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.

Kate Treanor in Inside Philanthropy: COVID-19’s Effects on Philanthropic Giving

GIH Senior Program Director Kate Treanor was quoted in an August 24, 2022 Inside Philanthropy article about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated social movements on philanthropic giving to nonprofits.  ’After George Floyd’s murder, a social justice movement swept the country,’ said Kate Treanor, senior program director at Grantmakers in Health, which represents…

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Virtual Focus Groups to Inform GIH’s Policy and Advocacy Activities

This resource from BoardSource and the Building Movement Project offers insight and advice to boards about how to avoid pitfalls leading up to a transition and after a new leader is hired.

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Letter to President Biden Offers Support and Recommendations for the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health

Organizations in philanthropy sent a letter to President Biden in support of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. This letter outlines four recommendations for the Administration and federal agencies to adopt leading up to and following the conference.

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Osula

Wishing GIH’s Vice President a Fond Farewell

It is with a mix of joy and sadness that we announce that after 18 years Osula Evadne Rushing, Vice President for Program and Strategy at Grantmakers In Health, is leaving to rejoin the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) as Senior Vice President for Strategic Engagement.

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Reflections on the 2022 GIH Annual Conference and the Road Ahead

It was so wonderful to see everyone in Miami at the 2022 Grantmakers In Health Annual Conference, especially those who joined us for the first time, and to learn more about the work you are doing to achieve better health for all through better philanthropy. The conference occurred at an important moment for our country. As Admiral Rachel Levine, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, said during our strategy session on advancing LGBTQ health equity “even after decades of social progress, the most vulnerable among us continue to suffer.” The conference provided an opportunity for us to reconnect, to reflect on the considerable health challenges facing the United States, and to learn and grow together as we explore and share solutions.

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Lessons from a Long Season of Disaster Response

By the time this article is published, we’ll be marking several anniversaries of devastating natural disasters in Louisiana, all of which arrived late in summer. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita infamously decimated the Southern Louisiana area in 2005. Fifteen years later, in the span of just two consecutive summers, Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta, and Ida battered a weary state still mired in the thick of COVID-19.

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