Healthbox has already forged industry-specific partnerships with providers like BlueCross Blue Shield, as well as with foundations and venture firms like California HealthCare Foundation, HLM Venture Partners, and corporations like Walgreens.
"There was this whole shift that happened with the Great Recession, where the credit line started tightening up and millennials couldn't get credit from bank or government programs, so they turned to foundations and venture capitalists," DeLa Cruz-Viesca said.
For the first time, one of the nation's largest foundations is venturing into virtual worlds to play host to activities and discussions and explore the role that philanthropy might play there.
The Robin Hood Foundation embraces venture philanthropy, or charity that embraces free-market forces, to combat poverty.
He co-founded Kleiner Perkins with Eugene Kleiner in 1972, helping to lay the foundation for venture capital in Silicon Valley.
This means, unlike a traditional charitable or philanthropic foundation, the venture can make political donations, lobby lawmakers, invest in businesses and recoup any profits from those investments.
Capital especially is available from foundations, investors and venture capital to support these new ventures.
The study has been funded by the Broad Foundations, the Los Angeles-based venture philanthropy organisation run by Eli Broad, one of America's biggest philanthropoists, and his wife Edythe.
