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.
Incarceration and Public Health: Going Bold to Achieve Health Equity
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of public health has sprinted a marathon to address the ongoing crisis — we have implemented mass vaccination plans, pushed back against misinformation campaigns, and taken action in the face of slashed budgets and outright assaults on our lives. But as a public health researcher and advocate, I believe there is a critical place where we have fallen short, and with dire consequences: connecting the dots between incarceration and health.
Investing in Nutrition Security Post-Pandemic
During the first year of the pandemic, despite being a rural agricultural region with over 4,000 small farms, the food insecurity rate across the North Country counties of New York rose from 11 to 15 percent. In March 2020, with funding from New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth), the Adirondack Foundation, and the Cloudsplitter Foundation, AdkAction partnered with the Hub on the Hill, a nonprofit food hub, to launch its Emergency Food Packages (EFP) project to assist local families facing food insecurity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. EFP succeeded in delivering thousands of healthy, locally produced food packages to people in need while also supporting hard working farmers across the region.
On the Precipice: Why Health Funders Should Care about Abortion Access
Reproductive health and justice in the United States are at a crossroads. We are seeing positive developments such as growing (though still inadequate) attention to maternal health and reinstatement of the family planning safety net after years of reductions in access to these services. We invite funders focused on health more broadly to join us in an effort to support the dignity of women and families; protect women’s lives; and mitigate the health, economic, and social harms that can result from being denied an abortion.
MetroWest Health Foundation’s Adolescent Health Survey
The MetroWest Health Foundation recently released the results from its 2021 MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey, a biennial survey of middle and high school students in the 25-region served by the foundation. Survey findings found that rates of vaping and marijuana use have declined but mental health issues and cyberbullying have increased.
Advocacy That Builds Power
The California Endowment supported the Center for Evaluation Innovation and Gigi Barsoum to examine what it takes for advocacy to build power through an evaluation of advocacy efforts that were part of the 10-year Building Healthy Communities initiative.
