Reporting from the 2025 Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy
President and CEO of Grantmakers In Health (GIH), Cara V. James, delivered opening remarks at the 2025 GIH Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy in New Orleans.
Read More →Crisis Response Toolkit—Being Prepared: Emerging Threats to Health Philanthropy
Recently, a regional health foundation was highlighted on social media by an account that described itself as being “inspired by DOGE.” The specific areas this account raised for critique were taken from publicly available information, including the organization’s 990 Form and its website.
Crisis Readiness Resources
We encourage GIH Funding Partners to prepare or review their crisis communications strategies and legal response plans for potential actions by the administration against philanthropy or nonprofits.
GIH Health Policy Update Newsletter
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An Exclusive Resource for Funding Partners
The Health Policy Update is a newsletter produced in collaboration with Leavitt Partnersi and Trust for America’s Health. 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.
Recent Reports and Surveys
In 2024, Grantmakers In Health (GIH) surveyed its Funding Partners to understand how their health equity work has evolved. The survey consisted of 40 questions including demographic information, program focus areas, partner engagement, organizational strategy, priority population, successes, and challenges. This report summarizes findings from the Health Equity Survey titled, “Understanding the Changing Landscape.”
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Diversity in the Leadership, Staff, and Boards of Health Philanthropy
A new Grantmakers In Health survey of health funder leadership, staff, and boards found that health funder organizations are more racially and ethnically diverse than the broader field of philanthropy.
Advancing Health and Creating Lasting Impact: MacKenzie Scott’s Grants to Health Foundations
In 2019, MacKenzie Scott announced that she was stepping into the world of philanthropy to give away her multi-billion-dollar fortune “until the safe is empty”. She has kept her word—to date, she has given away $16.5 billion. Her initial process for choosing which organizations would receive grants was shrouded in mystery. From 2019 to 2023, Scott used a process she termed “quiet research” to identify possible grantee organizations. The lucky organizations received a call from Scott’s consultants, who let them know they were receiving a grant for immediate use however they would like to spend it. In the Fall of 2022, Grantmakers In Health (GIH) became one of those grantee organizations, along with more than 20 health foundations. Two additional GIH Funding Partner organizations received gifts in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
2024 Survey Summary: Health Workforce Strategies
Concerns about the supply, diversity, cultural responsiveness, geographic distribution, and safety of the health workforce have reached a critical level across the country. Philanthropy has a role to play in maximizing the health workforce to achieve patient safety, provider well-being, equitable access, care quality, and improved health outcomes. Therefore, GIH recently conducted a survey to learn about funders’ strategies related to their health workforce investments.
Perspectives From Health Philanthropy
Humana Foundation Advances Equity Through Community-Engaged Research Practices
Grantmakers In Health’s Maya Schane spoke with Heather Hyden and Soojin Conover of the Humana Foundation about the Foundation’s recently published report, Strengthening Science and Community Impact Through Equitable Research Practices. The report examines innovative research methods adopted by the Foundation’s partners to promote health equity in public health research through community-engaged research practices.
Collaborating for Impact: Providing Trust-Based Grantmaking and Technical Assistance to Support Local Resilience to Extreme Weather Events
In the last few years, there has been an increased number of extreme weather events, including wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and heatwaves in the United States. In 2023, the United States experienced 28 disasters that cost at least $1 billion, the largest number of billion-dollar disasters in a single year on record (Smith 2024). While some areas of the country are more susceptible to these threats, there are no regions immune to disasters. According to a recent Gallup poll, 37 percent of adults in the United States report they have been personally impacted by at least one extreme weather event in the last two years, which is higher than the 2022/2023 survey result at 33 percent.
Working Through Challenges to Sharing Power With Community: Highlights from a Session at Grantmakers in Health’s Annual Conference
The people closest to the issue best know the solutions. For health funders, sharing power with community could mean giving residents a voice in shaping your grantmaking priorities or where grant dollars are spent. Many funders understand that solutions are more likely to be successful when the people who are most affected have a voice in shaping them. But when it comes to including that voice, the work often stalls before it starts.
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.
