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Featured Resources
bi3 Article: Trust-Based Philanthropy is Grounded in Mutual Accountability and Learning
A new article shows how applying a trust-based philanthropy lens helps funders capture the full impact of grants, describes how bi3 evaluates initiatives, and how building funder-grantee relationships grounded in power-sharing, transparency, and mutual accountability helps achieve greater impact.
New Competency Model for Foundation Program Officers Released
The Dorothy A. Johnson Center on Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University has released a competency model for foundation program officers.
Taking A cultivate approach to Improve Community Health
Health foundations are increasingly recognizing that their mission is not simply to award grants to deserving nonprofit organizations, but rather to play a catalytic role in improving the conditions that influence health, especially at a population level.
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Latest Resources
Knapp Community Care Foundation
“Philanthropy is the catalyst that holds the key to unlocking the boundless potential of communities, setting in motion a powerful ripple effect of positive change that elevates the quality of life, enhances health outcomes, and fosters lasting prosperity. Investing in crucial areas such as educational opportunities, equitable health care access, and economic empowerment initiatives can bridge gaps and pave the way for a future where prosperity knows no boundaries. Through strategic philanthropic endeavors, we have the transformative ability to uplift entire communities. By fostering a culture of giving and collaboration, philanthropy becomes a driving force behind building a society where compassion, empathy, and collective action reign.”
Terrance Keenan Institute Alumni Reflect on How COVID-19 Changed Grantmaking
Foundations play a vital role in the nonprofit sector, funding everything from safety net services to social innovation. Like many businesses, philanthropic organizations altered their ways of doing business in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The health sector, including hospitals and other health care settings along with public health organizations, were deeply affected by the magnitude of illness and the polarization of the pandemic response. To understand exactly how the business of health grantmaking shifted during COVID-19, Jennifer Chubinski and Allen Smart conducted in-depth interviews with health foundation leaders from around the country to learn what changed in their grantmaking strategies and practices.
The Kids Are Okay: Lessons Learned from a Youth-Led Participatory Grantmaking Program
The Natrona Collective Health Trust (NCHT) was created in October 2020 after the sale of our community’s standalone nonprofit hospital to a regional hospital system. As Wyoming’s first health conversion foundation, NCHT uses trust-based philanthropy and systems change advocacy to advance the mental well-being of our community’s young people. During an extensive strategic planning process, we found that at both our community and state levels, there is insufficient infrastructure to address mental and behavioral health needs, which perpetuates health disparities and high incidences of childhood trauma.
Healthy Communities Foundation: September 2023
Healthy Communities Foundation recently published its General Operating Support in Action: 2021-2022 Insights Report, which showcases learnings in its first year implementing new evaluation and flexible funding approaches. The report also outlines the impact of multiyear general operating support for grantee partners.
Chuckanut Health Foundation
“Philanthropy can and should be the risk capital for social good. In this field, we are positioned to be bold and to stretch for love, justice, health, community, and humanity. We can take the risks that many organizations can’t, and we can use our funds and our power to do the work, but not control the work. It is not always the size of the grants that we give out that make the most impact—it’s the doors we open, the tables where we give up our seats to voices who need to be heard, the new tables, structures, and systems we build in partnership with those most impacted by the issues we’re working to address, and the trust we build with our community partners through longevity, relationship, and consistency—that allow for the work that is needed to happen in our communities, to happen meaningfully and sustainably.”
No Time for Philanthropic Mediocrity
More than a month after the 2023 Grantmakers In Health Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy, Advancing Philanthropy’s Commitment to the Long Game, I find myself reflecting on numerous aspects from presentations to conversations. Two quotes in particular have stayed with me, and apparently others, as I have heard one of them referenced at meetings I have attended since our conference.
Reports and Publications
2024 Health Equity Survey: Understanding the Changing Landscape
In 2024, Grantmakers In Health (GIH) surveyed its Funding Partners to understand how their health equity work has evolved. The survey consisted of 40 questions including demographic information, program focus areas, partner engagement, organizational strategy, priority population, successes, and challenges. This report summarizes findings from the Health Equity Survey titled, “Understanding the Changing Landscape.”
Diversity in the Leadership, Staff, and Boards of Health Philanthropy
A new Grantmakers In Health survey of health funder leadership, staff, and boards found that health funder organizations are more racially and ethnically diverse than the broader field of philanthropy.
Advancing Health and Creating Lasting Impact: MacKenzie Scott’s Grants to Health Foundations
In 2019, MacKenzie Scott announced that she was stepping into the world of philanthropy to give away her multi-billion-dollar fortune “until the safe is empty”. She has kept her word—to date, she has given away $16.5 billion. Her initial process for choosing which organizations would receive grants was shrouded in mystery. From 2019 to 2023, Scott used a process she termed “quiet research” to identify possible grantee organizations. The lucky organizations received a call from Scott’s consultants, who let them know they were receiving a grant for immediate use however they would like to spend it. In the Fall of 2022, Grantmakers In Health (GIH) became one of those grantee organizations, along with more than 20 health foundations. Two additional GIH Funding Partner organizations received gifts in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Trustee Resources
Explore this page to browse resources, publications, and events related to foundation trustees.