Cardinal Health Foundation
/OVERVIEW: Cardinal Health and its philanthropic offshoot, the Cardinal Health Foundation, make grants for public health, mental health, and hunger. In Ohio, where the company is based, the foundation also supports education and arts and culture.
IP TAKE: Cardinal tends to give through signature programs run in partnership with large, national organizations. This is not a funder for individual, grassroots or local outfits, unless you work in the arts or education in Ohio. Education and arts and culture grant tend to be smaller and focus predominately on the state of Ohio, where the foundation is based.
This funder is reasonably accessible for being corporate, and posts funding opportunities on its community relations page and invites prospective grantees to sign up for updates on grantmaking opportunities. However, giving is bureaucratic and communication slow.
PROFILE: The Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health Foundation and its parent company, Cardinal Health, focus their philanthropic giving on community healthcare, the prevention of prescription drug misuse and the communities where Cardinal employees live and work. Cardinal’s grantmaking is national in scope, but a significant portion of funding remains in Ohio, where Cardinal maintains its headquarters. This corporate funder does not offer a great deal of specific information about its grantmaking goals and practices.
Grants for Public Health
Cardinal’s public health giving aims to “build healthier, more equitable communities where all people have the opportunity to live healthy lives and share their perspectives and experiences—communities where equity diversity and inclusion thrive.” Recent funding has focused on preventing and raising awareness about the misuse of prescription drugs, with grants going to organizations including the Alliance for Patient Medication Safety, the Wisconsin Pharmacy Foundation, the American Pharmacists Association and the Alliance for Integrated Medication Management. The foundation has also addressed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Ohio and partnered with Ohio State University Athletics to create “a statewide public service announcement, complemented by other promotional materials, featuring former OSU linebacker Joshua Perry.”
Grants for Global Health
Global health is a smaller area of giving for the Cardinal Health Foundation, but since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the foundation has supported relief efforts through grantees including the United Way Worldwide and the Red Cross Society of China.
Grants for Mental Health
Mental health has become a main priority for the Cardinal Health Foundation in recent years. The foundation names suicide prevention and increasing access to mental health resources as priorities for its grantmaking. The foundation partners with the Zero Suicide Institute to run its signature Zero Suicide Collaborative, which awarded $100,000 grants and extensive professional development training in the area of suicide prevention to 17 hospitals across the U.S. Cardinal also gave $700,000 to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital of Columbus, Ohio to increase school-based mental health services in Athens and Jackson counties—two areas that lack sufficient mental health resources for youth.
Grants for Food Systems
Cardinal Health funding has also prioritized hunger and food security as these issues are broadly considered to major determinants of overall health. The foundation’s Food Pharmacy initiative aims to bridge the gap between hunger and healthful eating by creating collaborations between healthcare providers and food banks. Grantees include the Northern Illinois Food Bank, Feeding Tampa Bay Banco de Alimentos de Puerto Rico and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee.
Grants for K-12 Education
Cardinal supports K-12 and higher education broadly and does not outline specific goals for its giving in this area. Grantees include Communities in Schools of Ohio, International Scholarship and Tuition Services, the United Negro College Fund and Ohio Northern University.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Cardinal’s arts and culture grantmaking is mainly limited to arts organizations in the Columbus, Ohio area. Grantees include the Columbus Museum of Art, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Metropolitan and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year the Cardinal Health Foundation made about $5.5 million in grants ranging from $5,000 to $500,000. The foundation’s largest grants supported programs and interventions in the areas of mental health and prescription drug safety. About half of all grantmaking stays in Ohio. This funder supports a broad range of organizations, including large, national alliances on healthcare issues and small, community-run food banks and wellness organizations. For additional information about past grantmaking, see Cardinal Health’s Community Relations page.
Cardinal Health posts opportunities for support on is community relations web page and invites prospective grantees to sign up for updates about funding opportunities. Cardinal’s community relations department, which oversees charitable giving, can be reached by phone at 614-757-5000
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