Mental Health and Aging: A GIA Issue Brief for Funders
This brief will describe the major mental and behavioral health issues affecting older people and examine opportunities for funders to get involved and address gaps in four main areas.
Older Americans Act Reauthorization Campaign Progress Report - January 2025
This report highlights key activities and takeaways and previews future programming around the OAA Reauthorization campaign.
Five Ways Congress Can Strengthen the Older Americans Act, and What Philanthropy Can Do
A fact sheet outlines how congress and philanthropy can work together to strengthen the Older Americans Act to better meet the social needs that COVID-19 revealed and match funding levels to the growth of the older population and the true cost of aging in America.
An Introduction to Grantmakers in Rural Aging
New Frontiers for Funding provides guidance specifically for grantmakers supporting rural areas and how working on rural aging issues can increase the impact of many different kinds of philanthropies.
Alzheimer's and Other Dementias
One in three older Americans dies with dementia, which is an umbrella term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with activities of daily living. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause, accounting for an estimated 60-80% of all cases of dementia. Foundations and other funders have joined federal and local governments in supporting research and implementation of many different types of dementia-related services.
Care is Fundamental: How Funders Can Accelerate Vital Progress on Caregiving
This guide outlines the wide range of grant-funded efforts to support both family caregivers and the paid direct care workforce, opportunities for funders to get involved, and other sectors also now focusing on caregiving.
Prevent and Reduce Social Isolation
Social isolation is an epidemic in the United States, affecting two-thirds of older adults and three-quarters of young people (as reported during COVID). Social isolation is linked to depression, poor sleep, and impaired immunity. It increases the risks of dementia by 50 percent, stroke by 32 percent, and coronary heart disease by 29 percent, and significantly increases the risk of premature death from all causes.
The Serious Illness & End-of-Life Funders Community: Celebrating Five Years of Learning Together
To mark the fifth anniversary of the Serious Illness & End-of-Life Funders Community in 2021, GIA released this collection of stories and reflections shared by members of the group.
Age-Friendly Health Systems Issue Brief
Age-Friendly Health Systems aim to follow an essential set of evidence-based practices; cause no harm; and align with what matters to older adults and their caregivers. This issue brief provides background on the need and an update on a new movement that seeks to transform how our healthcare system approaches the care of older adults.
Moving Ahead Together: A Framework for Integrating HIV/AIDS and Aging Services
Part of Grantmakers In Aging’s Moving Ahead Together initiative, supported by Gilead Sciences, this document offers a detailed framework of recommendations for strengthening the integration of HIV and aging care and services through increased understanding, more customized programs, closer cross-sector connection, and stronger policymaking. Three main sections. Focus Area #1: Complexities and Challenges, explores the broader social context, including stigma. Focus Area #2: Integrating and Improving Care and Services, emphasizes the need for whole-person care and examines medical care, mental and behavioral health care, and social and psychosocial support. Focus Area #3: The Way Forward, looks at policy and how to update it to reflect the graying of HIV.
Blind Spot: Mobility and Aging in Rural America
This report examines the mobility challenges that confront older people in rural communities across America and profiles some of the programs that exist to support them.
Mobility & Aging in Rural America: The Role of Innovation
This funding guide offers grantmaking recommendations to help funders become engaged in rural mobility and suggests a dynamic research and policy agenda to empower older people in rural places to lead fuller lives.
Evidence-Based Programs Issue Brief
Evidence-based programs (EBPs) are essential for promoting healthy aging and wellness in older adults. These programs address challenges such as chronic conditions, falls, physical inactivity, and behavioral health issues, which can impact health, well-being, and independence.
Diverse Elders Issue Brief
Elders of color and LGBT elders face significant disparities in health and health care access, economic security, housing, employment, community support, and more.
Arts and Culture Issue Brief
For older people whose social networks are dwindling, arts and culture give opportunities to keep socially, civically, and mentally active in their communities. The arts provide a symbolic and emotionally expressive communication system for elders with cognitive limitations, allowing them to engage with their care partners and the larger community.
Age-Friendly Communities: The Movement to Create Great Places to Grow Up and Grow Old in America
Explore new, transformative ways of thinking about aging and community development.