GIH Bulletin

Access to abortion care in Ohio. The chance to support city candidates with democracy vouchers in Seattle. Promoting judicial ethics in Colorado. An $11 an hour minimum wage in Arkansas. What do these policy changes have in common? They were all enacted through the ballot initiative process, and they all support healthy, thriving communities, both in process and in outcome. But multiple states are seeing efforts to curtail the ballot measure process, limiting the voices of voters.

In the last few years, there has been an increased number of extreme weather events, including wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves in the United States. In 2023, the United States experienced 28 disasters that cost at least $1 billion, the largest number of billion-dollar disasters in a single year on record (Smith 2024). While some areas of the country are more susceptible to these threats, there are no regions immune to disasters. According to a recent Gallup poll, 37 percent of adults in the United States report they have been personally impacted by at least one extreme weather event in the last two years, which is higher than the 2022/2023 survey result at 33 percent.

After the 2018 Camp Fire – the most destructive and deadly wildfire in California’s history – the California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI) understood that the community needed more than programming to recover. In response, the region’s Accountable Community for Health (ACH) was created – a community-rooted, cross-sector collaborative that invests in local leadership to shift systems, influence policy, and address both long-standing inequities and urgent crises.

In a time of intensive action to dismantle policies and practices that protect the well-being of all Americans, where chaos is the principal strategy to overthrow the will of and care for the American people, philanthropy must remain rooted in what is legally and morally right.

After 18 years at Grantmakers In Health, Eileen Salinsky, longtime Program Advisor and former Vice President for Program and Strategy, has announced her retirement. Her last day at GIH will be Friday, March 21, 2025. Eileen was recruited as GIH’s Vice President for Program and Strategy by former President and CEO Lauren LeRoy in 2007. Family obligations required Eileen to step back from her management position, but she stayed on part-time as a Program Adviser for almost two decades.

At the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, this has been a challenging year for North Carolina, where we live and work. Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of NC and the surrounding region, and we endured an election that divided our state and nation. We also know that we are not alone facing the challenges of 2024 and those we will take on in 2025. Many of us in the Grantmakers In Health (GIH) community are wondering how to persevere through these uncertain times. At the Trust, we acknowledge the heaviness of the moment—because we anticipate policy changes that will negatively impact people who are already being left behind.