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Latest Resources
Riding Wild Horses: Philanthropic Strategy in An Era of Unpredictable Health Policy
In 2015, Montana passed bipartisan legislation to expand Medicaid for low-income adults. The new coverage went into effect in January 2016. Within a year, Montana’s uninsured rate dropped from 15 to 7.4 percent and more than 30,000 thousand newly-insured people had already obtained preventive services.
Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation
Learn more about Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation’s mission, vision, and approach in this Grantmaker Focus profile.
William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation
Learn more about William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation’s mission, vision, and approach in this Grantmaker Focus profile.
Recounting Thirty Years of Health Philanthropy
In 1987, the opportunity to lead a new health foundation was appealing enough for me to leave a partnership in a thirty-five-person law firm. I believed the new job would permit reacquaintance with my wife and three young children and the opportunity to make the world a little better.
How Foundations Can Accelerate Health System Improvement by Investing in Capacity Building Across Sectors
At a time when the health care system is facing a host of challenges, many with attributes that are impossible to solve alone, we see organizations from across the health and social sectors combining their skills and expertise through interesting partnerships to crack the “impossible” together.
Using Rapid Evidence Reviews to Inform Health Funders’ Decisions
Between 2015 and 2017, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) commissioned AcademyHealth, the professional society for health services research, and its Translation and Dissemination Institute, to develop and test a “rapid evidence review” (RER) process that could meet the needs of decisionmakers for fast, low-cost, but rigorous syntheses of evidence about health-related services and programs.
Reports and Publications
Collaboration Across Government and Philanthropy
This Georgetown University Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership report uses data from a recent Grantmakers In Health survey to examine how philanthropy is partnering with government to fill critical gaps.
Grantmakers In Health Funder Collaboration Survey Report
At a time of deep cuts to health and social services, disappearing public health data, rising health care costs, and resurgent infectious diseases, philanthropy faces an urgent challenge: protecting vulnerable communities and sustaining hard-won health gains. Meeting this moment demands meaningful community engagement, strong coordination among funders, and partnerships that extend beyond the philanthropic sector. Yet despite the importance of these relationships, little is known about how health funders work together. To help fill this gap, GIH conducted research in 2025 to examine collaboration among health funders, highlight successes and challenges, and identify opportunities to strengthen collective impact.
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.








