Reimagining Health Philanthropy, Together
During Day 2 of the 2025 Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy, attendees across sectors worked together to identify the intersections of their work and co-created solutions for healthier, thriving communities. Sessions spanned a wide range of topics, from exploring business’ role in health equity to strategies for supporting staff in uncertain times.
Remarks on Defending Philanthropy’s Freedom to Give
President and CEO of Grantmakers In Health (GIH), Cara V. James, delivered opening remarks at the 2025 GIH Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy in New Orleans.
Building a Collaborative Vision of the Future
Today, over 840 funders and thought leaders, representing 440 organizations, gathered in New Orleans for the largest Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy ever. Conference attendees started the day with site visits around the Crescent City and newcomer and networking lunches, rooting the week ahead in connections with the New Orleans community and each other.
Efficient Philanthropy: Modest Beginnings at The Health Funders Partnership of Orange County
A recently released report from The Center for Effective Philanthropy, Indicators of Effectiveness, comments on foundations’ growing understanding and interest in assessing their overall performance, noting that many are “convinced that better performance assessment will lead to greater effectiveness and, in turn, to more social impact on the people and issues they affect.”
Putting Knowledge to Work for Mental Health
A challenge to the philanthropic community: do better when it comes to funding for mental health. Dr. Garduque describes how grantmakers can – and should – play a key role in charting new territory, challenging service systems to do better, and promoting the adoption of evidence-based practices.
What Patient Safety is Teaching Us
This Views from the Field spotlights the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative, a regional health care quality and patient safety improvement program. With initial funding from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and support from a wide variety of community stakeholders, this initiative has evolved into a nationally recognized model for improving health care quality.
Congregations as Health Service Partners
The current debate about government funding has sparked renewed interest in faith-based organizations and their role in meeting the economic, health, and educational needs of society. The small, open country chapel…the urban church with declining parishioners and rising community needs…the burgeoning suburban congregation of young families…the mega-church with a multimillion dollar budget…all are lumped together with countless other religious groups as one solution to the nation’s needs.
Funding Biomedical Research: A David in Goliath’s Field
When it comes to funding biomedical research, there is a
perception among health grantmakers that only the Goliaths
of the world can make a difference. A foundation must be as
large as the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, for instance, to hire
a sophisticated staff that can comprehend complex scientific
protocols. It must have the deep pockets and staying power
of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute to afford the notoriously expensive equipment and salaries, and to take a gamble on a payoff that may be long in coming, if ever.