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Who’s Rural?

Far too often, rural people are left out of the national conversation because of their geographical and social isolation from mainstream America. Yet they face significant health challenges.

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Reflections on the 2018 Annual Conference

Health philanthropy is a complex, ever-evolving sector. New health foundations continue to emerge, bringing additional assets to communities across the country. Established health foundations continue to experiment, exploring new strategies to address the root causes of health problems, stimulate delivery system change, and build equitable working relationships with community partners.

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Sustaining a Statewide Coalition to Improve Access to Care and Coverage

2013 was a year like no other for coverage advocates in the United States. With the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) first year of open enrollment nearly upon us, Vitalyst Health Foundation initially convened a small group of key Arizona partners to discuss how to most effectively deal with an incredible coverage opportunity amidst an uncertain landscape.

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Funding Upstream Solutions is Key to Remedy the Social Ills of Trauma

The root cause philanthropy cannot ignore, regardless of the outcomes we seek or the population we serve, is exposure to trauma. Trauma is defined as the effects of a single event, a series of events, and ongoing circumstances that are experienced or perceived as physically or emotionally harmful and life threatening.

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Care Partners: How Philanthropy Can Kick-Start Programs to Engage Community and Family Members to Improve Depression Care for Older Adults

Late-life depression is a pressing public health concern among an aging population facing increasing chronic health concerns. As many as 5 to 10 percent of older adults seen in a primary care health setting suffer from depression, which can last for months or even years, and is associated with both decreased quality of life and higher health care costs.

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Upstream, Systems-Based Solutions to the Oral Health Epidemic

At the turn of this century, then Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher put out the first Surgeons’ General Report on oral health and declared that poor oral health was a “silent” epidemic that impacted much of the United States. That declaration was a pivotal moment that increased salience and spurred action around the issue.

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Publications and Reports

Rural Health Transformation Program: Opportunities for Philanthropy

This GIH issue brief is a high-level analysis of major themes as identified from initiatives and strategies in state applications, reflecting the primary foci of each state’s Rural Health Transformation (RHT) program. Based on this analysis, we offer several recommendations for grantmaker investment and action in support of RHT initiatives and, ultimately, improving the health and well-being of rural communities.

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Understanding Vaccine Access in a Shifting Landscape

This Grantmakers In Health (GIH) Issue Focus provides an overview of the current vaccine policy landscape and describes how health funders can respond to threats to vaccine access.

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GIH Bulletin: January/February 2026

One year ago, as we were just one month into the new administration, I wrote that “At a moment when so much has been described as ‘unprecedented,’ and so much of what we value is being attacked, we need to ask ourselves as individuals, organizations, and a field, what do we stand for? What values do we hold, and what will we do and say to defend them?” Today, the answers to these questions are needed more urgently than ever.

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