The American Nurses Foundation released a new study, “Philanthropic Support for the Nursing Profession,” on Wednesday. The study examined the funding priorities and the relevance of investing in nurse leadership, as well as the impact of diversity in nursing and the need to ensure nurses benefit from funding within the health care industry. According to the study’s results, nursing only received 1% of all health care philanthropy between 2015 and 2022 — which totaled $333.3 billion.
“Given the extraordinary commitment and sacrifice by nurses before, during, and after the pandemic and their critical role in health care delivery, we are under investing in nursing,” American Nurses Foundation executive director Kate Judge said in a press release.
“Nursing receives only one penny of all private donations to health care. You must ask yourself, are nurses – who are with us from birth to end of life – really worth only one penny? Nurses are instrumental in delivering quality and equitable care. The health care system can’t function without them.”
According to the study, only three out of every 100 grants for nurses focus on investing in nurse leadership and only about 1% of grant dollars explicitly referenced nursing workforce diversification between 2015 and 2022.
“Positive change starts with our genuine support,” Judge said. “People, foundations, and companies donate money because they want to relieve suffering and make the world better. Those are two of the things that are core to what nurses do and why they care for us all through our lives – from birth to death. Yet by not investing in them, we are cheating ourselves out of better and more equitable care. We hope that by shining a light on this issue, we can create meaningful change.”
The American Nurses Foundation’s full report can be found here.
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