Study Examines How Much of Health Grants Go to the Needy
By Caroline Preston
Chronicle of Philanthropy
April 5, 2011
Thirty-one percent of foundations that give money to improve people’s health direct at least half of those grant dollars to poor communities, according to a new study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group in Washington.
Meanwhile, 4 percent give at least a quarter of their health grants to advocacy and organizing work.
The report urges grant makers to focus more attention on the needy and on advocacy as a follow-up to a controversial 2009 report by the committee that encouraged foundations to direct at least 50 percent of their grant dollars to help people at the lowest income levels and at least 25 percent to advocacy. Some donors saw the report’s recommended guidelines as arbitrary and overly prescriptive.
