Courageous Action for the Health of Our Communities
The final day of the 2025 Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy focused on milestone moments in health like the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and elevated the philanthropic partnerships already inspiring a better tomorrow. While much of the conference was spent reflecting, today was marked by action and what comes next: standing firm in values, being courageous, and co-creating a vision for the future.
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.
Rhode Island’s Health Equity Zones: Rethinking Community Investing to Create Measurable, Sustainable Gains in Health Equity
In 2015 the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) launched a project called the Health Equity Zones (HEZ) initiative, with the goal of creating a new public health approach. Rather than prioritizing specific health outcomes, Rhode Island’s HEZ initiative was designed to shift investments upstream to improve the social, environmental, and economic determinants of health by intentionally investing in community infrastructure and resident empowerment. The HEZ initiative has grown over the past seven years to become an internationally recognized model for operationalizing health equity, and during that time we have learned a lot about the role of community investments and how our approach needs to be rethought if we are truly going to invest in health equity.
Centering Racial Justice to Address Climate Change: Learning What it Takes
In 2018, the Kresge Foundation launched the Climate Change, Health, and Equity (CCHE) initiative as a 5-year, $22 million commitment to accelerate action on climate change and climate-related inequities in health. Since its inception, the CCHE network has worked in distinct, yet aligned strategies that focus on health institutions, practitioner and professional societies, and community-based organizations. The priority was to bring together diverse grant-funded partners at different points along their equity journey, with initiative partners providing evaluation, technical assistance, and support to sustain the network.
Children’s Environmental Health Day: Actions Needed Now to Protect Our Children’s Health
It has been over a decade since the World Health Organization raised the alarm that chronic diseases—including cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome—are rapidly becoming an epidemic in developed nations, and increasingly, in developing nations. Escalating rates of neurocognitive, metabolic, autoimmune, and cardiovascular diseases cannot be solely attributed to lifestyle, genetics, and nutrition. Prenatal, early life, and ongoing exposures, along with bio-accumulative toxicants, are playing a large role in the increased incidence of chronic disease. In fact, we need only look at the statistics to see that chronic disease rates in children are on the rise, and this can often be linked to toxic exposures.
Rural Road Trip Showcases Resiliency, Collaboration, Innovation, and the Need for a Shared Vision for Rural Health in the United States
Last month I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Georgia and North Carolina with key partners in rural health. Our “rural road trip” was a refreshing journey that provided inspiration for philanthropy’s work and a reminder that ensuring better health for all must engage all rural communities.
New York Health Foundation: September 2022
Learn about the findings from the first-ever statewide survey on the connection between food and health.