Grantmakers In Aging (GIA), the nation’s leading membership organization of funders serving the aging, with the mission to promote and strengthen grantmaking for an aging society, has a proud history. Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2012, GIA began in 1982, when Trudy Cross, a consultant on aging for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, organized the first informal meeting of foundation staff interested in aging issues to exchange knowledge and program ideas. Following a meeting focused on healthcare and older adults at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the group created a network of foundations interested in aging issues, officially naming itself Grantmakers In Aging, and publishing the group's first newsletter in January 1983. An early major achievement, in 1985, was a collaborative project with the Administration on Aging (AoA) for an intergenerational initiative.
Champion of Aging
