Glossary

Affordable housing

Housing is affordable when the costs associated with the housing (e.g., rent, mortgage, taxes insurance, interest, and utilities) do not exceed 30 percent of household income.

Capacity building

Capacity building is an investment in the effectiveness of a nonprofit to achieve its mission. Capacity building supports organizations to deliver stronger, quality programs, take risks, build connections, innovate, and grow.

Civic engagement

Civic engagement encompasses a broad range of activities related to democracy, from donating to a charity to voting. It’s a strategy and an outcome that fosters social cohesion and amplifies the power of citizens by aggregating individual voices. Community members are most effective in solving problems and holding institutions accountable when they act collectively.

Communities of care

Communities of care are cross-sector collaborations, often among health care organizations and community-based organizations, that promote health and well-being through community-level engagement and integration for whole-person care.

Community engagement/participation

Promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes. It requires the active participation of people in the decision-making processes that shape their communities and their lives. Civic engagement leverages knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to achieve the desired impact.

Community organizing

Community organizing is a process of building power through collective action in order to advance shared interests. It is a method of engaging and empowering people with the purpose of increasing the influence of groups historically underrepresented in policies and decision-making that affect their lives and achieve desired goals in their social, political, economic, and physical environment.

Digital equity

Digital equity is a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy. Digital equity is necessary for civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential services.

Digital literacy

Digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.

Economic equity 

Economic equity is both an outcome and a process. As an outcome, we achieve economic equity when how much money someone has no longer determines one’s outcomes, when everyone has what they need to thrive, no matter their income. As a process, we apply economic equity when the people most affected by intergenerational poverty are meaningfully involved in the creation and implementation of the institutional policies and practices that impact their lives. 

Equity 

Equity is just and fair inclusion in a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. 

Health equity 

Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be healthy. It requires actively removing obstacles to health that drive health disparities – barriers that are rooted in structural racism and economic inequity, such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences. It means actively building the conditions for health including good jobs with fair pay, high-quality education and housing, safe environments, health care, and equal access to power.

Leadership development

Preparing and connecting leaders to grow, increase the effectiveness of their organizations, and work within and across their communities to support systemic change that promotes health equity, race equity, and economically just systems.

Power

“Power is the ability to change the rules.” — Rashad Robinson, Color of Change in Fast Company. As a grantmaker, we cannot authentically advance equity until we understand our own power and privilege in this world in relation to our partners and the communities we serve. As we understand this, we are able to leverage and share our power to amplify the power that exists among the communities we work with.

Power sharing 

Power sharing refers to inclusive decision-making which redistributes power, money, and resources to people and communities (e.g., people of color and specific socio-economic groups) that have historically been excluded from power. Sharing power requires nurturing transparent, trusting, relationships and co-creating strategies and solutions with people closest to the challenges to advance health equity.

Racial equity 

Racial equity is both an outcome and a process. As an outcome, we achieve racial equity when race no longer determines one’s socioeconomic outcomes, when everyone has what they need to thrive, no matter where they live. As a process, we apply racial equity when the people most affected by structural racial inequity are meaningfully involved in the creation and implementation of the institutional policies and practices that impact their lives.

Small/grassroots organizations 

Organizations where local people work together to find solutions to issues in their community that advance health equity. They can be highly diverse in infrastructure, mission, and impact. Grassroots organizations reflect the voices of those people most affected by the issue being addressed and are responsive to and largely led by members of impacted communities.

Telehealth

Telehealth refers broadly to electronic, telecommunications, and technologies and services used to provide care and services virtually.

Trauma-informed care

Organizations or systems realize the potential impact of trauma, and acknowledge the need to understand a person’s life experiences in order to deliver effective care. By recognizing the signs and symptoms of trauma in individuals, families, staff, and others involved with the system; by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and by actively resisting re-traumatization, a trauma-informed care system has the potential to improve engagement, treatment adherence, health outcomes, and provider and staff wellness.

Whole-person care 

Whole-person care refers to the delivery and/or coordination of high-quality health (medical, oral, and behavioral) and social services in a person-centered manner with the goals of improved health outcomes and more efficient and effective use of resources. High-quality health is accessible, person-centered (includes anti-racist and culturally responsive), integrated, comprehensive and continuous, team-based, collaborative, and trauma-informed.