GIH Advocacy for the Reauthorization of the Older Americans Act (OAA)
The OAA provides critical services that address the social drivers of health for older adults. Grantmakers In Health (GIH) and Grantmakers In Aging (GIA) are partnering to engage funders in advancing the reauthorization of this important piece of legislation.
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GIH Comments on the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan Framework for FY27–FY31
GIH submitted a comment in response to a Request for Information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) about the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan Framework for FY27–FY31. The Strategic Plan outlines NIH’s vision for biomedical research direction, capacity, and stewardship, and lays out NIH’s proposed priorities over the next five years.
Cultivating Health Through Shared Prosperity and Street Food
A native of Fresno, I was raised in California’s Central Valley where I have now worked for a few decades. As a first-generation college student, my lived experience is very common for the children of farmworkers. My extended Mexican family was big, poor, uninsured, and suffered many losses from violence and preventable illnesses.
Bridging the Gap: How the Collaborative Care Model is Transforming Maternal Mental Health in Los Angeles
In California, as in the rest of the United States, the statistics regarding maternal mental health are alarming. Approximately one in five mothers suffers from mood and anxiety disorders during the perinatal period, which extends from pregnancy through one year postpartum. Yet, despite this high prevalence, the overwhelming majority of these women do not receive treatment. The barriers are systemic and multifaceted, including but not limited to behavioral health workforce shortages; a lack of integration between primary, perinatal, and behavioral health care; inadequate training for maternity care providers; and stigma.
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.
Beyond Innovation: How Philanthropy Can Strengthen Systems to Improve Rural Health Outcomes
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.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Health
GIH President and CEO Cara V. James offers reflections on the theme for the 2026 Annual Conference
Publications and Reports
Public Health Approaches to Firearm Violence Prevention
Firearm injuries are a serious public health problem, killing more than 47,000 Americans each year and becoming the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States in 2020. Given the impact and complexity of this health crisis, Grantmakers in Health (GIH) hosted a first-ever preconference session focused on firearm violence in advance of the June 2023 GIH Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy. Session speakers briefed partners on the causes of gun violence and provided an opportunity for health funders to learn more about potential solutions through a public health lens. This Issue Brief provides highlights of the meeting’s proceedings and previews GIH’s plans to convene a funder learning collaborative on firearm violence prevention to continue the peer learning and sharing that began at the preconference session.
The Story of Care: A Snapshot of the Care Narrative Change Landscape
At some point, every one of us will need care or need to provide care. The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the extraordinary contributions of caregivers and exposed the failings caused by our nation’s lack of care policies, especially for communities of color. Deploying narrative-change strategies across care-related issues will help create the conditions for cultural and policy progress. The goal of this report is to share with funders the promising narrative-change strategies and tactics that have been identified, a directory of funders and grantees who are supporting this work, and how philanthropy can best support this effort.
GIH Bulletin: April 2023
In 2021, 1 in 6 high school students was electronically bullied or bullied at school. That same year, 22 percent of high school students, and 45 percent of students who identified as LGBTQ+, seriously considered attempting suicide. We know this information because of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which along with other state and local surveys, comprises the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.
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