Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is committed to helping everyone live their healthiest lives through community investment, advocacy, and partnership, while remaining responsive to the evolving health needs of all Minnesotans.
$8 million was contributed to organizations across the state by the Blue Cross Community Health Division to improve health outcomes for all — supporting over 100 Minnesota organizations.
Over 14,470 volunteer hours were donated by 1,211 associates to local charitable organizations across the state of Minnesota.
$4.2 million in funding was granted by the Blue Cross Foundation in 2025 — with 31.5% supporting Greater Minnesota.
Nearly 600 charitable organizations received a total of $700,000 from the annual Blue Cross Community Giving Campaign.
The National Fitness Campaign expanded statewide access to free exercise with grand openings to two new courts.
Blue Cross works to reduce the harms of commercial tobacco use by supporting community efforts, while honoring Indigenous traditional tobacco use.
In 2025, Blue Cross continued funding the HOPE initiative, which is designed to support communities disproportionately affected by commercial tobacco. Funded projects advance policies, systems, and environmental changes in communities targeted by the tobacco industry. This initiative collaborates with organizations and Tribal Nations to continue moving toward a shared goal of reducing and eliminating the harms of commercial tobacco and supporting traditional tobacco teachings.
Co-chaired by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Minnesotans for a Smoke-Free Generation is a coalition of over 40 community organizations leading the fight against youth commercial tobacco use by supporting policies like limiting access to candy, fruit, and menthol-flavored tobacco, keeping tobacco prices high, and raising the minimum legal sales age for all tobacco products from 18 to 21.
Blue Cross works to make healthy eating possible for all communities, especially those facing the greatest health challenges in our state.
In 2025, Blue Cross continued the Food Access Funding Initiative, which supports communities working to overcome barriers to good health. Funded projects promote leadership and decision-making by people most impacted by food insecurity. This initiative funds 12 nonprofit organizations across Minnesota for up to three years. Funded organizations worked to increase the consumption of healthy foods, advance food security, and increase access to healthy, affordable and culturally relevant foods for Minnesota communities.
Food Sovereignty Funding supports Tribal Nations to improve community health by increasing access to and consumption of traditional foods. Traditional foods are extremely diverse, but tend to be localized, low-glycemic, and high in wild protein and essential fatty acids. In 2025, The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the White Earth Nation received Food Sovereignty Funding. Community-led efforts to reclaim traditional foods are vital to improving health and addressing disproportionately high rates of diet-related illness for Tribal Nations.
We believe that a crucial step toward improving health outcomes lies in the narratives surrounding health.
In its fourth year, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts' Teen Perspectives program empowered 18 high schoolers to explore community health through art. Mentored by local artists like Leslie Barlow and Akiko Ostlund, students drew on lived experiences to address mental wellbeing. Inspired by the exhibition, "Giants: Art from the Dean Collection," participants viewed themselves as "giants" while reflecting on the last five years in Minneapolis to create a powerful collection of paintings, drawings and prints.
Blue Cross invests in community solutions, including creating greater awareness of the complexities and stigma of behavioral health. This work meets people where they are to improve behavioral health outcomes and help people lead their healthiest life.
Blue Cross and the Boys and Girls Club of the Twin Cities collaborated to help teens with their mental health, using art therapy as a way to express themselves and feel supported. This project is part of a larger effort by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association to fight the growing youth mental health crisis. For the initiative, Blue Cross provided free art therapy kits, along with resources for parents to guide conversations about mental health.
Each kit includes:
The Art of Being Me workbook uses creative prompts to help teens reflect, share feelings and build confidence. Along with the kits, Blue Cross collaborated with the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), so each club could visit Mia for a guided tour and a workshop on art therapy, giving them more tools to manage mental health challenges.
The Recovery Road is a national movement to raise awareness, spark hope, and build capacity for mental health and addiction recovery through the One Arrow Foundation. In 2025, Blue Cross was a proud sponsor of The Recovery Road as we worked to reduce stigma about mental health and substance use disorders in highly visible formats. Jason Lennox started The Recovery Road, a long-distance walk to honor lost lives, raise awareness, reduce stigma and fund critical treatment services. The Recovery Road rallied others to join in with the goal of logging 307,000 cumulative miles walked in honor of the estimated 307,000 lives lost to mental health and substance use disorders in the United States in 2024.
Through its Equitable Care and Coverage program, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation works to increase healthcare coverage and support community solutions to accessing care.
CARE Clinic in Red Wing is a longtime partner of the Foundation, focusing on improving healthcare access, connecting people to resources and promoting health education. CARE Clinic's unique model offers patients access to medical, dental, behavioral, legal and social services providers who partner for the overall health and wellbeing of their patients, all in one setting.
Foundation funding specifically supports CARE Clinic’s MNsure program, integrated healthcare model and expanding dental program.
The Foundation has long supported both Portico Healthnet and Minnesota Seeds of Justice's efforts to increase health insurance coverage throughout Minnesota. The Foundation's most recent grant supports their joint effort to reduce the uninsured rate in Nobles County.
Key elements of that effort include hiring the first full-time MNsure Navigator in Nobles County, increasing awareness about MinnesotaCare eligibility, supporting community outreach and enrollment, and identifying local referral partners.
Associates at Blue Cross can use up to 20 hours of volunteer paid time off each year to give back to the community in a meaningful way.
In 2025, Blue Cross associates demonstrated their commitment to strengthening communities across Minnesota. More than 1,211 associates contributed over 14,470 volunteer hours to build homes, mentor students, hold donation drives, and more, reflecting our shared dedication to community impact.
The Community Giving Campaign is the largest annual workplace giving program at Blue Cross. The campaign empowers associates to direct their financial donations in support of causes and local nonprofits that are most important to them.
In 2025, nearly $700,000 was raised, benefiting close to 600 organizations throughout the local community.
Each year, in collaboration with the Blue Cross Foundation, Blue Cross identifies a featured nonprofit. This year's featured nonprofit was NAMI Minnesota.
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and adults with mental illnesses and their families. For more than 40 years, NAMI Minnesota has worked to promote the development of community mental health programs and services, change public attitudes about mental illnesses, improve access to services, and increase opportunities for recovery.
This year, the Blue Cross Foundation matched all donations from Blue Cross associates to NAMI at 100%. Pledges to all other eligible charities were matched at 50%.