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Grantmakers In Health (GIH) is committed to supporting health funders as they navigate the changing field of philanthropy and to building a more inclusive nonprofit sector.

 

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Latest Resources

Health Philanthropy Working at the Intersections Between Critical Issues

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Health is more than this year’s Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy theme; it is the foundation for every planned session, unexpected learning moment, and conversation in Baltimore from June 8-11. The pre-conference kicked off with a range of discussions centered on the theme, including the state of Medicaid after H.R. 1, the connection between democracy and better health outcomes, and collaborations in public health funding.

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Prevent Cancer Foundation

“While routine screenings save countless lives, many cancers do not have recommended screening tools. And accessing the tools that do exist can be difficult for people living in many communities across the U.S. These realities are why we do what we do, and why the Foundation’s current Impact Grants cycle focuses on tackling some of these urgent gaps in cancer prevention and early detection.”

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Taking the Risk to Shift Our Focus Upstream

For nearly three decades, we at the New Hampshire Children’s Health Foundation have operated with a clear and compassionate mission: to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable children from birth to five years old and their families throughout New Hampshire. Yet after 28 years, we have made a deliberate and strategic decision to evolve our approach—shifting our focus “upstream” to address poverty as a root cause of the challenges we have long sought to mitigate.

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Funding Without Alignment Is Just Spending: Colorado’s Model for Alignment to Maximize Impacts on Youth Well-being

Public funding for youth well-being isn’t lacking in effort or investment. But when dollars move through disconnected systems, even the best intentions can fail to translate into meaningful outcomes. What if the challenge isn’t how much we fund, but how those investments work together? Colorado is testing a different approach: aligning funding, data, and strategy across agencies so that public dollars can operate as a more coordinated system rather than a collection of parallel but sometimes siloed efforts.

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Reports

Center for Effective Philanthropy: May 2026

Nonprofits across the United States continue to serve their communities in countless vital ways, despite being under extraordinary pressure amid a challenging funding environment. The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s latest “State of Nonprofits 2026” examines how these organizations and their leaders are faring, and what they need donors to understand, revealing the unique challenges that organizations are facing right now and how leaders are responding.

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Connecticut Health Foundation

“This is a challenging time for those of us who are focused on health equity. There is much that we can do as philanthropy to help our communities withstand the current challenges. As new Medicaid requirements take effect, for example, philanthropy can play a wide range of roles, including serving as a thought partner for state agencies implementing changes, connecting community members with state agencies to provide feedback, and ensuring that residents understand the changes and have the support to navigate them.”

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Reports and Publications

Guide to Impact Investing

This report builds on the 2011 GIH Guide to Impact Investing report with new information about the growth of the impact investment field, case studies of recent innovative investment techniques and projects, and an appendix on terminology, investment portfolio approaches, and strategies for financing impact investments.

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Exiting Thoughtfully

Foundations that have adopted a limited-life approach have employed a number of principles to guide them in wrapping up their work. Several of these guidelines offer best practices for funders who are exiting from a field or retiring from grantmaking altogether. These lessons may in some cases also be relevant for foundations transitioning from an ongoing support model to a model of one-time/high-impact grants.

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Health in All Policies: What It Is and What It Means for Health Grantmaking

Health in All Policies (HiAP) is an emerging approach to public policymaking, grounded in recognition that the most important determinants of health are outside the reach of the formal health care system. This Issue Focus describes the HiAP concept, its history and evolution, and explores how this approach is poised to influence priorities and programs in the field of health philanthropy.

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Trustee Resources

Explore this page to browse resources, publications, and events related to foundation trustees.