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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.
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.
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.
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.
Reports and Publications
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.
GIH Bulletin: September 2020
Funders can bring groups together, helping to expand the number of stakeholders aware of the unique needs of communities and develop programs, policies and initiatives that apply a rural and racial equity lens, thereby creating a force multiplier effect that could lead to significant improvements in health for all.