Rural Health Information Hub: August 2026
The Rural Heath Information Hub recently released its Rural Mobile Healthcare Toolkit. This toolkit compiles evidence-based and promising models and resources to support organizations implementing mobile health care programs in rural communities across the United States. In particular, it highlights existing programs that have successfully provided rural mobile health care services.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation: August 2026
The Call for Proposals is now open! The Merck Foundation has launched a United States initiative called the Community Collaborative for Reimagining HIV Care. Through the Collaborative, the foundation will provide grants to support the development and implementation of innovative, community-centered models of comprehensive care to meet the evolving needs of people living with HIV.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation: August 2026
The foundation is issuing a funding opportunity to support local partnerships led by trusted community-based organizations that better connect, strengthen, and enhance existing mental health and well-being services for caregivers. This effort focuses on integrating and aligning existing resources to improve caregiver well-being, increase social connection, and strengthen pathways to clinical mental health care when needed.
Philanthropy @ Work – Grants and Programs – August 2026
The latest on grants and programs from the field.
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.
Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust: October 2025
Three new fact sheets inform funders about how recent federal budget cuts will impact health care access, food assistance, and the health of immigrant families. The fact sheets detail what is being cut, when the cuts will take effect, and what to do next.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts: October 2025
This new report “Behavioral Health Professional Licensure in Massachusetts: Existing Barriers and Opportunities to Advance Diversity in the Workforce” documents the licensing requirements for behavioral health providers in Massachusetts, describes the barriers to licensure for clinicians from underrepresented populations, and outlines potential solutions.
Philanthropy @ Work – Grants and Programs – October 2025
The latest on grants and programs from the field.
Responding to a Rural Hospital Closure: The Importance of a Phased, Multi-Pronged Approach
It has been over a year since the August 31, 2024, closure of a beloved community hospital in Ayer, Massachusetts following the bankruptcy of the private equity-backed Steward Health Care system. The impacts of the Nashoba Valley Medical Center closure continue to reverberate across this rural working-class region, adding to a growing sense of abandonment and frustration that has accumulated over waves of health care service cuts.
The Role of Health Philanthropy in Improving Maternal Health for Underserved Populations
Although the United States is a high-income nation, it experiences a significant burden of maternal mortality incidence relative to other countries. In 2023, non-expansion Medicaid states had 27.7 percent higher pregnancy-related deaths than expansion states. The COVID-19 pandemic also exacerbated racial disparities in pregnancy-related deaths. Historically, marginalized populations, including low-income populations and Black and Indigenous communities are more vulnerable to preventable pregnancy-related deaths.
Designing Inclusive and Equity-Centered Health System Improvement Projects—Lessons from Three Initiatives
Disparities in access to health care persist for individuals with low incomes and Black, Hispanic/Latinx and Native American/Native Alaskan individuals and are particularly acute in behavioral health. Behavioral health care utilization rates among Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults are less than half those of White adults. These disparities exist because of barriers in access such as limited provider networks, poor language access, a lack of culturally-aligned services, and technological barriers to telehealth. Working with health providers to create inclusive and accessible services is essential to building more equitable access to behavioral health care, and to healthier and happier families and communities.