Our Prevention Partnerships empower young Australians and New Zealanders to make good health choices and adopt healthy lifestyles to protect their health and wellbeing.

In 2022 we merged our Health Smart Grants with our Prevention Partnerships. nib foundation no longer holds an annual grant round.

Application to this program is by invitation only and Prevention Partnerships are identified and developed proactively, and on an ad hoc basis as a vacancy in this program becomes available.

If you would like to submit your interest in being considered for our Prevention Partnerships we invite you to complete our Self Assessment Form.

This will help you determine whether your organisation is well aligned with the Prevention Partnership Guidelines for this program, and will outline next steps.

Prevention Partnerships program overview

nib foundation's Prevention Partnerships program aims to help people and communities live healthier lives.

We partner with registered charities in Australia and New Zealand who specialise in health promotion and primary prevention, and provide funding to support initiatives designed to help people access, understand and use health information to reduce risks for chronic disease.

Our funding focus areas target risk and protective factors that are modifiable, are significant contributors to the development of chronic diseases, and influence the health of broad segments of the population.

Preference will be given to initiatives designed to appeal to youth and young adult audiences and have wide reach.

Each year we distribute approximately $1.2 million to our Prevention Partnerships. This funding supports our partners over a number of years to develop, grow, evaluate and sustain their prevention initiatives. We invest in programs, products and services that are informed by evidence, accessible to a broad audience, have potential to benefit many people, and are enabled through digital solutions.

We work closely with our Prevention Partners to identify the most appropriate of our four funding modules to strengthen the health initiative we are investing in. We typically work with an organisation for 3-5 years, supporting multiple pieces of work under these funding modules during that time. Our funding is designed to be flexible and responsive, and each partner will have the opportunity to access different modules over time, in an order and timeframe that best suits their need and our shared objective.

Funding modules:

Develop Early stage funding to develop a proof of concept, design and pilot a program or service, or take a new product to market.

Grow Funding to optimise an existing program, product or service, create new content or functionality, grow reach and users, and improve engagement.

Evaluate Funding to commission a specific piece of evaluation to better understand program efficacy. This may include support to develop and implement data collection methods and tools, or share the findings publicly and with the sector.

Graduate Funding to build capacity to sustain the initiative beyond our partnership. This may include collaboration support or creating a revenue stream.

Prevention Partnerships funding focus areas

Our funding focus is underpinned by the fact that far too many Aussies and Kiwis die prematurely or live for many years with suboptimal health and wellbeing related to chronic illness.

In New Zealand, 81% of health loss from early death, illness or disability is caused by chronic illnesses. In Australia, almost half of Aussies have at least one chronic health condition and 20% have multiple chronic health conditions.

Many of the leading chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health disorders, some cancers, and back pain share the same and multiple risk factors.

The good news is that many of the risk and protective factors influencing chronic ill health can be modified. Our partnerships work to improve long term health outcomes by addressing one or more of the following factors.

Risk factors

• Smoking

• Harmful drinking

• Overweight and obesity

• Problematic gaming/screen time

• Drug use

• Poor body image

• Stress

Protective factors

• Physical activity

• Healthy diet

• Social and emotional wellbeing

• Healthy relationships

• Peer and social connections

• Mindfulness

• Good sleep habits

• Sexual health

From time to time we may identify one or more risk and protective factors as our priority cause areas.

Funding criteria

We are interested in health promotion initiatives that:

• Target risk or protective factors that are modifiable and are strongly linked to prevalent health issues

• Draw on evidence that the proposed approach can achieve health promoting behaviour change

• Are designed primarily for youth and young adult audiences (approximately 15 - 40 years)

• Are accessible to broad segments of the target population through a national footprint and/or wide digital reach

• Operate within a strengths-based philosophy to empower and encourage good health

• Use new and existing technology and digital health solutions

• Are multi-faceted and work to foster community level cultural change around a health risk as well as providing support to individuals

This program does not provide funding for pure or medical research, or clinical trials

Funding outcomes

We work with our partners to measure and report how our Prevention Partnerships achieve these outcomes:

• Awareness & knowledge

• Skills & action

• Attitudes & beliefs

• Access & connection

• Risk & protective factors

Refer to our Prevention Partnership Guidelines for further information.

Who we partner with

nib foundation is able to provide funding to the following eligible entity types:

Australian organisations registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) who are also endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) Item 1

New Zealand organisations registered with Charity Services and holding a current New Zealand Business Number.

Organisations that are likely to be well aligned with the funding criteria for a Prevention Partnership are:

• Specialists and leaders in prevention and health promotion

• Subject matter experts able to demonstrate a good understanding of their target audience

• Able to reach a significant portion of their target cohort through a strong online presence

• Working across a broad geography, preferably national or with wide digital reach

• Committed to actively measuring outcomes and understanding health impacts for program beneficiaries through evaluation

• Displaying a youthful, relatable, credible and positive brand

• Developing a track record of engaging and empowering people to be health smart in their everyday lives.

• Eager to work collaboratively with nib and nib foundation

It is unlikely your organisation will be suitable for a Prevention Partnership with nib foundation if you are:

• Volunteer run, or a start up in early stages of establishing the organisation or the program you seek support for

• More focused on the social determinants of health such as education, employment, or housing

• Geographically focused on a local or regional area of service and support

• Have limited track record in digital health innovation

• A generalist organisation providing a range of services and not well known as a specialist in the health risk area for which you are seeking funding

• Delivering very targeted and/or face to face services to small groups of beneficiaries

• A university or research institute – unless the initiative you seek funding for has a strong potential for sustained translation into practice and a permanent program offering to the public.