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.

Effective Behavioral Health Funding in an Era of Health Care Reform

Health funders today operate in an environment of change and uncertainty as policy changes driven by federal health care reform affect health care at state and local levels – often in ways that are hard to predict. Meanwhile, health funders increasingly recognize that addressing behavioral health challenges is central to promoting healthy individuals, families, and communities.

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Health Care Reform: Promises and Pitfalls for Maternal and Child Health

In 2009 health care spending in the United States reached an all-time high of nearly $2.5 trillion, representing an almost two-fold increase in spending on a per capita basis since 1997 (NIHCM Foundation 2011).

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Better Health Through Better Philanthropy - Grantmakers in Health

Integrating Primary Care and Public Health: Opportunities for Oral Health

As health philanthropy considers how to address the current individual and community burdens of increases in chronic diseases, I am optimistic when I reflect on the new and promising collaborations that are developing to better manage and prevent oral disease.

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Health Insurance Exchange Planning: Philanthropy Leading the Way

Health insurance exchanges are the cornerstones of the
Affordable Care Act (ACA). By 2014, each state will
need to establish two health insurance marketplaces,
known as exchanges, one to serve individuals and one to serve
small employers of up to 100 employees (the SHOP
exchange).

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Cultivating the Next Generation of Philanthropic Leadership

Fellows from the inaugural Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders in Health Philanthropy share their thoughts on how the field of philanthropy can help cultivate the next generation of leaders.

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Creating Common Ground: Working Together for Food Systems Change

A growing number of segments of the philanthropic community are paying attention to the food system and its interconnectedness with other major health, environmental, justice, and community issues.

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