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Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts Foundation: July 2026
A combination of longstanding systemic failures and recent federal policy changes threaten to exacerbate health care access challenges and unravel Massachusetts’ near universal health insurance coverage. In response to this crisis, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts Foundation convened a work group of business and health leaders to align on the core health care system problems facing the state and to identify policy solution areas to address the identified system challenges.
Rx Foundation: July 2026
Rx Foundation released Signals from the Field, a new report that shares what the foundation learned from nearly 700 organizations that applied to its Building Capacity for Health Advocacy grant program in 2025. The response to this grant cycle was unprecedented, and it gave the foundation team a powerful view into what nonprofit organizations across the country are naming, building, and needing in this moment.
Michael Reese Health Trust: July 2026
Michael Reese Health Trust, in partnership with the VNA Foundation, conducted a landscape scan of domestic violence prevention efforts focused on people who cause harm. The resulting report, Reaching People Who Cause Harm: Policies, Funding, and Strategies in Cook County, identifies urgent challenges as well as new opportunities for how Cook County, Illinois supports survivors, interrupts cycles of harm, and keeps families safe.
Summary of Medicaid Community Engagement Interim Final Rule
This Grantmakers In Health policy resource provides an overview of the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services interim final rule with comment period implementing Medicaid “community engagement” or work requirements enacted in the FY 2025 reconciliation law.
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.
A Philanthropic Tree of Life: Seeding Health Equity through Influence and Innovation
Philanthropy can function as a living ecosystem for change rooted in equity, nourished by trust, and bearing the fruits of community well-being. The Direct Relief Fund for Health Equity (DRFHE), launched with $50 million in initial investments, exemplifies a transformative philanthropic model supporting nearly 200 community-based organizations across the United States. Acknowledging DRFHE as a “Tree of Life” offers a framework grounded in community-led, trust-based, and unrestricted giving that challenges traditional philanthropic paradigms. Therefore, this article describes the fund’s origins, strategic priorities, and outcomes, and introduces the DRFHE Tree of Life framework as a replicable model for equity-driven philanthropy.
Reports and Publications
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.
GIH Bulletin: November/December 2025
GIH President and CEO, Cara V. James, delivered these remarks on Protecting the Freedom to Give at the closing of the 2025 Health Policy Exchange, in Arlington, Virginia.
Behavioral Health Strategies
GIH conducted a survey in late 2024 on funder engagement in behavioral health. This fact sheet, based on a sample of 139 health funders, summarizes the current trends, gaps, successes and challenges for funders. It also highlights philanthropy’s continued commitment to behavioral health while also signaling concern about the upcoming funding environment.