A Foundation's Decision To Use A Different Kind Of Investment In Health Equity

Across the country, foundations and nonprofits across the board are increasingly working to incorporate an equity lens in their work. At the Horizon Foundation, the largest independent health philanthropy in Maryland, racial equity has become both a value and a unique section of our programmatic and grant-making portfolios. Bringing this into focus was, and continues to be, a journey.

Our staff and board spent several hard years educating ourselves, confronting assumptions, and upending long-standing ways of thinking about and doing our work as an organization focused on improving health in Howard County, Maryland—a diverse suburban community between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Over time, we learned that it is important for us as a philanthropy to go further and deeper to effect change. We needed to not only educate ourselves, but also to shift our approach to address policies, practices, and systems inhibiting opportunities for all community members to achieve good health.

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Source: Health Affairs, written by Nikki Highsmith Vernick, CEO of the Horizon Foundation