowed the selected non-profit to expand their operations and serve a greater portion of their community.

The program also amplified the reach and effectiveness of these nonprofits, positioning them for greater funding and partnership opportunities and significantly increasing community impact and long- term sustainability. By providing this hybrid model of tailored resources and strategic capacity building, the accelerator recognized nonprofits as innovators and trailblazers and catalyzed systemic change.

This partnership shows how a pharmaceutical company foundation can amplify community impact by combining strategic philanthropic investment with established innovation infrastructure.