How we contribute
Our team’s collective work, past and present, is bridging gaps in equitable access and opportunity in low and middle-income countries, especially for women and girls.
We bring expertise in...
Championing bold ideas for international development
Complex challenges of health and education require both diverse perspectives and working together to think and act creatively.
We lead through active collaboration. We helped bring polio eradication and routine immunization efforts closer together within health systems, leading to critical synergies achieved across dozens of countries and commitments of more than $400M. We have also helped redefine complex, grant-making systems impacting more than 100 countries, tailoring them to country needs with improved targeting to high-impact investments.
Advancing novel solutions through effective partnerships
Successful partnerships depend upon trust, transparency, and inclusive participation of key stakeholders.
We have had instrumental roles in the establishment, evolution, and delivery of results through global health partnerships such as Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, The Global Fund, and the Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases Partnership. We have also shaped local initiatives to be more impactful, responding to the development needs of marginalized communities.
Scaling up transformative technologies
The future impact of a new technology depends on astute product development, targeting to country and community needs, and scaling delivery to align timely data to decisions required by diverse public and private organizations on the path to impact.
We have led several product collaborations and have succeeded to make innovations a reality at scale, such as a combined medicine to treat lymphatic filariasis, new vaccines for Japanese encephalitis and malaria, new diagnostics for NTDs, and solar fridges to keep health products cold.
Targeting donor investments
Traditional grants and donations are not enough to drive equitable, sustainable development. We strategically align charitable investments with the interests of communities and their partners.
We have managed, advised, or overseen private and public investments in education and health valued at $10’s of thousands to $100’s of millions in every region of the world with the goal of optimizing social impact. We have learned how to right-size risks and maximize social returns aligned with donors’ impact goals.
Annual Reports
In late 2023, Bridges celebrated its fifth anniversary. This was a time to both reflect on the years and celebrate how far we have come since launching in 2018.
We took this opportunity to define a new, even more ambitious strategy for the next five years (2024 –2028), to advance our mission to support resilient communities on a path to sustainable development. We are proud of our collaborations and projects over the last five years and are excited to see what the future holds.
Over these short years, we have built a strong team within and around Bridges, from Board members, to graduate interns, to project-specific team members, as well as the diverse set of organizations with whom we have partnered. These collaborations enable us to have an outsized impact with a relatively small team. We have created strong organizational structures and systems, supporting the work we do and giving our partners and funders confidence in the way we operate.
In this annual report, we summarize some key 2023 organizational and programmatic highlights, delving a bit deeper into six areas of Bridges’ work.
Check out our 2023 Annual Report here.
See our earlier annual reports for examples of how we have grown since our establishment in 2018.
Bridges contributes while continuously learning, improving and ensuring its work has impact in the world.