September 19, 2025 – The Coalition for Mental Health Investment (CMHI) today announced the launch of the "Keeping Investment in Mind: Strategies for Financing Mental Health" guidebook. This resource is designed to help address the $200-350 billion annual mental health funding gap by de-risking investment in this space.

Despite a rapidly growing market driven by increasing global awareness of the importance of good mental health, investment still falls short of need. Closing the gap requires sustainable financing to ensure adequate access to mental health screening, support, and treatment.

By outlining the mental health financing value chain, enablers to scale mental health products and services, and key success factors for deploying financing, this open-access guidebook can help stakeholders who want to make a difference by establishing, shaping, and funding mental health initiatives in their communities and globally. It highlights traditional and innovative financing mechanisms that could be a good fit for funders.

This resource was developed and informed by the ideas and expertise of CMHI and its co-founding organizations, African Venture Philanthropy Alliance, Clinton Global Initiative, Kokoro, the McKinsey Health Institute, and Wellcome, as well as CMHI’s Global Advisor Organizations and many other individuals.

"We're really excited about this guidebook because it enables us to rethink how we make capital work and to bring in unusual suspects into the funding of mental health," said Frank Aswani, CEO, African Venture Philanthropy Alliance. "We have to get more creative with how we package capital and get more private capital coming in. This is why we are looking at innovative financing mechanisms, and how we can build more risk capital. For example, AVPA's catalytic pooled fund is designed to provide a collaborative platform upon which different donors can aggregate their branch capital in a manner that can be used to amplify impact in the healthcare space."

"The Coalition for Mental Health Investment's new guidebook provides a practical roadmap for funders and partners, offering specific, actionable strategies to de-risk investments and drive capital toward proven solutions,” said Franciscka Lucien, Senior Director of Health Equity, Clinton Global Initiative. “It's an important tool for accelerating the newest innovations to reach those who need it most, helping us close the mental health financing gap within a generation."

“How can we be braver, bolder and more impactful with our financing? How can we build the trust we need to radically collaborate and make our capital more efficient and more effective? These are questions that take up my time,” said Natasha Müller, Founder, Kokoro. “This guidebook aims to be a very practical, action-oriented tool to give working solutions, drawing on what we know from other sectors. By driving capital into these solutions together, we can take the ambition of our funding much further, reflecting the determination and innovation of those serving on the front lines of mental health globally.”

"We know what it takes to build a mentally healthy world, but to make it happen, we need sustainable financing and bold collaboration across sectors,” said Erica Coe, Global Executive Director, McKinsey Health Institute. “This guidebook is an important step forward. It helps funders — from government, business, and philanthropy — see that investing in mental health isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also economically sound."

“Too many people around the world are held back by mental health challenges, yet the tools we have today aren’t reaching enough people and often, they don’t work well enough,” said Professor Miranda Wolpert, Director of Mental Health, Wellcome Trust. “Without greater investment, especially in early detection, scalable interventions, and equitable access to innovation, this will not change. The funding gap is significant, but it’s also solvable. This guide offers practical tools to help mental health leaders and investors work together to unlock progress and build a future where good mental health is within reach for everyone.”

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About African Venture Philanthropy Alliance  

AVPA’s mission is to increase the flow of capital into African social investments and support effective deployment for maximum impact. AVPA empowers impact actors—including investors and enablers—by offering a robust platform where they can connect with their peers, gain insights and learn from shared experiences, influence policy and practice, and scale up their interventions for greater impact.

About the Clinton Global Initiative 

Founded by President Bill Clinton in 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative is a community of doers representing a broad cross section of society and dedicated to the idea that we can accomplish more together than we can apart. Through CGI’s unique model, more than 10,000 organizations have launched more than 4,000 Commitments to Action — new, specific, and measurable projects and programs – that are making a difference in the lives of more than 500 million people in 180 countries.

About Kokoro 

Kokoro is a not-for-profit that works in radical collaboration with a global network of allies, partners and funders, using the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as a framework. Through the combined effort of working with partners on three strands of work (‘Connecting’, ‘Scaling’ and ‘Championing’), Kokoro strives to collectively drive the systemic change needed to mobilise action and capital to create a mentally healthy world.

About the McKinsey Health Institute 

The McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) is an enduring, non-profit-generating Institute within the firm. MHI believes, over the next decade, humanity could add as much as 45 billion extra years of higher-quality life, which is roughly six years per person on average — and substantially more in some countries and populations. MHI’s mission is to catalyze the actions needed across continents, sectors, and communities to realize this possibility.

About Wellcome

Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health.