Explore Health Equity and Social Justice Topics

Latest Resources

Practicing What We Preach: Three Tips for Putting Equity at the Heart of a Successful Application Process

Every step of the grant application process
— from initial outreach to final award notification — provides opportunities for funders to either reinforce inequities or dismantle them. The grant application process is often the first barrier that organizations encounter when seeking funding. If designed without an intentional focus on equity, the application process can advantage well-resourced organizations, while disadvantaging equally or better qualified organizations that have fewer resources.

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Closing Remarks: 2025 Health Policy Exchange

President and CEO of Grantmakers In Health (GIH), Cara V. James, delivered closing remarks at the 2025 Health Policy Exchange, “Protecting the Freedom to Give” in Alrington, Virginia.

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The Role of Health Philanthropy in Improving Maternal Health for Underserved Populations

Although the United States is a high-income nation, it experiences a significant burden of maternal mortality incidence relative to other countries. In 2023, non-expansion Medicaid states had 27.7 percent higher pregnancy-related deaths than expansion states. The COVID-19 pandemic also exacerbated racial disparities in pregnancy-related deaths. Historically, marginalized populations, including low-income populations and Black and Indigenous communities are more vulnerable to preventable pregnancy-related deaths.

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Designing Inclusive and Equity-Centered Health System Improvement Projects—Lessons from Three Initiatives

Disparities in access to health care persist for individuals with low incomes and Black, Hispanic/Latinx and Native American/Native Alaskan individuals and are particularly acute in behavioral health. Behavioral health care utilization rates among Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults are less than half those of White adults. These disparities exist because of barriers in access such as limited provider networks, poor language access, a lack of culturally-aligned services, and technological barriers to telehealth. Working with health providers to create inclusive and accessible services is essential to building more equitable access to behavioral health care, and to healthier and happier families and communities.

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Reports and Publications

Foundation Strategies to Promote Healthy Eating and Active Living

Growing recognition of the nation’s obesity epidemic and its profound impact on population health has led an increasing number of health funders to identify the promotion of healthy eating and active living (HEAL) as a strategic priority. Anecdotal reports from Grantmakers In Health (GIH) Funding Partners suggest that as the level of investment committed to HEAL has increased over time, the nature of funded interventions has also changed considerably. In order to test these perceptions, GIH conducted this scan of the field to gain a clearer understanding of health foundations’ strategic approach to HEAL. Funded by The Colorado Health Foundation, the study considers foundations’ history with, current strategies for, and future plans regarding HEAL-related investments, as well as prevailing views on the value and effectiveness of these efforts.

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Equity for All: Entry Points to Elevate LGBT Health

Health funders have provided limited direct philanthropic support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health. Many question whether LGBT issues should be integrated into mainstream systems and organizations or if they should be supported through targeted strategies. Since few health grantmakers are prepared to carve out a separate programmatic area focused on this issue, a growing opportunity exists for health funders to provide more purposeful support for LGBT health within existing grantmaking strategies to address health disparities and promote health equity.

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Lessons for Strategic Health Equity Grantmaking

Over the past several years, a growing community of funders has begun to identify health equity as a grantmaking priority. No single roadmap exists for doing this work.

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