From Recovery to Resilience: Investing in Collaborative Infrastructure for Health and Equity

After the 2018 Camp Fire – the most destructive and deadly wildfire in California’s history – the California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI) understood that the community needed more than programming to recover. In response, the region’s Accountable Community for Health (ACH) was created – a community-rooted, cross-sector collaborative that invests in local leadership to shift systems, influence policy, and address both long-standing inequities and urgent crises.

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Broken Triangle: A Framework for Reparative Philanthropic Relationships

Traditional philanthropic practices have often created imbalanced power dynamics and barriers for Black-led, Black-serving organizations. When the REACH Healthcare Foundation performed a portfolio review in 2018 that revealed this same exclusion within the foundation’s grantmaking investments, REACH committed to reshaping their funding approach, which aims to repair previously neglected —and in some cases, damaged —relationships.

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The Colorado Health Foundation Report: July 2017

Colorado Health Foundation released a new white paper explaining its decision to create and endow Healthier Colorado, a 501(c)(4) political organization that is free to engage in lobbying and elections.

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Grantmakers In Health Celebrates 35 Years of Support to Health Philanthropy

Since its inception, GIH has grown to be the leading national network dedicated to the needs and concerns of health funders. Over the past 35 years, the organization has strengthened health philanthropy through its meetings, publications, leadership trainings, and strategic advice—operating with the core belief of better health through better philanthropy.

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Leading with Vision

Do we aspire to be the healthiest community in the state? Think bigger. Do we aspire to be the healthiest community in the nation? Keep going. Some days I ask myself if it is grandiose to hold a pie-in-the-sky vision during changing, uncertain times.

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From Nathan’s to a National Network: Celebrating GIH’s 35th Anniversary

As legend has it, GIH began as a conversation among foundation program officers at a Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs restaurant in New Jersey, in 1978.

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Reflections on a Life in Philanthropy

Almost twenty years ago, after a career in public health, I was offered the opportunity to bring my passion for population health improvement to philanthropy. Since then, I have had the unique privilege of leading two new health foundations—one in California, and one in Kentucky.

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Reducing the Risk of Exposure to Lead in Drinking Water

Ensuring access to sufficient, safe drinking water has been an essential function of water utilities, public health, and health care professionals around the world for more than a century. The public health community is often on the front lines, responding to elevated blood lead levels—and can speak to the need for prevention.

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