Recently Featured
Infosheet: Key Provisions in the House-passed Reconciliation Bill—H.R. 1, the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’
An infosheet provides analysis of key health, philanthropy, and nonprofit provisions in H.R. 1, the budget reconciliation bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on May 22, 2025. Changes include an estimated $715 billion reduction in federal Medicaid spending including work requirements, new eligibility requirements to the Affordable Care Act that will reduce access to the ACA’s Advanced Premium Tax Credits, $300 billion in reductions to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, an excise tax on foundations, and new authority for the Secretary of the Treasury to remove the tax-exempt status of nonprofits the administration deems as “terrorist support organizations.”
Act Now to Protect Philanthropy, Medicaid, and SNAP
Right now, Congress is finalizing a massive budget reconciliation bill that threatens philanthropy’s freedom to give and endangers the health and well-being of many millions of Americans. We are reaching out today to raise awareness of three critical developments in the ongoing budget reconciliation process and to encourage you to act.
The Georgetown Health Foundation
“Philanthropy has been the medium through which we have learned the health and human service landscape of our community, but most recently, our learning has compelled us to move toward direct services in partnership with agencies working to improve health. The family resource center—Carver Center for Families–and the development of the Center for Nonprofit Success—are initiatives that represent our desire to be a relevant part of the ecosystem, a colleague to our grant partners, and result from our work to strengthen resources across the health and human services continuum.”
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Courageous Action for the Health of Our Communities
The final day of the 2025 Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy focused on milestone moments in health like the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and elevated the philanthropic partnerships already inspiring a better tomorrow. While much of the conference was spent reflecting, today was marked by action and what comes next: standing firm in values, being courageous, and co-creating a vision for the future.
Reimagining Health Philanthropy, Together
During Day 2 of the 2025 Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy, attendees across sectors worked together to identify the intersections of their work and co-created solutions for healthier, thriving communities. Sessions spanned a wide range of topics, from exploring business’ role in health equity to strategies for supporting staff in uncertain times.
Upcoming Events
Philanthropy’s Role in Protecting Public Health
In recent months, negative sentiment and rhetoric against our country’s public health system has led to a variety of policy decisions, ranging from defunding local public health departments to undercutting and dismantling key systems and infrastructure. These actions will have profound and far-reaching consequences for our nation’s health. Join this call to discuss the impact of recent state and federal actions on local health departments, how health funders are investing in their communities’ public health, and what grantmakers can do to protect public health. Speakers include Lori Freeman of National Association of County & City Health Officials, Avital Havusha of New York Health Foundation, and Brian Williams of Missouri Foundation for Health.
Roundtable Discussion for Health Funders’ Policy Staff
A growing number of health funders employ staff whose responsibilities focus exclusively or predominantly on public policy engagement. Do you lead your organization’s policy or government affairs work? Join this informal roundtable discussion to connect with your peers, explore pressing issues, and share your experiences to engage communities in setting funders’ policy priorities.
On this webinar, we will hear from Sean McCluskie, Former Chief of Staff at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), regarding his reflections on the current health policy environment, as well as his advice for funders engaging in policy.
GIA Member Meetup: Public Funding Cuts & Philanthropy
Cohosted with Grantmakers In Aging
We’ll discuss how philanthropy is responding to public funding cuts. Share what your organization is doing to support your grantees that are being impacted by reductions in public funding. Brainstorm strategies with other funders and tell us how GIA can help.
CEO Working Group Webinar
Grantmakers In Health is pleased to convene the CEO Working Group to discuss challenges in our work and opportunities for collaboration as we move forward to achieve our health missions under the new administration.
Connect and collaborate with peers, learn about opportunities to develop your staff, browse professional growth opportunities, and more.
Staff and trustees of foundations and corporate giving programs may receive strategic guidance from program staff, experts, and peers.
Learning Communities
GIH provides ongoing opportunities for sharing, networking, and collaborating around specific topics or functions in health philanthropy. Each Learning Community uses an online platform plus a mix of webinars, in-person meetings, resource sharing, and surveys to provide an in-depth look at its subject.
Trustee Tools and Resources
Browse trustee-tailored content related to governance, strategy, and effectiveness.