Giving for children's health by the largest U.S. foundations rose by more than 50 percent between 1999 and 2003, according to Foundation Funding for Children's Health, a new report from the Foundation Center. Actual grant dollars targeted to children for preventing and treating diseases, improving access to health care, providing mental health care, and supporting hospitals and outpatient care, among other purposes, totaled $602.8 million in 2003, up from $390.6 million in 1999. This growth raised the share of overall health giving that specifically benefits children from less than 19 percent to nearly 22 percent.
"Foundations have long understood the critical role that children's physical and emotional health play in determining their ultimate potential," noted Loren Renz, vice president for research at the Foundation Center. "Our first-ever study of child health funding clearly shows that this is a growing priority for grantmakers."
Four foundations have consistently dominated children's health funding since the late 1990s, including the Bill & Melinda Gates, Robert Wood Johnson, and David and Lucile Packard foundations and the California Endowment. These funders have also exercised a pronounced influence on grantmaking trends. For example, funding to treat and develop vaccines and cures for specific diseases accounted for the largest share of children's health grant dollars in 2003, followed by support for public health. However, when the Gates and Robert Wood Johnson foundation grants are excluded from the data, support for hospitals and in-patient and outpatient health care represent by far the biggest share of giving, followed by funding for mental health.
The new report focuses on trends in grantmaking from 1999 through 2003 based on an analysis of all of the grants of $10,000 or higher awarded by more than 1,000 of the nation's largest private and community foundations. Among these funders, 603 made 3,093 children's health grants in 2003. The report also documents changes in giving for children's health by subfield or discipline, recipient type, funder and recipient location, and type of support. In addition, it provides a ranking of the top 15 U.S. foundations that supported children's health programs in 2003.
Foundation Funding for Children's Health includes an essay on "Child Health: How Grantmakers Are Meeting Current Needs and Investing in the Future." Prepared by Lauren LeRoy, Ph.D., president and CEO, and Anne L. Schwartz, Ph.D., vice president, of Grantmakers In Health, this commentary examines the innovative efforts of private foundations, grantmaking public charities, and corporate funders working to improve children's health.
Foundation Funding for Children's Health can be accessed at no charge from the Research Studies area of the Foundation Center's Web site.
Can't find the answer you're looking for in our FAQs? Ask our Online Librarian.
