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.
Reimagining Rural Health and Well-being
To inform positive change, Grantmakers in Health (GIH) and the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) are partnering to reimagine a unified vision for health and well-being in rural America. The Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) was engaged to conduct a landscape analysis and facilitate listening sessions with rural health stakeholders at the local, state, and national levels.
GIH Health Policy Update Newsletter
An Exclusive Resource for Funding Partners
The Health Policy Update is a newsletter produced in collaboration with Leavitt Partnersi 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.
Remembering Leila May Polintan (Bugno)
GIH Board and staff mourn the death of Leila Polintan, our communications director. Leila’s courage and grace in the face of her battle with cancer were an example for all of us. We will miss her smiling face, infectious laugh, and vibrant spirit.
Adaptive Leadership: The Next Requirement for Sustainable Community Health Improvements?
Funders have an obligation to go beyond providing programmatic or operational funding. They must play a larger role if they are to contribute to meaningful and sustained change and responsibly steward the resources in their trust.
A Healthy Public Needs More Than Public Health: Lessons for Addressing Substance Use
The longstanding invisibility of substance use disorders simply cannot continue if we truly want to improve communities. We have a window of opportunity to make great strides if physical and behavioral health policymakers, advocates, and foundations work together.
In Memory of Andy Hyman
The field of health philanthropy lost one of its greatest champions when Andy Hyman of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation passed away on February 25, 2015.
The Health Care Neighborhood: Philanthropy’s Role in Aging Well
Many primary care physicians do not feel confident in their capacity to meet their patients’ social needs, and they believe this impedes their ability to provide quality care. Despite evidence that social determinants such as education, employment, and economics can influence health outcomes, a service coordination gap remains.