Health Affairs

This post, with the orginal title of  “Expanding the Way We Look at Health,” was first published on the Health and Environmental Funders Network (HEFN) blog, Giving InSight, on April 1. (That post includes pictures, which are not shown here.) The author is executive director of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, which exclusively dedicates... Read the rest of this entry »

The author is president and CEO of the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, a national health philanthropy located in Morristown, New Jersey. In 2007 the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation set out to understand why changes that we know need to take place in the health system don’t regularly happen and what can be done to remedy... Read the rest of this entry »

I recently returned from covering the Grantmakers In Health (GIH) annual meeting in San Francisco, where Rebecca Onie was among the keynote speakers. She was a 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Young Leader award winner and received a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2009. Health Leads, a Boston-based... Read the rest of this entry »

This blog post, with the original title of “Checking In with Grantmakers In Health’s New President and CEO,” first appeared on Health and Environmental Funders Network blog, which is called Giving InSight, on February 11: http://blog.hefn.org/2013/02/11/checking-in-with-grantmakers-in-healths-new-president-and-ceo/  ____________________________ HEFN [Health and Environmental Funders] Director Kathy Sessions spoke with Faith Mitchell, Grantmakers In Health’s [GIH's] newly appointed President and... Read the rest of this entry »

The president and CEO and the vice president of policy and communications at the Connecticut Health Foundation describe its new approach and the successes of its grantees. Foundations often employ the twin strategies of grant making and commissioning and advancing objective policy research, but rarely do the twain meet. Since its inception in 1999, the... Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a long time since I have done a round-up of posts on other philanthropy blogs that have caught my eye, so today is the day! Other topics covered below include social determinants of health (specifically, housing), “tasksharing” in global health, and charities’ use of data. I love having the opportunity to peruse the... Read the rest of this entry »

GrantWatch Blog invited this staffer from the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York to report on two community forums it held earlier this month in Buffalo and Syracuse. With the presidential election over and major provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) going into effect just about a year from now, what does... Read the rest of this entry »

This post, by my colleague Chris Fleming, originally appeared on Health Affairs Blog, which is GrantWatch Blog’s “big sister” blog here at the journal. On November 21, Health Affairs released a series of Web First articles profiling the winners of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Young Leaders Awards, which were announced this Fall on... Read the rest of this entry »

In my GrantWatch column in the print and online versions of Health Affairs’ October issue, I update readers on what foundations have been funding in these areas. My column follows a year after a well-written, peer-reviewed GrantWatch paper by Faith Mitchell and Kathy Sessions on the same topics was published in our October 2011 issue.... Read the rest of this entry »

My GrantWatch column in the August 2012 issue contains a selected sampling of foundation funding on the topic of the health care safety net. Grants awarded include efforts to help safety-net providers, as well as populations who turn to the safety net for their health care. The column is but a small part of the... Read the rest of this entry »

Read about a new Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation initiative to encourage healthier communities through social connections. Strong, positive relationships with friends and neighbors have both direct and indirect influences on health. Social connections and feelings of support, trust, and shared values are powerful predictors of health behaviors. Research has shown that... 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 »

I always enjoy my annual trip to Grantmakers In Health’s (GIH’s) big conference. This year I did not have far to go—Baltimore. So, here is my “reporter’s notebook,” as Katie Couric would say. In this round-up post, I mention some interesting things I heard at the opening speech by GIH’s president and CEO and at... Read the rest of this entry »

GrantWatch Blog invited E. Richard Brown, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health, to report some highlights from a February symposium on health reform. “Health care reform is not self-implementing,” said Peter Long, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Blue Shield of California Foundation, as he led... Read the rest of this entry »

The author explains the concept and how it can help safety-net patients. David also alerts us to the Health Home Innovation Fund, managed by Tides’s Community Clinics Initiative and funded by the California Endowment. He thanks Jane Stafford, managing director of the initiative, for her help with this post. Among the many provisions of the Affordable Care Act, one of the most... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: You’ve heard of an Accountable Care Organization, haven’t you? Now read about a new initiative—an Accountable Care Community—in this northeastern Ohio city. In response to chronic health conditions, the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA), its founding members, and numerous community organizations have joined to launch a first-of-its-kind Accountable Care Community, which will use... Read the rest of this entry »

We list below the three most-read posts during the month. Take a look in case you missed one of these when the original tweet or e-alert went out. 1. “Foundation Blogs Round-up: Community Clinics, Health Reform, Health IT, & More,” by Lee-Lee Prina (March 31). First on the most-read list during April was a selected... Read the rest of this entry »

Apr. 4-10 is National Public Health Week, I found out when reading Yahoo’s health reform Twitter feed. The American Public Health Association (APHA) is spearheading the week’s activities. The week’s theme this year is “Safety Is No Accident: Live Injury-Free.” Following is a selected sampling of what some foundations are funding in public health. Do... Read the rest of this entry »

In honor of Earth Day 2010, I thought I would mention a few foundations that have funded environmental health efforts. While I was at the Grantmakers In Health (GIH) annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, in March 2010, I attended a session titled “Environmental Justice at a Crossroads: From Protest to Sustainability.” Unfortunately, as it was... Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this month at Grantmakers In Health’s Annual Meeting, my presentation was titled “The Promise. The Tool. The Bargain: Maine Health Access Foundation’s Use of Facebook.” Clay Shirky, in his book Here Comes Everybody, uses this wording and reminds us that these social media platforms are only tools—they are not an end, but a means... Read the rest of this entry »