Beyond the Rankings: What Four Decades of KIDS COUNT Have Taught Me About Why Data Matter
For more than three decades, through the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® project, decisionmakers and communities have had access to reliable national, state, and local data to improve outcomes for all children, young people, and families in this country. KIDS COUNT comprises the foundation’s national KIDS COUNT publications—the annual KIDS COUNT Data Book and periodic reports such as Race for Results; the KIDS COUNT Data Center, a resource for year-round national, state, and local data; and the KIDS COUNT Network of state-based partner organizations that help policymakers, advocates, journalists, and community leaders understand and use data to make informed decisions.
Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy: Countering Bias and Promoting Care
Most pregnancy-related deaths in North Carolina are preventable. Yet mental health conditions, including overdose and suicide, remain the leading cause of pregnancy-related death. For health care leaders, that reality demands a closer look at how we identify, treat, and support pregnant and postpartum patients with opioid use disorder.
Preventing Domestic Violence by Reaching People Who Cause Harm
The research involved a landscape scan of Cook County, Illinois’ policies, funding, and services for people who cause harm with a goal of engaging the stakeholders and providers doing this work as well as survivors and those who receive services to identify barriers, challenges, and strengths of domestic violence prevention programs. The research examined Partner Abuse Intervention Programs (PAIP) in particular, a standard intervention for people who cause harm that is overseen by the Illinois Department of Human Services.
Post-Overdose Response Teams: A Community-Based Approach to Public Safety
Recent changes in the federal policy landscape have created new questions for communities working to address substance use disorder (SUD), mental health needs, and housing instability. In this evolving environment, philanthropy, in collaboration with community-based organizations and local governments, has an important role to play in supporting evidence-based responses to overdose and mental health emergencies that improve access to care, strengthen community wellbeing, and uplift public health while avoiding unnecessary criminal legal outcomes.
GIH Health Policy Update Newsletter
The Latest
An Exclusive Resource for Funding Partners
The Health Policy Update is a newsletter produced in collaboration with Leavitt Partners and Trust for America’s Health. Drawing on GIH’s policy priorities outlined in our policy agenda and our strategic objective of increasing our policy and advocacy presence, the Health Policy Update provides GIH Funding Partners with a range of federal health policy news.
Philanthropy @ Work – Grants and Programs – March 2026
The latest on grants and programs from the field.
Thirty-nine Funders Join GIH in Support of Health Professionals
Grantmakers In Health (GIH) is urging funders to sign on to our comment letter on this proposed rule by Friday, February 27. Your voice matters—the Department of Education must consider all comments submitted before finalizing the rule.
Collaborative Comment Letter to the Department of Education in Support of Health Professionals
Grantmakers In Health (GIH) is urging funders to sign on to our comment letter on this proposed rule by Friday, February 27. Your voice matters—the Department of Education must consider all comments submitted before finalizing the rule.
39 Funders Collaborate on Comment Letter in Support of Health Professionals
The U.S. Department of Education recently published a proposed rule that would narrow the definition of which graduate programs qualify as “professional degrees” for federal student loan purposes, affecting how much students in certain health fields may borrow. Finalizing this rule will result in reduced access to care (especially in rural and other underserved communities), by making graduate education less affordable, disrupting health workforce pipelines, and creating obstacles for students to enter essential health and human-services professions.
What Do We Stand For?
One year ago, as we were just one month into the new administration, I wrote that “At a moment when so much has been described as ‘unprecedented,’ and so much of what we value is being attacked, we need to ask ourselves as individuals, organizations, and a field, what do we stand for? What values do we hold, and what will we do and say to defend them?” Today, the answers to these questions are needed more urgently than ever.
Medicaid and Community Violence: Pathways to Sustainable Care
American cities are witnessing historic declines in gun violence. In recent years, cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Chicago have all seen precipitous drops in homicides, with some reaching multi-decade record lows (Washington Post 2025). While there are many causes of this decline, experts in the field point to community violence intervention as driving the trend.