Supporting our communities
Home / Sustainability / Supporting our communities
Our approach
We believe that creating a positive impact for people, society and the planet requires meaningful investments in the communities where we live and work, with a focus on the underserved.
Together with our partners, we are delivering a Community Investment approach that is rooted in health equity and sustainable community impact.
Our activities support non-profit organisations all over the world to:
- Advance health equity
- Increase access to care
- Drive science innovation and
- Build healthy and resilient communities for all
Guiding principles form the cornerstone of our approach to responsible, appropriate and impactful community investment:
Investing in locally-led solutions
Health equity and health system resilience are complex challenges that need local solutions. Through trusted partnerships that facilitate local decision-making, we’re focused on building local capacity, working with local partners, and co-creating initiatives with the intended beneficiaries. We seek to to ensure our partnerships facilitate local decision-making and mobilise resources and solutions relevant to the local context and needs.
Rights-sensitive approach
We embrace diversity, equity and inclusion, and anchor our giving in a culturally sensitive, human rights-based approach, aligned to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted by the United Nations. At the heart of our efforts is our desire to create an inclusive and equitable environment, where people feel they belong. Our support considers how to meaningfully include and consider the needs of marginalised and underserved groups, without discrimination.
Ensuring transparency and accountability
We seek to create positive societal impact and embed ethical behaviour in all our business activities, markets and value chain, to create value beyond the impact of our medicines. We do this by promoting ethical, transparent and inclusive policies and practices, internally as well as with our partners. We need to ensure that we retain and increase trust across all our stakeholder groups, while ensuring a comprehensive approach to accountability, oversight, risk management and safeguarding.
Fostering equitable partnerships
It is only when we collaborate with stakeholders across healthcare and scientific ecosystems that we can drive positive change at speed and at scale. We recognise the respective strengths and expertise of our partners and we invest in making them stronger and more sustainable. Our collaborations are underpinned by mutual trust, respect, and shared goals, rather than fostering a traditional ‘funder/recipient’ relationship.
Delivering sustainable impact
Our actions today shape the legacy we leave behind tomorrow. Sustainable impact means considering the lifespan of an initiative beyond our funding and planning for a transition to local community ownership, while working with our partners to develop measurement, evaluation and learning frameworks to understand the impact of our investments. Sustainable impact also means considering alternative funding sources, community feedback mechanisms, the sustainability of our partners after a programme closure, and considerations to care for the local environment.
Building a sustainable future
In 2024, our community investment contributions included:
$126.7 million
$11.2 million
928
42,307
*As at end December 2024. Source: Annual Report and Sustainability Data Annex 2024
Our programmes and activity
We aim to make a significant financial and non-financial contribution to the communities where we live and work, through access to our innovative medicines for patients and our ambitious sustainability goals - for people, planet and society.
The Young Health Programme
The Young Health Programme (YHP) is part of our sustainability commitment using our capabilities to make the most meaningful impact where society needs it - health. YHP is a global disease prevention programme with a unique focus on young people aged 10 to 24, living in vulnerable environments and under-resourced settings around the world.
Delivered in partnership with Plan International and UNICEF, the YHP has reached 40 countries and more than 15 million young people with information about NCD risk behaviours since its launch in 2010.
Impact Fellowship
Through the YHP’s Impact Fellowship, young health leaders are supported to create even more positive change through access to networks, development and funding to help scale their impact. Grants are awarded to will assist in the development and delivery of effective health promotion programmes, facilitating a global health movement led by, and for, young people.
Innovations in Lung Cancer Care
The Innovations in Lung Cancer Care programme supports patient and caregiver organisations registered as non-profit in their country to propose and conduct projects that can potentially transform patient care in countries around the world. The programme recognises the high variation in lung cancer management around the world, and the very specific local barriers to quality care that must be considered when developing patient centric solutions to address them.
AstraZeneca Foundation (US)
The AstraZeneca Foundation’s mission is to advance health equity and foster community well-being in the US through strategic grant-making and capacity building support for non-profit organisations. The Foundation also provides financial support for our employees affected by federally declared disasters in the US. Established in 1993 as a non-profit charitable organisation, the Foundation is a separate legal entity from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals with distinct legal restrictions.
STEM at AstraZeneca
To continue transforming the lives of millions of patients around the world, we support the development of the next generation of scientists and engineers by supporting access to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education through strategic STEM programmes and partnerships in the communities we serve.
Alexion Charitable Foundation
The Alexion Charitable Foundation (ACF) exists solely to fund organisations supporting the rare disease community and underserved populations in the communities where Alexion operates. The Foundation’s mission is to bring promise, hope and belonging to people living with a rare condition and those who care for them. Its ambition is to address health disparities within and among the rare disease community and ensure that all underserved communities have equitable pathways to the care, services, and resources they need to live healthier lives. ACF creates a positive impact on communities around the world through two funding streams: its signature initiative, Rare Belonging®, and its community giving programme, Local Needs.
Product donations
We donate our medicines through non-profit partners who support patients in medically underserved communities for genuine public health need or as part of disaster relief and humanitarian response.
Humanitarian response & disaster relief
Providing support for disaster relief and humanitarian work is an important part of our how we make a positive impact on the health of people and society.
How we provide funding
We believe a healthier future cannot come from medicines alone which is why we are committed to supporting our communities and the organisations that serve them. Whether you are a non-profit, patient advocate, medical professional or researcher, we realise the value of the work that you are doing.
There are several ways we support our communities: financial contributions, in-kind contributions, employee involvement and volunteerism and product donations. This can include health system strengthening, disease awareness and health promotion, and the development of patient support programming.
In 2024, we gave more than $126 million through our community investment activities to more than 900 non-profit organisations in 65 countries.
