Healthier Information Ecosystems: Strategies for Health Philanthropy

Our information environment is transforming—including the places and people who help us make decisions about our health. Those health information ecosystems are fragmented; filled with information from a wide range of expertise and sources; and platform algorithms exert tremendous and unseen control over what messages are seen, shared, and amplified. These changes have many of our traditional health information sources racing to learn new skills to ensure they remain trusted and relevant.

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Beyond Innovation: How Philanthropy Can Strengthen Systems to Improve Rural Health Outcomes

Sometimes innovation in philanthropy is associated with breakthrough technologies or new medical discoveries. But some of the most impactful investments fund something less visible: the coordination of people, protocols, and institutions already in place so they work together seamlessly to save lives.

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A Philanthropic Tree of Life: Seeding Health Equity through Influence and Innovation

Philanthropy can function as a living ecosystem for change rooted in equity, nourished by trust, and bearing the fruits of community well-being. The Direct Relief Fund for Health Equity (DRFHE), launched with $50 million in initial investments, exemplifies a transformative philanthropic model supporting nearly 200 community-based organizations across the United States. Acknowledging DRFHE as a “Tree of Life” offers a framework grounded in community-led, trust-based, and unrestricted giving that challenges traditional philanthropic paradigms. Therefore, this article describes the fund’s origins, strategic priorities, and outcomes, and introduces the DRFHE Tree of Life framework as a replicable model for equity-driven philanthropy.

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GIH Health Policy Update Newsletter

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.

Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky Report: October 2017

Health Disparities in Appalachia, a new report issued today by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, documents dramatic disparities in health outcomes and other health-related factors in the Appalachian Region when compared with the nation as a whole, as well as substantial variations in health throughout the region’s 420-county footprint.

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Mary Black Foundation Report: October 2017

Mary Black Foundation presented data demonstrating the efforts of seven case managers across Spartanburg County, South Carolina after July 31, 2017 marked the end of a three-year federal grant through the Office of Adolescent Health’s Pregnancy Assistance Fund.

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Health Funders and the Challenge of Shifting Funding Upstream

The uncertain future of the ACA has focused attention for the past several months on policies related to health care, but we should not lose sight of the factors outside of the health care system that profoundly shape health. Community development, housing, and domestic violence—all discussed in this month’s Bulletin—are among them.

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How to Support Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts

Grantmakers In Health has compiled a list of resources for funders interested in supporting Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

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Building Bridges, Eliminating Walls: Why Philanthropy Should Care about Domestic Violence

Though domestic violence touches so many lives, there are still too few who are working to prevent its detrimental effects on those who struggle the most.

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How a Small Craft Navigates Shifting Tides

With services and supports to our community’s most vulnerable residents repeatedly at risk over the last several months, we have found ourselves wondering: is this the new reality? And as a relatively small local foundation, how can we most effectively target our resources to make a difference?

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