The healthcare sector as a whole received $333.3 billion in philanthropic donations between 2015 and 2022. But despite nursing being one of the largest groups of clinicians, nurses received only 1% of those donations, according to a Nov. 15 report released by the American Nurses Foundation.
"People, foundations, and companies donate money because they want to relieve suffering and make the world better," Kate Judge, executive director of the American Nurses Foundation, stated in the release. "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."
Even with grant money, the funding is often put toward filling the pipeline with more nurse workers rather than toward addressing systemic issues, according to the report. A majority, 74%, of grant money often goes to nurse education and training. The second-largest percentage of grant money goes to nurse-led healthcare practices.
Overall, "only 3 out of every 100 grants for nurses focus on investing in nurse leadership or nurse-led innovation," according to the report.
The foundation's report is the first of its kind to examine grant and private philanthropic support to the profession on a granular level.