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.

Is the Energy Boom in Your Backyard? Oil and Gas Extraction Threatens Health and Communities Across the United States

The increasing use of a process called hydraulic fracturing–commonly called fracking–is transforming not only the nation’s energy supply, but also its landscape.

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Better Health Through Better Philanthropy - Grantmakers in Health

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.

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All Politics are Local: Preemption and Public Health

To accelerate progress toward healthier communities, one of the most important things foundations can do is protect local control by helping their grantees, policymakers, public health advocates and the general public “get smart” about preemption.

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Better Health Through Better Philanthropy - Grantmakers in Health

Youth Mental Health First Aid: Implementation Lessons from Pennsylvania

In the fall of 2013, the Brandywine Health Foundation and key area leaders learned from the Pennsylvania Youth Survey about the high rates of depression among Coatesville-area youth compared with youth in the remainder of Chester County and the state as a whole.

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Amy Berman to Be Honored with Terrance Keenan Award

Amy Berman, Senior Program Officer at The John A. Hartford Foundation, will receive Grantmakers In Health’s 2016 Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy. The award pays tribute to health grantmakers whose work is distinguished by leadership, innovation, and outstanding achievement.

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GIH Announces New Board Members

Ned Calonge, Nichole Maher, Elena Marks, Patricia Mathews, Donald Moulds, and David Rousseau have been elected to the GIH board of directors. Their terms begin immediately after the GIH annual conference in March.

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