Health Affairs

The author is associate director and senior health policy analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, in Austin, Texas. On March 8, while a Texas House committee held our state’s first Medicaid expansion hearing, the Center for Public Policy Priorities hosted a legislative briefing with invited presentations by researchers from Rice University and George... Read the rest of this entry »

The author works for a large foundation that seeks “to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education, and disease prevention,” according to the foundation’s mission. She discusses a type of grant that many grant seekers would be pleased to receive. As director of evaluation and organizational learning at... Read the rest of this entry »

The author, the CEO of Weight Watchers International, describes a new initiative that the company launched with the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Cities can apply now (please see below). Cities today face huge health challenges. For residents, cities are the guardians of public health. For municipal employees, cities serve as health care providers. In both cases, mayors... Read the rest of this entry »

Crowdfunding is hot. What is it, and why should funders of health services research keep an eye on its development? Let’s start with what crowdfunding is. The term itself is a variation on “crowdsourcing,” which entails putting out a problem (often a technological one) for input from either a select audience (such as one’s peers,... Read the rest of this entry »

The author is program director of the John A. Hartford Foundation, a national funder based in New York City. He is editor and contributor for its blog, Health AGEnda. For more than twenty years, the John A. Hartford Foundation has worked to improve the health of older Americans. And over that time, institutionally, we have... Read the rest of this entry »

This post is partially adapted from an October 1, 2012, post on the Health and Environmental Funders Network’s blog, Giving InSight. Public health concerns are a major part of escalating philanthropic attention to oil and gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” explained below.  In just fourteen months, more than forty foundations have joined a... Read the rest of this entry »

As I sit here waiting for the worst of what we are to get from Hurricane Sandy to hit the Washington, D.C., area, I wanted to remind readers of a September 2010 GrantWatch article on nursing homes and disasters, such as hurricanes. In case you missed this article, following is some information about it. I also... Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time for GrantWatch Blog’s periodic scan of foundation blogs to see what the funders are talking about and following. Other topics highlighted below are cancer prevention, games used for health education, health professions education, nonprofit hospitals, and smoking. Games for Health “Gaming the Field,” Ben Sawyer (cofounder of DigitalMill and the Games for Health... Read the rest of this entry »

The author, now a consultant to foundations and nonprofits, has held several positions in philanthropy, including executive vice president of a large California health foundation. Spring is the season for the denizens of philanthropic foundations to gather at their traditional watering holes to meet and greet and share stories with one another. Last month, Grantmakers In... Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some blog posts that caught my eye this week, as I sifted through foundation blogs I follow. The descriptions are brief—just to give you a flavor of what the post is about.  This is a short week in the office for me, as I head over to nearby Baltimore for the Grantmakers In... Read the rest of this entry »

Read about some comings and goings at foundations and an appointment to the Institute of Medicine. Ned Calonge, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Colorado Trust, was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in October. A physician, Calonge is a former medical director for the state of Colorado and is on the... Read the rest of this entry »

Every few weeks I do a round-up highlighting a few recent posts from foundation blogs that have caught my eye. Topics this time are global health (specifically, neglected tropical diseases), health reform, wellness, and lessons learned by a seasoned funder. Global Health/Neglected Tropical Diseases “Tackling Neglected Tropical Diseases,” by Julie Jacobson, on the Bill and... Read the rest of this entry »

It is time for another round-up of interesting content that I spotted when scrolling through some of the blogs established by foundations and others that follow philanthropy. Another topic in today’s potpourri is “Philanthropy Insights.” I recently found out that the Maine Health Access Foundation has started a blog! So, the GrantWatch Blogroll is still... Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time to let you know of the most-read GrantWatch Blog posts during September—in case you missed them when they first came out. (1) “Philanthropy People Post: Who Is Working Where, Who Has Been Appointed to a Board,” by Health Affairs Senior Editor/GrantWatch, Lee-Lee Prina (September 8). Periodically, I write a blog post focused on people.... Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a round-up of some “people news” at foundations and public charities around the country from the past few months. I have included staff and board of trustee changes and other news. Gary Cohen has been named chair of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Foundation’s board. Cohen is executive vice president... Read the rest of this entry »

I have put together a listing here of some foundation-related blog posts that you may want to check out. Now that summer has arrived, perhaps things are slowing down in your workplace, and you now have time for some professional reading! Links to a wide variety of posts follow. Incidentally, if you work for a... Read the rest of this entry »

“Philanthropy at the Intersection of Health and the Environment,” by Karla Fortunato and Kathy Sessions of the Health and Environmental Funders Network (HEFN), was released earlier this month in the May issue of Health Affairs, a thematic issue on “environmental challenges for health.” The Kresge Foundation provided funding for the journal issue on this important... Read the rest of this entry »

I have rounded up a list of recent posts from health philanthropy blogs and philanthropy-in-general blogs that caught my eye. For more blog reading, see GrantWatch Blog’s Blogroll (look to the right!). Environmental Health “Good Health Should Begin at Home, so Why Is Housing Making Kids Sick?” (Apr. 10). Ben Starrett tells us that “generations of chronic disinvestment in... Read the rest of this entry »