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Elevating Community Priorities to Shape Georgia’s Health Policy Agenda
Georgia stands at a pivotal moment that will shape the direction of health policy in our state. With an open governor’s race in 2026, along with other open seats, we’re on the cusp of significant political transition. While new leadership introduces uncertainty, it also creates opportunity. This moment opens the door for nonpartisan, nonprofit, private foundations like our team at Georgia Health Initiative to play a constructive role in elevating community priorities to shape a health policy agenda designed to work for all Georgians.
UniHealth Foundation: July 2026
UniHealth Foundation recently launched its Healthy Neighbors Small Grants Program. The new initiative will fund nonprofits focused on enhancing community health and wellness in Pasadena, Altadena, Sierra Madre, and South Pasadena, California. Grant awards will range from $5,000 to $10,000, with decisions announced in late fall 2026.
Dogwood Health Trust: July 2026
Dogwood Health Trust shared a new disaster response playbook that captures lessons learned from its experience responding to Hurricane Helene in 2024. The playbook and downloadable readiness and response checklist offer practical guidance for how organizations can help stabilize communities in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and lay the groundwork for long-term recovery.
Health Philanthropy Working at the Intersections Between Critical Issues
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Health is more than this year’s Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy theme; it is the foundation for every planned session, unexpected learning moment, and conversation in Baltimore from June 8-11. The pre-conference kicked off with a range of discussions centered on the theme, including the state of Medicaid after H.R. 1, the connection between democracy and better health outcomes, and collaborations in public health funding.
Healthier Information Ecosystems: Strategies for Health Philanthropy
Our information environment is transforming—including the places and people who help us make decisions about our health. Those health information ecosystems are fragmented; filled with information from a wide range of expertise and sources; and platform algorithms exert tremendous and unseen control over what messages are seen, shared, and amplified. These changes have many of our traditional health information sources racing to learn new skills to ensure they remain trusted and relevant.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Health
GIH President and CEO Cara V. James offers reflections on the theme for the 2026 Annual Conference
Reports and Publications
Public Health Approaches to Firearm Violence Prevention
Firearm injuries are a serious public health problem, killing more than 47,000 Americans each year and becoming the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States in 2020. Given the impact and complexity of this health crisis, Grantmakers in Health (GIH) hosted a first-ever preconference session focused on firearm violence in advance of the June 2023 GIH Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy. Session speakers briefed partners on the causes of gun violence and provided an opportunity for health funders to learn more about potential solutions through a public health lens. This Issue Brief provides highlights of the meeting’s proceedings and previews GIH’s plans to convene a funder learning collaborative on firearm violence prevention to continue the peer learning and sharing that began at the preconference session.
GIH Bulletin: October 2023
Grantmakers In Health began 2023 by announcing an ambitious set of health policy priorities supporting four key goals—to advance health equity and social justice, to expand health care access and improve quality of care, to improve population health, and to promote community engagement and empowerment. Throughout the year, we aligned our work with our policy agenda, which was reflected in much of the programming at the 2023 GIH Annual Conference in Minneapolis, in our recent position statement on the 2023 Farm Bill, and in much of our other programming. Next week’s Fall Forum in Washington, DC, furthers GIH’s policy agenda, serving as a springboard for our continued engagement on policy in 2024.
Health Policy Update: November 2023
The Health Policy Update is a new monthly newsletter produced in collaboration with Trust for America’s Health. Drawing on GIH’s policy priorities outlined in our policy agenda and our strategic objective of increasing our policy and advocacy presence, the Health Policy Update provides GIH Funding Partners with a range of federal health policy news.