CRI PRIMES – Learn how to apply a proven model to fund and create meaningful scientific-based partnerships that accomplish public good

Author: Jennifer Cabe

Canyon Ranch Institute, a U.S.-based non-profit, has developed a new framework for sustaining evidence-based partnerships through multiple funding sources that support the best practices of science and public communication of science to measurably improve individual and community health and well-being. This session will explain the CRI PRIMES model and be useful for anyone responsible for developing funding streams that have integrity and sustainability. The CRI PRIMES model has helped CRI to raise over USD$43 million in unrestricted funding. Funding raised through this model is through private and public foundations and philanthropists, as well as media companies and multinational corporations. The CRI PRIMES model is built on six steps and practices that can be used in any setting in which the goal is to engage a multi-sector approach to increasing evidence-based decision making. PRIMES is to Partner, Require radical equity, Insist on Infrastructure, Make it known (i.e. communicate with all stakeholders), Evaluate, and Sustain. The CRI PRIMES model has been effective in multiple locations and cultural contexts because it is based on innovative evidence-based approaches to address long-standing challenges of under-resourcing and lack of clarity. The CRI PRIMES model is applicable to organizations seeking tested, replicable approaches to finding and maintaining funding support, avoiding any restrictions on how and when to communicate about scientific basis of the work or the research outcomes, honoring and leveraging the knowledge resources of all social sectors and experts to solve previously intractable problems that they all agree should be solved for the public good, and applying a rigorous research-to-action logic model that can be tailored based on both current and historical practices and beliefs. This session will focus on helping session participants use the model to solve challenges within their own organizations, situations, and contexts.