Upcoming Webinars
The Future of Rural Health and Well-Being: Findings from a Landscape Analysis and Listening Sessions
Grantmakers In Health and the National Rural Health Association, with support from the Georgia Health Policy Center, are leading an initiative to reimagine rural health and well-being by aligning systems and resources to achieve optimal health for all individuals living in rural America. As part of this effort, the Georgia Health Policy Center conducted a landscape analysis highlighting a sampling of a cross-section of organizations and leaders in rural health and hosted two national listening sessions of key stakeholders.
Please join us for a discussion of our key findings, the impact of the rapidly changing federal policy landscape, and recommendations for where we go from here in building a shared vision and roadmap for sustainable, community-driven change in rural communities across the country.
Steady Voices in Unsteady Times: Strategies for Communicating in Crisis
Communicating effectively in times of crisis is essential for maintaining public trust and organizational reputation. It can also minimize the spread of false or misleading information. This virtual workshop is designed to support health funders’ efforts to effectively communicate while managing potential risks of ideologically- and politically-driven threats. Beth Tritter and Chrystal Okonta from FGS Global will lead the program. Participants will learn how to prepare for a communications crisis and test drive practical tools for managing and responding. Working in groups, participants will also work to address a plausible and timely challenge using best practices and core principles of effective crisis response.
Behavioral Health in the Balance: Navigating the Impact of the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Act
Medicaid is the single largest payer for behavioral health services and is increasingly responsible for substance use disorder reimbursements. In July 2025, H.R.1 was signed into law containing an estimated $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years, resulting in almost 15 million people losing health coverage, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. The pressure on states to cut spending is immense, and behavioral health services will not be immune. Join GIH for a discussion on the behavioral health implications of H.R.1 and opportunities for funders to get involved now. Bill Smith and Angela Kimball from Inseparable will summarize H.R.1 from a behavioral health perspective. Neel Harja and Sarah Wasil from Michigan Health Endowment Fund and Itai Dinour and Hazel Guzman from Carmel Hill Fund will provide examples of how funders are responding to this challenging situation. Funders will leave the webinar with actionable ideas to protect access to behavioral health services in their states.
CEO Working Group Webinar: New CEOs
It is a difficult time for many, but especially for those who are new to their role. Grantmakers In Health is pleased to convene the CEO Working Group in October, to offer foundation leaders who have been in their position for less than five years the opportunity to discuss the challenges they are facing as new CEOs with one another and seasoned leaders in the field. These calls are open to GIH Funding Partner CEOs, Presidents, Executive Directors, or the highest-ranking health staff at multi-issue foundations. During these candid, confidential conversations, philanthropic leaders share information, swap strategies, raise concerns, and ask for one another’s advice.
Funder Collaborations to Protect Science
Scientific research is the foundation of public health, driving innovation, policy, and life-saving interventions. But deep federal cuts and workforce reductions threaten to unravel decades of progress. In response, funders are organizing and taking action to protect the scientific enterprise. This webinar spotlights two funder collaborations: FACTS—a table for learning and discussion and the Portfolio to Protect Science—a coordinated effort to secure key parts of scientific research. Speakers will share how these collaborations emerged and opportunities for funders to engage.
Speakers include Caroline Montojo, President and CEO, Dana Foundation, Sam Gill, President and CEO, Doris Duke Foundation and Julie Morita, President and CEO, The Joyce Foundation. The conversation will be moderated by Cara James, President and CEO of Grantmakers In Health.
GIH Webinar Recordings and Resources
Mental Health and Addiction Policy Briefing
This webinar updated participants on the latest mental health and addiction policy issues, including efforts to address the opioid epidemic, parity law implementation, youth prevention, and public education initiatives such as Mental Health First Aid.
Moving the Needle on Medicaid Expansion
Thirty-one states have expanded Medicaid eligibility as outlined in the Affordable Care Act. Your grantmaking colleagues held a strategic conversation about making progress in the 19 remaining states.
Strategic Learning: Pacesetting Practices
This webinar discussed key findings from interviews that Episcopal Health Foundation staff conducted with leading peer funders who have navigated this shift. We also learned about the Colorado Health Foundation’s experience of developing a learning practice, including lessons learned and suggestions for others who want to get started.
Opportunities to Address Substance Use Disorders
This webinar reviewed the latest research and policy issues, explored key findings from a recent report, Lifting the Burden of Addiction: Philanthropic Opportunities to Address Substance Use Disorders in the United States, and discussed ways funders can help improve substance use prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery supports.
What the Flint Water Crisis Tells Us about Public Health, Lead Risks, and Safe Drinking Water Nationally
The webinar reviewed the latest scientific research on the effects of lead, identified why water systems are failing so many communities, and highlighted what can be done about drinking water inequities.
Can Mobile Applications Improve Health Outcomes?
This webinar discussed the potential of mobile health apps, how vulnerable populations tend to apply this technology, and one approach that is working to improve health outcomes.
Advocacy and Advancing Access: Health Care for All Children Webinar
On this in-person panel discussion (with a remote webinar option), participants heard from advocacy leaders, funders, and grantees exploring what they have learned through successful California child health care advocacy efforts, how these lessons might help funders reach their goals, tools and resources funders can use, the logistics of how funders make advocacy work, and how funders can talk about it with their boards.