Over the past two years, the New Hampshire Children’s Health Foundation’s Board of Directors and staff have undertaken an in-depth strategic planning process. This effort has led us to a significant shift in our approach to grantmaking and funding.

Over the past 28 years, the Foundation has supported community-based organizations through project and general operating support grants aligned with our mission to improve the health and well-being of young children and their families. Our recent funding priorities have focused on reducing food insecurity, promoting healthy eating and active living, improving oral health, expanding access to health and dental insurance, and addressing childhood trauma.

While we remain deeply proud of the organizations and initiatives we’ve supported, our Board recognized a challenge: despite many worthy investments, it has been difficult to measure whether our funding has led to lasting, systemic change in the health outcomes of New Hampshire’s children.

The development of the Children’s Health Dashboard has sharpened our understanding of the root causes underlying these challenges. Across all indicators, one factor consistently emerges as the most powerful determinant of children’s health and well-being: poverty.

Poverty extends far beyond the absence of income. It encompasses multiple forms of deprivation that limit opportunity and dignity—insufficient housing, food, healthcare, and education; insecure work; social exclusion and discrimination. It can strip families of power, justice, and stability, and it profoundly affects mental and emotional well-being. In short, poverty is not just about lacking resources—it is about lacking freedom and opportunity.

This recognition does not diminish the importance of the issues or organizations we have long supported; they remain vital. However, if we are to make a truly systemic and lasting impact, we believe we must be bolder in our mission and our focus.

Beginning January 1, 2026, the New Hampshire Children’s Health Foundation’s goals will be to:

• Increase economic and family stability through actions and advocacy that reduce poverty.
• Strengthen systems and access to services that address the effects of poverty for families with young children.

We do not plan to continue funding general operating support grants next year, however, we want to assure you that:

• All existing financial commitments to grantees will be honored.
• General operating grants awarded through our current Fall 2025 responsive funding round will be fulfilled.

Additionally, we’ve refined our Emergency Funding grant program based on lessons learned this year, feedback from interested applicants, and real-time insights from nonprofits and the communities they serve. These updates, that include changing the name to Emergent Need Funding, aim to make the process more responsive and aligned with what’s happening on the ground. It will continue on a rolling basis with 2026 applications accepted beginning January 12.

In the year ahead, we will convene stakeholders and like-minded funders to collaboratively develop strategies and policy approaches that begin to address the systemic causes of poverty in our state.

We know this evolution in our work is bold and ambitious. Much remains to be explored and defined, but we are committed to transparency and to keeping you informed as we move forward.

If you have questions or would like to discuss this transition further, please contact me or Alisa Druzba, Director of Research and Community Impact, at ad@nhchildrenshealthfoundation.org.

With best regards,

Gail M. Garceau
President
NH Children’s Health Foundation
603-229-3260 ext. 11
gg@nhchildrenshealthfoundation.org