A New Path for Philanthropy: Supporting Oral Health Through Community Partnerships
Good nutrition is essential to good oral as well as overall health. A community-based organization in central Washington state called APOYO shares this belief with Arcora Foundation. Beyond food and nutrition services, the organization has long supported immigrant and Latinx families with culturally relevant outreach, advocacy, and resource navigation. But during the summer of 2025, their ability to support communities was in jeopardy.
Welcoming and Belonging: Drivers for Equity and Growth
More than a decade ago, leadership at REACH Healthcare Foundation began exploring how a community would function if it truly embraced welcoming and belonging for immigrant and refugee populations. The mid-sized Midwest philanthropic foundation sought to invest in a plan to reveal, then address, the systemic barriers impacting Kansas City’s efforts of inclusion for all members of the community.
Healing Takes Practice: Reaching People Is Only the Beginning
Violence is increasingly understood as a public health problem. That shift has changed the way communities respond—moving the conversation beyond policing and criminal justice and toward prevention, intervention, and the conditions that put people at risk. But treating violence as a health problem also requires us to reckon with trauma.
We Didn’t Stop: Leading with Purpose When the System Stepped Back
The notice came the way these things now tend to come: abruptly, in writing, and without a transition plan. In April 2025, Public Health AmeriCorps programs were terminated nationally alongside about 900 other AmeriCorps programs. Funding halted. AmeriCorps service members who had built their careers and households around a year of community health service were left waiting for answers no one could give them. Organizations across the country scrambled.
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.
The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts: January 2025
2025 Activation Fund grant opportunity is now open, which provides capacity-building support for organizations working to address the community-identified health needs of Central Massachusetts residents and workers. With grants typically ranging between $60,000 and $125,000, the Activation Fund supports discrete, one-year projects in Central Massachusetts aimed at helping organizations advance to their next level of capacity and effectiveness that can be sustained over time.
Philanthropy @ Work – Grants and Programs – January 2025
The latest on grants and programs from the field.
Postpartum Care Systems: Strategically Collaborating to Advance and Align Solutions Across Sectors
As state policymakers began extending continuous eligibility for postpartum Medicaid coverage from the 60 days following birth to the 12 months following birth in 2022, a small workgroup of
funders connected to explore what philanthropy’s role could be in strengthening maternal health outcomes
and how we might support effective implementation of the extension
Older Americans Act Renewal Approved by Senate
This an important and time-sensitive update on the Older Americans Act Reauthorization. The bill passed the Senate on Dec. 10th. It now needs to go through the House.
The National Council on Aging (NCOA) has an easy way for organizations who are legally able to lobby congress to reach out. Click here to complete a very brief form which will be automatically routed to your representatives. And please share with your networks!
Grantmakers In Health Welcomes Three New Members to Board of Directors
Grantmakers In Health (GIH) is pleased to announce the elections of Kenneth Jones, Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Equity Officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Susan Mims, President and CEO of the Dogwood Health Trust; and Hilda Polanco, Market Managing Principal at BDO to its Board of Directors.
Q&A: How the Chicago South Side Birth Center is Championing a Better Approach to Maternal Health
Grantmakers In Health (GIH) recently spoke with Jeanine Valrie Logan, Founder + Lead Steward of the Chicago South Side Birth Center, and Shruti Jayaraman, Chief Investments Officer of Chicago Beyond, to learn how the Chicago South Side Birth Center and Chicago Beyond are working together to improve maternal health outcomes for mothers in one of Chicago’s most underserved communities. This interview has been edited for style and clarity.