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The Importance of Ballot Measure Access and Race-Conscious Policymaking
In this interview, Grantmakers In Health’s Maya Schane spoke with Elizabeth DiLauro and Giridhar Mallya of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation about the importance of race-conscious policymaking and protecting access to ballot measures as key tools for advancing health and racial equity.
Investing in Collective Well-Being: Committing to a Future Where People and Planet Flourish
In this moment of widespread burnout and fragmentation, philanthropy has a crucial role in supporting communities redefining what it means to thrive. That means moving beyond narrow metrics and embracing a broader vision of collective well-being rooted in belonging, purpose, and dignity. The philanthropic sector must rise to the challenge of helping build an equitable future where both people and the planet can truly flourish.
Beyond the Exam Room: Impacting Health Outcomes Through Civic Engagement
August marks Civic Health Month, a time to showcase the link between voting and health and celebrate efforts that ensure every voter can support their community’s health at the ballot box. At the same time, the United States is grappling with a health care system ranked 37th globally despite consuming 17 percent of the country’s GDP. With 26 million Americans uninsured and 43 million underinsured, the gap in access to care continues to widen. This crisis will deepen as critical ACA subsidies expire at the end of 2025, potentially leaving 3.8 million more Americans without coverage, in addition to new federal cuts to Medicaid and changes to how coverage is accessed through the health insurance marketplace, which could result in as many as 20 million Americans losing their health insurance.
Protecting Ballot Measures to Protect Democracy
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.
Pottstown Regional Community Foundation: August 2025
The Pottstown Regional Community Foundation (PRCF) will launch its 2025 Fall Grant Round. For this final grant round of the calendar year, the foundation prioritizes organizations that demonstrate clear alignment with PRCF’s Results Framework and have not yet received an award this calendar year. Competitive requests will be supported by goals stated in community and regional plans and address needs communicated in foundation or other research studies.
Humana Foundation Advances Equity Through Community-Engaged Research Practices
Grantmakers In Health’s Maya Schane spoke with Heather Hyden and Soojin Conover of the Humana Foundation about the Foundation’s recently published report, Strengthening Science and Community Impact Through Equitable Research Practices. The report examines innovative research methods adopted by the Foundation’s partners to promote health equity in public health research through community-engaged research practices.
Reports and Publications
Building an Evidence-Base for Gun Violence Prevention: Research and Data Needs
Gun violence prevention research is woefully underfunded, receiving significantly less research funding and scientific attention compared with other leading causes of death. Using a methodology that calculated expected levels of research investment based on mortality rates, one study estimated that between 2004 and 2015 gun violence received just 1.6 percent of the federal research support projected and had 4.5 percent of the volume of publications anticipated.
Gun Violence Prevention Infographic (2018)
Gun violence is a public health crisis in the United States, with approximately 120,000 Americans injured or killed by guns each year. GIH surveyed Funding Partners in June 2018 to explore investments in gun violence prevention and found that health funders who support gun violence prevention efforts are investing in a wide range of prevention strategies, including support for high-risk populations and policy advocacy. The survey results have been compiled into a one-page summary infographic.
Violence Is Preventable
Mass shootings command public attention, but for too many Americans violence is a threat that must be confronted every day. Violent crime, although low relative to historical rates, has risen in recent years and disproportionally affects poor, racially segregated, urban neighborhoods (U.S. Department of Justice 2017; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2016).