Reflections on a Life in Philanthropy
Almost twenty years ago, after a career in public health, I was offered the opportunity to bring my passion for population health improvement to philanthropy. Since then, I have had the unique privilege of leading two new health foundations—one in California, and one in Kentucky.
Reducing the Risk of Exposure to Lead in Drinking Water
Ensuring access to sufficient, safe drinking water has been an essential function of water utilities, public health, and health care professionals around the world for more than a century. The public health community is often on the front lines, responding to elevated blood lead levels—and can speak to the need for prevention.
Reimagining a Patient-Centered Health Care System
NYSHealth’s approach for putting patients at the center is to support efforts–at the individual, system, or policy level—that empower patients to be drivers of and partners in their own health and health care.
The Power of Collaboration for Environmental Health and Justice
Eboni Cochran knows when there has been a chemical release from one of the manufacturing facilities near her home in west Louisville, Kentucky. Not because of a warning siren, but because she smells it, then feels the symptoms almost immediately: sinus pain, headache, trouble breathing.
Maximizing Our Investments: Five Ingredients for Accelerating Impact in Health Philanthropy
The 2016 Terrance Keenan Institute fellows gathered to discuss leadership, collaboration, and best practices in grantmaking. Several prominent issues emerged, including how to effectively demonstrate the impact of philanthropic investments.
Peer Review: A Reflective Look at Our Grantmaking Operations
The Phoenixville Community Health Foundation (PCHF) was approaching its 20th anniversary and a leadership succession via CEO retirement. The foundation’s board and staff thought that it was a good time to take stock in where we started, where we were, and where we were going.
Beyond Goals and Strategies
Once a foundation decides on a goal and develops a strategy for achieving it, the next order of business is to implement that strategy and to monitor progress toward the goals. While foundations tend to spend a good deal of time developing their strategic plans, implementation often gets short shrift.
The Benefits of External Eyes
How is our work going, really? Can staff answer that question with a sufficient degree of critical appraisal? Can we rely on the complete honesty of funded partners, who are thrilled that we have recognized their causes as ours, to gain a sense of our impact? Is our board prepared, engaged and yet distant enough to provide a wise response to this fundamental question of success?
Philanthropic Moral Courage: A Compass for Leading Boldly
Moral courage and risk-taking were hot topics of conversation during our experience as fellows of the 2016 Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders.