BD partners with leading nonprofit organizations to promote the use of best practices and applied research to address healthcare's most pressing challenges. Guided by this approach, we focus on combatting chronic conditions like cancer, heart, kidney and peripheral artery disease (PAD); empowering the next generation of healthcare workers; expanding maternal, neonatal and fetal health access; and strengthening the capacity of health systems to provide preventive and surgical care for the most vulnerable patients, and those living in hard‑to‑reach communities.
Across the United States, community health centers and free and charitable clinics serve as a vital lifeline—providing life-saving care to more than 34 million people who might otherwise go without. BD is dedicated to strengthening these essential providers so they can deliver the primary and preventive care that uninsured and underinsured communities depend on.
Through the BD Helping Build Healthy Communities Program—powered by our partners at Direct Relief, the National Association of Community Health Centers and the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics—BD provides grant support to forward-thinking clinics that are transforming care. By funding innovative, scalable approaches to preventing and treating breast cancer, heart, kidney, and peripheral artery disease, BD is helping improve health outcomes, reduce costs, and build healthier communities nationwide.
Geographic and transportation constraints remain a significant driver of health access gaps, particularly in rural and under-resourced regions. BD is working to close this gap by helping bring high-quality primary and surgical care directly into the communities where underserved patients live, work, and learn.
- Across South Africa, through our partnership with Pink Drive, we support mobile mammography services that deliver essential women’s health screenings for HPV, breast and cervical cancer to underserved communities.
- In India, we provide funding to support Direct Relief and the Self-Employed Women's Association in their efforts to conduct community-based breast and cervical screening events that support women's health.
- Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, our support of Mercy Ships and their floating hospitals help expand access to free, life-saving surgical care for patients who otherwise would go without.
- In Colombia, we proudly support the Colombian Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer network of pilots and medical professionals who operate as a mobile hospital. Together, they fly into remote communities to deliver free, high-quality care, equipment, medicines and supplies to patients —providing local access to essential services such as pediatric, gynecologic and general healthcare, including HPV testing, exams, and biopsies.
Financial barriers beyond tuition—such as transportation to clinical rotations, licensing exam fees, and unexpected expenses—can prevent capable nursing students from completing their education. For students with limited financial means, these gaps can become the difference between staying on track and leaving the profession altogether.
To help overcome these barriers, BD launched the Last Mile Nursing Grant Program, which provides financial support for essential expenses that traditional financial aid often doesn't cover, helping students persist through their final stages of training.
We also partner with the National Student Nurses Association to offer scholarships and mentoring that help students stay on course, graduate with confidence, and enter the healthcare workforce prepared to make an impact.
Too many mothers and newborns still face preventable risks during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period, due to limited access to quality care, shortages of trained healthcare workers, and weak or overstretched health systems—particularly in underserved, rural, and hard‑to‑reach communities. BD addresses these challenges through long-term partnerships that strengthen health systems, build local capacity, and expand access to essential maternal and newborn care.
Through the Children and Mothers Partnerships (CHAMPS) program in Zambia, BD partners with the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) to support an integrated model of care that brings preventive and essential services closer to families, while strengthening referral pathways throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period. By building the capacity of frontline health workers through training and mentorship, the program promotes earlier access to antenatal care, safer deliveries, and improved maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes—while building more resilient, locally operated health systems over the long term.
BD also partners with UNICEF to help eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus, a preventable disease that continues to threaten mothers and newborns in low resource, fragile, and conflict affected geographies. As a longstanding partner in this global effort, BD supports immunization initiatives that protect women and babies during pregnancy and childbirth, particularly in hard‑to‑reach communities. This work strengthens routine immunization systems and advances safer birth practices, helping reduce preventable deaths and improve maternal and newborn health outcomes worldwide.
PAD affects an estimated 10–12 million Americans and leads to 150,000 amputations each year—disproportionately impacting Black, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, rural, and low-income communities.1 BD partners with the American Heart Association to bring culturally relevant education and point-of-care engagement to regions at highest risk, ultimately working to improve early PAD detection, reduce preventable amputations, and help close longstanding gaps in cardiovascular health access.
- American Heart Association. "Peripheral Artery Disease National Action Plan." Accessed May 22, 2026. https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/peripheral-artery-disease/pad-resources/pad-action-plan