Orlando Tragedy: Writings from some foundation leaders
"Sunday Mourning," by Judy Belk, president and CEO of the California Wellness Foundation (CalWellness), June 14, on the foundation's For Wellness' Sake blog. CalWellness has been funding in the area of violence prevention for many years. Belk reminds us of its work "to prevent gun violence and promote safety as a critical factor in the health and wellness of communities—especially for underserved populations such as people of color and members of the LGBTQ community—who are too often marginalized and disproportionately victimized by violence." She offers suggestions of how readers can "stop the spread of gun violence and honor the lives lost in Orlando."
California Health Care Foundation president and CEO Sandra Hernández also issued a statement here.
"Hogg Foundation Statement on Orlando Tragedy," by Octavio N. Martinez Jr., executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, in Austin, Texas, June 14.
Environmental Health
"How Does Philanthropy Lead in a Community Crisis?" by Kyle Caldwell, Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy (at Grand Valley State University), February 25, on its blog. Caldwell describes how foundations and nonprofits have helped the city of Flint, Michigan, both before and after its water crisis, in which "a major municipality was unable to provide its community with clean, safe, and affordable water."
Caldwell states:
"It wasn't until [Michigan] Governor Snyder [R] received a phone call from the new President of the [Charles Stewart] Mott Foundation], Ridgway White, asking how the Foundation could help, that a potential solution emerged. According to the Detroit Free Press, White shared his concern that if something was not done [about the water crisis]—and soon—Flint would experience a major social uprising. Conversation between Snyder and White led the Foundation to offer some of the funding needed to help switch the water source from the Flint River, provided the State came up with the rest. This philanthropic partnership opened a path toward restoring safe water for Flint."
Whew! Philanthropy helped rescue Flint. Caldwell also mentions how philanthropy helped revitalize Detroit, Michigan.
Read more on the Mott Foundation and Flint, Michigan, in this April 12 article by Ridgway White, "Flint's Crisis Raises Questions—and Concerns—about the Role of Philanthropy," which first appeared in the Foundation Center's Philanthropy News Digest.
Global Health
"Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa," by Angela Hwang of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, March 2, on its Impatient Optimists blog. High-level delegates from forty-three African countries, as well as immunization advocates, attended this first-of-its-kind event, in Ethiopia in February. Two regional offices of the World Health Organization, as well as the African Union Commission, were the hosts. Hwang notes that as of the meeting, Africa had been polio free for eighteen months. She also reports that conference delegates endorsed a declaration committing "leaders to closing the immunization gap by financing immunization, reducing delivery barriers, [ensuring] polio transition plans are in place and improving health systems."
Health Care Delivery
"Transforming the Waiting Room: Digitizing Our Paper-Based Health Care System," by Jared Teo of the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), May 19, on its CHCF Blog. Teo writes about an interesting partnership between the CHCF Health Innovation Fund and Seamless Medical Systems. The foundation became interested in partnering after it heard from community health center leaders across the state that "they wanted to improve the patient appointment check-in experience and make the registration process more efficient." In this post, Teo interviews David Perez, the CEO of Seamless, a for-profit company. Perez said he wanted to make sure that underserved populations (like some of their more well-off counterparts) and the clinics that serve them had access "to this innovative technology." Seamless uses tablets (specifically, iPads) in the waiting room. And the Seamless platform is multilingual: people who speak English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, or Vietnamese can use it! Read the post for more details.
Health Insurance
"Health Care Catch-22," by Barbara Leonard of the Maine Health Access Foundation, March 16, on its Blog. Leonard discusses consumer-directed health plans, "a growing trend in health insurance." She explains that such plans often link coverage with a high deductible to a health savings account "or other health reimbursement arrangement." The idea is to make sure "consumers have 'skin in the game'" by being required to pay for a good part of their care, Leonard explains. That way, they will be inspired to "make better and more informed choices." She cites an October 2015 Health Affairs Blog post reporting that the proportion of all workers enrolled in these high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) grew from 8 percent in 2009 to 24 percent in 2015. When one combines this information with the fact that "only 12 percent of U.S. adults have the health literacy skills needed to manage the demands of our complex health care system," and even some of those folks' ability to "absorb and use heath information" can be affected by stress or illness, Leonard, citing the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) website, says she and others find the HDHP approach illogical. Read her post for more details, including some suggested tools, albeit imperfect, that may help consumers and providers.
Philanthropy
"Size Doesn't Matter," by Molly Talbot-Metz of the Mary Black Foundation, March 29, on its Blog. Talbot-Metz asks what this small, private funder, based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, has in common with some big and well-known foundations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation? Well, the Mary Black Foundation has joined nineteen other foundations in the United States (as of this post) that each have signed onto an initiative, managed by the Foundation Center and called the Reporting Commitment. The initiative aims "to shed light" on where philanthropic dollars are going, she says. It "calls for foundations to make grant information available to each other and the public at least quarterly in a common reporting format that shares the kinds of grants we fund, including the amount, duration, and purpose."
On June 15, Talbot-Metz told Health Affairs that she thinks one benefit of the initiative "is that the Reporting Commitment results in a consistent and more regular way of reporting among very different foundations across the country."
She added:
In addition, it provides . . . one place where someone can go to research what foundations fund where and how much. Previously, it might [have taken] hours to research the giving of different foundations by reviewing their websites or annual reports. As with most things, the product is only as good as the input. The more foundations that participate, the richer and more meaningful that [Reporting Commitment] site will become."
from Health Affairs BlogHealth Affairs Blog http://ift.tt/28FUaXS
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