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.

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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.

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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.

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Grantmakers In Health Announces 2024 Award Winners

Grantmakers In Health (GIH) is pleased to announce Billie Hall of the Sunflower Foundation in Kansas, as the 2024 recipient of the Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health, and Joan Alker of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families in Washington, DC, as the 2024 recipient of the Andy Hyman Award for Advocacy.

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Grantmakers In Health President and CEO Cara V. James Appointed to District of Columbia Commission on Health Equity

Cara V. James, President and CEO of Grantmakers In Health (GIH), has been appointed as a voting member of the District of Columbia Commission on Health Equity by Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser.

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Joan Alker of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families to Be Honored with the Andy Hyman Award for Advocacy

Joan Alker, Executive Director and a cofounder of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families (CCF) in Washington, DC, will receive Grantmakers In Health’s 2024 Andy Hyman Award for Advocacy.

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Billie Hall of the Sunflower Foundation to Be Honored with the 2024 Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy

Billie Hall, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Sunflower Foundation in Kansas, will receive Grantmakers In Health’s 2024 Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy.

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A New Generation of Researchers: Hearing from Youth Leaders on Their Well-Being

Building upon a previous conversation with Juan Martinez of the Aspen Institute and Cynthia Weaver of The Annie E. Casey Foundation on their collaboration on the Youth and Young Adult Well-Being project, the following Q&A features three paid youth consultants who are leading the research initiative as the Youth and Young Adult Well-Being core team. Each team member represents a different cultural affinity group in the well-being project: Desiree Armas from Latine Bienestar, Niara Frankson from Black Expressions of Well-Being, and Zenetta Zepeda from American Indian/Alaska Native.

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Lessons from the Washington AIDS Partnership: How to Take Big Risks and Move Quickly to Drive Change

The Washington AIDS Partnership, a collaboration of grantmaking organizations with a mission of ending the HIV epidemic in the Greater Washington region, was founded in 1988 with the support of the Ford Foundation and 20 DC-area foundations. The organization’s charge was to make grants to the community as quickly as possible. At that time, Washington, DC had the fifth-highest HIV rate in the country, and the epidemic was out of control. As the city has made great progress reaching goals set in the DC Ends HIV Plan, the Washington AIDS Partnership determined in 2023 that its role in the fight to end the local epidemic was coming to an end. The organization will officially conclude its work in the first quarter of 2024.

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