GIH Bulletin: July 2025
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.
GIH Bulletin: June/July 2018
Health philanthropy is a complex, ever-evolving sector. New health foundations continue to emerge, bringing additional assets to communities across the country.
GIH Bulletin: May 2018
Our board retreat is a wonderful opportunity to examine important trends in the field of health philanthropy and consider ways GIH can be most helpful in supporting the field’s evolving needs and priorities. A key topic of conversation at this year’s gathering was the role of health philanthropy and GIH in responding to gun violence.
GIH Bulletin: April 2018
A few weeks ago, I was the moderator for a conversation about “Building, Protecting, and Promoting Evidence to Achieve Health Equity,” between Rich Besser of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Bob Ross of The California Endowment. The foundations share a commitment to health equity, but their approaches to achieving it vary in interesting ways.
GIH Bulletin: March 2018
As we prepare for the 2018 annual conference, Navigating Currents of Change, I have been thinking about foundations and community leadership. Leadership has many dimensions. It includes setting priorities, taking risks, and exercising a foundation’s voice to communicate its positions.
GIH Bulletin: January/February 2018
This year’s conference theme, Navigating Currents of Change, recognizes that we are in a period of intense social change that challenges funders from several directions—all at once. And we want to hear from you.
GIH Bulletin: November 2017
In my last several Bulletin letters, I’ve written about issues that are top of mind with current and past GIH board members. This series concludes with a look at the health care workforce, a pressing and complex issue that encompasses aspects of quality, equity, and delivery system reform.
GIH Bulletin: October 2017
In the immediate aftermath of natural disasters like hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, people require help with food, water, physical injuries, housing, and other survival concerns. Longer term, their needs are more complex—and less visible.
GIH Bulletin: September 2017
In our 35th anniversary survey of GIH board members and board alumni, several identified the social determinants of health as a primary challenge—now and in the future—for health philanthropy.
GIH Bulletin: August 2017
As part of our 35th anniversary celebration, we reached out to GIH board members and board alumni to share their advice to health funders about the primary challenges that philanthropy should be tackling. As described in my July letter, several pointed out the contributions health funders have made—and can continue to make—to policy change.