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What Do We Stand For?
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.
Medicaid and Community Violence: Pathways to Sustainable Care
American cities are witnessing historic declines in gun violence. In recent years, cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Chicago have all seen precipitous drops in homicides, with some reaching multi-decade record lows (Washington Post 2025). While there are many causes of this decline, experts in the field point to community violence intervention as driving the trend.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation: January 2026
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation released a chart pack which provides an overview of the public coverage programs in Massachusetts, explains the key Medicaid and Marketplace provisions in H.R.1, and elevates what is known about how these provisions will impact the coverage landscape and the health care delivery system in Massachusetts.
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.
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 Arlington, Virginia.
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.
Reports and Publications
Climate Change, Health, and Equity: Action Steps for Health Philanthropy
Climate change is one of the biggest health and equity issues of our time. The scale of climate change can be daunting, and some may think of the issue as the sole responsibility of federal, state, local, and tribal governments—however, philanthropy has an essential role to play.
Scan of the Field: Funder Approaches to Health Equity
Philanthropic investments in health equity are growing in response to increased national attention. In an effort to document and learn from this moment, GIH surveyed its Funding Partners at the end of 2020 to identify whether and how foundations altered their health equity programming and pivoted internally to foster more diverse and inclusive environments.
GIH Bulletin: October 2020
This year has placed a spotlight on many things, including the importance of leadership during times of crisis and uncertainty. I recently had the pleasure of welcoming the newest cohort of fellows to the Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders in Health Philanthropy. We spent three afternoons together learning about each other’s leadership style, talking about how to foster more diverse and inclusive work environments, discussing how to advance health equity through the work of their foundations, and engaging community leaders in a discussion on power sharing and how to more effectively partner with community organizations to effect change.