At the 2025 Civic Leaders Summit, Jill Miller, the president and CEO of Bethesda Inc. and the bi3 Fund, shared how Cincinnati conquered what many saw as an impossible challenge—infant mortality. She laid out how they brought together all the stakeholders to create Cradle Cincinnati.
- Missing from her presentation was the money needed to take on “wicked” health issues, such as infant mortality. For decades, our hospitals have done health assessments, but our health outcomes have not improved. We get pretty dashboards, reports and websites, but they don’t save lives.
- Our hospitals don’t want to admit that money is the issue, but it is.
It Takes Big Bucks
The bi3 is funded entirely by the Bethesda. When the health care system partnered with Catholic Health Initiatives to form TriHealth, Bethesda leveraged cash reserves, endowment funds, and operational surpluses accrued before and during its transition from hospital operations toward its health-focused grant-making initiative, bi3.
- Bethesda has invested over $100 million into bi3 since its inception in 2010.
Long-term Commitment – Cradle Cincinnati
Cradle Cincinnati was one of its most successful grants. In 2013, bi3 awarded Cradle Cincinnati $3.2 million for a mom-centered pilot program to reduce infant mortality.
- In 2019, bi3 gave Cradle Cincinnati a $1.6 million grant to expand its model to 12 zip codes.
- In October 2023, an additional $3.3 million grant was announced.
- In 2024, bi3 awarded Cradle Cincinnati $200,000 for maternal health support. bi3 also provided $580,000 in partnership with The Health Collaborative for the Mama Certified program.
$5 Million Over 3-5 years
Infant mortality is too big a problem for IMPACT 100 or the Escambia Children’s Trust to tackle alone—both are more comfortable doling out smaller grants to several organizations.
- We need a nonprofit with cash reserves to fund an initiative over several years and to monitor and measure its results. Price tag: $5 million over three to five years. Bethesda has given us a roadmap.
We are losing two kindergarten classes annually to infant mortality. We can stop it.