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Latest Resources
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.
Medica Foundation
“The Medica Foundation especially values programs that utilize tools to deliver mental health care where it’s most needed, and that overcome obstacles like race, language, economic status, geographic location, or historical distrust of the health care system. Both telehealth and mobile health care units are reaching communities and populations that were previously unrepresented and making inroads to building trust in the health care system. We are proud to partner with programs that are delivering care to people through innovative new methods and models.”
Reports and Publications
Advancing the Public’s Health: Current Philanthropic Approaches and Priorities for the Future
This GIH report is grounded in discussions with a diverse set of philanthropic and public health leaders about the current state of the field. It aims to assess how foundations view public health and their guiding frameworks, as well as to identify lessons learned and priorities for strengthening the public health ecosystem.
Grantmakers In Health’s 2025 Survey of Health Conversion Foundations
This report provides an updated census of health conversion foundations as well as key results from a web-based survey that Grantmakers In Health (GIH) conducted in 2025.
GIH Bulletin: April 2026
Sometimes innovation in philanthropy is associated with breakthrough technologies or new medical discoveries. But some of the most impactful investments fund something less visible: the coordination of people, protocols, and institutions already in place so they work together seamlessly to save lives.
Trustee Resources
Explore this page to browse resources, publications, and events related to foundation trustees.