Grantmakers In Health’s five-year strategic plan elevates leadership and influence as one of four strategic pillars for our work. GIH seeks to take a more active role in defining the key issues that will advance better health for all. We are also supporting health philanthropy with the thought leadership and programming to create lasting impact by influencing advocacy, policy, and funding in targeted areas. 

This policy agenda identifies our public policy priorities for the coming year. Informed by health funders, these priorities will guide our programming, influence decisions related to issuing public statements on timely policy issues, and focus our emerging advocacy efforts. We hope these priorities will also inspire the field of health philanthropy and encourage greater collaboration and commitment to common policy goals among funders. We look forward to working with funders and others to advance this agenda. 

GIH Health Policy Update Newsletter

An Exclusive Resource for GIH Funding Partners

Health Policy Update: January 2025

January 8, 2025
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The Health Policy Update is Grantmakers In Health’s monthly newsletter produced in collaboration with Trust for America’s Health (TFAH). Drawing on GIH’s policy priorities outlined in our policy agenda and our strategic objective of increasing our policy and advocacy presence, the Health Policy Update provides GIH Funding Partners with a range of federal health policy news. New issues are usually released on the first Wednesday of every month.

GIH Advocacy for the 2024 Reauthorization of the Older Americans Act (OAA)

The OAA provides critical services that address the social drivers of health for older adults. If the OAA is not reauthorized, it is set to expire on September 30, 2024. Grantmakers In Health (GIH) and Grantmakers In Aging (GIA) announced a partnership last year to engage funders in advancing the reauthorization of this critical piece of legislation.

Support GIH and GIA's OAA Partnership

GIH and GIA are raising funds to support our advocacy work on the OAA, and we still need additional investments to reach our goal. Please reach out to Cecilia Kramer at ckramer@gih.org for more information. We are appreciative of the funders who have already supported this partnership. 

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Don’t Call Us “Conversion Foundations”… Please

A hot topic of discussion in philanthropic circles in recent
years has been the phenomenon of sizable new foundations being created as the result of nonprofit health care organizations converting to for-profit status.

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Grantmakers Are from Mars; Policymakers Are from Venus: Is There Hope for This Relationship?

How can health grantmakers and state policymakers collaborate and when does it make sense to try? What does it take to develop and sustain these relationships? This piece is based on Smith’s plenary remarks given at Grantmakers In Health’s 2000 Washington Briefing, The Intersection of Health Policy and Philanthropy.

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The Interface Between Public Policy and the Private Sector

Read the keynote speech from GIH’s Washington Briefing by Mark Smith, president and CEO of California HealthCare Foundation.

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