Health care progress always requires financial backing. Research teams and medical manufacturers can’t operate without it. Strategic philanthropists can focus their efforts to aid specific parts of the health care world, like preventive health measures. Learning more about why philanthropy is vital in health care could motivate you to get involved and improve the industry for people far beyond your community.
What Is Strategic Philanthropy?
Strategic philanthropy is charitable giving that creates lasting solutions to systemic or societal problems. People may donate funds to share in a future profitable business. Others might want to help a specific group of people with immediate concerns, like giving money to communities harmed by an extreme weather event.
When you become a strategic philanthropist, you learn about an ongoing issue faced by people who need help beyond their means to fix it. The efforts might involve industry leaders, researchers, scientists or public policy experts. Their talents require significant funding, which strategic philanthropy gifts can address.
Why Is Philanthropy Important in Health Care?
Understanding why philanthropy is essential in health care is crucial if you’re going to appreciate or participate in it. Donations do much more than fund nonprofits when they have a purpose.
Funding Creates Much-Needed Support
Preventive health measures keep people healthy longer. You might catch a developing condition like breast cancer while it’s treatable if you’re able to access things like mammograms. Funding the creation or expansion of those services brings people together by forming groups that make them accessible.
Supporting those going through various health care experiences is essential in improving their quality of life. Nonprofits can organize events that raise money for ongoing preventive care, like checkups for cancer survivors. When those survivors see they’re not alone in their experiences, they may feel more open to booking the care services they need to stay in remission.
Extra Cash Flows Create Specialized Study Opportunities
Funding opportunities through government offices may only apply to research that helps the largest populations. Strategic philanthropy makes specialized studies possible. Philanthropists can listen to issues specific to communities and create preventive health research to address those concerns. Additional barriers to those services may no longer pose a challenge.
Lifesaving Research Requires Financial Backing
Federal funding was a significant source of financial support for research efforts like innovation in preventive health practices. The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics found that federal funding supplied 60% of basic research cash flows in 2000 but was down to 40% in 2022. Gifts from private donors and non-profits can fill critical funding gaps if they’re consistent and substantial.
The Expansive World of Preventive Health Practices
If you’re interested in financially supporting preventive health research, you should know the field is extensive. It includes services helping people manage their physical wellness, nutrition, exercise routines and mental health. Each area of expertise requires philanthropic support.
The general population wouldn’t receive as much help if all donors focused on one part of preventive health measures, like getting an annual physical exam at a primary care provider’s office. Diversification makes addressing widespread issues easier.
How Philanthropic Donations Support Preventive Care
Many philanthropists give money to universities, which represented 11% of research and development spending in 2021. Administration teams direct the money to their research branches and delegate the amount per team or study area. Research chairs lead each effort, managing finite details like budgeting their funding throughout their studies.
Your future donations could fund research at leading universities on how nutrition impacts a person’s mental health or whether movement assists with chronic disease prevention. Reading about a school’s current research efforts will reveal if its teams are studying the topics that most interest you.
Strategic philanthropists can also pay for research collaborations that might not receive traditional funding. If researchers want to study how preventive nutrition science and exercise physiology overlap for people playing a competitive sport, they might have an easier time finding funding through those who care about that topic. Collaborations may accelerate research findings by joining the medical industry’s brightest minds, which is an excellent use of anyone’s donations.
3 Ways You Can Help
Understanding why philanthropy is important in health care is the first step in your future endeavors. When you’re ready to take action, get involved in preventive health practice funding in a few simple ways.
1. Participate in Impact Investing
Consider how much money you can donate and look for non-profits or companies investing in preventive health care research. They might develop a diagnostic tool or improve telehealth resources for rural communities.
You don’t need to be an expert on the topic to support a cause financially. If you give money to groups producing a product, you could also generate financial returns for your positive social impact.
2. Provide Grants to Non-Profits
Organizations need money from individuals or other nonprofits. The leadership teams use it to start researching or create tools that change preventive health care. You could raise money and give it as a grant to a nonprofit investing in something you want to support, like early disease detection screenings. You might also create a grant with your finances, depending on your ability to give back independently.
3. Become a Public Advocate
If you don’t have a significant amount of money, you don’t have to watch progress happen without you. Start a philanthropic effort, like advocating for a cause.
You could launch public awareness campaigns about the preventive health benefits of regular exercise. People without access to medical professionals might learn lifesaving information from your efforts. You never know who you might encourage to see their doctor while speaking at events or raising awareness online.
Further Preventive Health Solutions With Charitable Giving
People can make long-term change happen in preventive health practices with strategic donations. Becoming a philanthropist who chooses causes based on which preventive services need your support could make your charitable giving more rewarding.
The initiative is also where you could dedicate your advocacy efforts. Either way, you’ll be helping many get a clean bill of health or the medical treatments they need for new diagnoses.
