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Collaborating Where Health Happens
At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), our mission is to improve health and health care for all Americans. But improving health for the most vulnerable requires acknowledging that factors such as poverty, violence, inadequate housing, and education contribute to poor health.
The Value of Interdisciplinary Research Networks
In this time of economic hardship, foundations – like us all – are searching for the most creative and productive strategies for getting the most out of constrained budgets. Many foundations that support research, as well as health care delivery, have become aware that in attempting to understand complex issues related to human health, behavior, and well-being, it is often most useful, even necessary, to employ an interdisciplinary approach.
Community Advisory Committees: Collaboration and Shared Learning
As a result of turmoil in world financial markets and a faltering economy in the United States, economic pressures on communities have intensified the risk of many people being overlooked or ignored; many are not receiving the health care they and their families need.
Evaluating Programs: Can We Measure the Value of Health Grantmaking?
Partnering with policymakers and members of the business community is an effective way to increase the impact of health grantmaking by working cross-sectorally, and evaluating the effectiveness of these partnerships will help sustain interest in such collaborations.
Strong Ethics Policy Creates a Culture of Transparency
Almost daily, we are faced with making ethical decisions in our personal and professional lives. This is particularly true for those of us who work at foundations. Foundation board members and staff are often subject to intense pressure to provide funds for particular organizations.
A Foundation Helps Launch a FQHC
For the past decade, free-market thinking has all but dominated the national discussion of health care. New kinds of coverage have resulted, including health savings accounts, along with new players in delivery, like the urgi-care clinics at Wal-Mart.
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.

