Humana Foundation Advances Equity Through Community-Engaged Research Practices

Grantmakers In Health’s Maya Schane spoke with Heather Hyden and Soojin Conover of the Humana Foundation about the Foundation’s recently published report, Strengthening Science and Community Impact Through Equitable Research Practices. The report examines innovative research methods adopted by the Foundation’s partners to promote health equity in public health research through community-engaged research practices.

Read More →

Collaborating for Impact: Providing Trust-Based Grantmaking and Technical Assistance to Support Local Resilience to Extreme Weather Events

In the last few years, there has been an increased number of extreme weather events, including wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and heatwaves in the United States. In 2023, the United States experienced 28 disasters that cost at least $1 billion, the largest number of billion-dollar disasters in a single year on record (Smith 2024). While some areas of the country are more susceptible to these threats, there are no regions immune to disasters. According to a recent Gallup poll, 37 percent of adults in the United States report they have been personally impacted by at least one extreme weather event in the last two years, which is higher than the 2022/2023 survey result at 33 percent.

Read More →

Working Through Challenges to Sharing Power With Community: Highlights from a session at Grantmakers in Health’s Annual Conference

The people closest to the issue best know the solutions. For health funders, sharing power with community could mean giving residents a voice in shaping your grantmaking priorities or where grant dollars are spent. Many funders understand that solutions are more likely to be successful when the people who are most affected have a voice in shaping them. But when it comes to including that voice, the work often stalls before it starts.

Read More →

Giving Voice to the Voiceless: The Case for Advocacy Funding

Funding public policy work is as important to health improvement as funding for direct services.  Lessons learned from funding advocates include the importance of providing core operating support, the need to engage the grassroots, and how to empower community members.

Read More →

Support Cover the Uninsured Week: Making Uninsured Americans a Priority on the Nation’s Agenda

The issue of the uninsured is one of America’s biggest health challenges, and the situation is growing worse. In response, health philanthropies from coast to coast and some of the nation’s most influential organizations in the United States are joining together to support Cover the Uninsured Week from March 10-16, 2003. We hope you will join us in supporting this unprecedented foundation-led educational effort so that we can speak with one voice on behalf of the nation’s uninsured.

Read More →

If the Dow Breaks, Will Health Philanthropy Fall? Strategic Grantmaking During Economic Uncertainty

If we were measuring the health of our foundations by financial growth over the past two years, some of us might be considering life-support systems. Fortunately for the field, and for those we support through our grantmaking, the health of our organizations is not measured by dollars alone. The measure of our work is defined in people

Read More →

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.”

Read More →

People, Wildlife, and Ecosystems: Health for One, Health for All

The field of ecological health recognizes that the physical
well-being of people, nonhuman animals, and their habitats are inseparable. This is a profoundly different notion
from the conventional view of health, in which physicians,
nurses, and others treat human ills; veterinarians tend to the
health of livestock, pets, and wildlife; and conservation biologists
and ecologists address habitat health. But the more we learn
about health, the more ludicrous these artificial divisions become.

Read More →