The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
President’s Message
KFF Is a One-of-a-Kind Information Organization
Updated: July 2025
Drew E. Altman, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer; Executive Publisher, KFF Health News
KFF is a one-of-a-kind health policy information organization. Not a policy research organization. Not a polling organization. And not a news organization. And no part is separate. We are designed to be a combination of all three, in one organization. Sometimes that makes us a bit hard to understand since we don’t fit neatly into any one box and audiences may see one or the other dimension of us. I have seen folks confuse our organization with our newsroom, which is one part of us, or think that each of our experts are off doing their own thing, like we are a think tank. We may, in fact, be one of a kind. But that’s the vision behind KFF, and it’s our ability to focus all of our resources on the same issues at the same time and leverage our combined expertise and capabilities that enables us to play our national role as an independent voice and source of information on national health issues.
While it’s tougher than ever before, we continue to believe that facts and data can be a counterweight to the money, politics, and misinformation that often dominate health policy, and that through credible information, we can amplify the voices of people who often don’t have one. It’s the role we have chosen to play and the niche we have chosen to fill.
The hallmark of KFF is our focus on how policy affects people. Our work deals with the intricacies of financing and with policy and public programs. We are experts on Medicaid, Medicare, the ACA, problems like the uninsured or employer health coverage, and many more similar issues. The work is often quite technical. But almost everything we do, no matter how arcane, is at its core also about inequality and economic security, racism, and the future of our diverse society. And almost everything in health policy brings difficult tradeoffs that we try to be forthright about. There is no perfect plan, and seldom one perfect path forward.
To play our national role, we move fast with analysis, polling and journalism. If a pandemic hits or an election changes the health policy agenda, or there is a consequential debate in Congress, the whole organization pivots. We are more than strictly nonpartisan. We also never take positions. And we never make proposals. But we are not shy at all about getting out the facts assertively, as best we can discern them. One way I judge that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing is that we periodically annoy everybody on all sides, at least a little.
We believe in the importance of evidence and facts—these are core values for us—but we also approach our job with respect for diverse views about health and social policy and more than a little humility about the role we, or any one organization, can play in our giant health care system. We cannot change what’s broken in the American political system by ourselves, but we can and do try to be a constructive force in it.
We also place a premium on communications. We produce thousands of products each year, tailored to our different audiences. Our experts are expected to be communicators, too. We see communications as much more than dissemination. We are in continuous real-time communication with our audiences in multiple ways, and we have to be in order to play our role in the middle of fast-moving health policy debates. We have different audiences for different products we produce, from hard core health policy insiders to the general public and different parts of it. We are not trying to reach as many people as we can; we try to be more strategic. The news media has always been an important audience for us. Even as the media fractures and comes under attack, it remains an essential part of democracy and a vital source of information in big policy debates.
I had the opportunity to come to California to found the modern-day KFF and have led the organization for more than 30 years. The core mission we established then remains the one we pursue every day. But over time, we’ve evolved. We established all kinds of new programs (and eliminated others when the time came), recruited expert staff, initially became an operating foundation and then later, a public charity, choosing the legal status that fit us best and most honestly represented what we are. We have grown tremendously. Today, about 70% of our operating budget comes from our large endowment and 30% from external funds, primarily from foundations. We don’t accept government or corporate funding because we study, poll about and report on them. We are strong financially, with a AAA bond rating, as well as 34 straight perfect audits and balanced budgets.
I owe special gratitude to the first board, who empowered me to launch this experiment in a different kind of information organization, especially the late Hale Champion, my first board chair and early co-conspirator, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, as well as to my friend, Secretary Joseph Califano.
We have a Board of Trustees, including myself, with backgrounds in public service, academia, nonprofits, health care, and media. They serve two, five-year terms. Ours is a true governing board that exercises ultimate authority over everything at KFF and is deeply engaged, but it’s not a board involved in program or operations, funding KFF, or fundraising, as is the case in some nonprofits.
Our current chair is former Senator Olympia Snowe. As a student of these things, I can say that no nonprofit organization enjoys a healthier partnership between its staff and board, and no board operates more effectively or with better chemistry or more democratically. The relationship between the CEO and board at KFF, and the commitment everyone has to our mission, have been essential ingredients to our success and are part of the reason why leading the organization is so enjoyable.
We made a fundamental decision to remain a California-based organization with our headquarters in San Francisco. We also maintain a substantial presence in D.C., where we built a building in 2000, housing our Barbara Jordan Conference Center, because of the many key audiences in Washington. We also have a presence in virtually every state. At one time, we operated programs all over the globe, and for decades our South Africa program was our single largest operation (affording me the greatest privilege of my life, to be able to work closely with Nelson Mandela). We transitioned out of our global programs after the Great Recession although we today operate a very successful Global Health Policy Program.
Our expert staff is our principal organizational asset. They conduct analyses, polls and surveys, and produce the great journalism from our newsroom, KFF Health News. We are an operating organization; everything you see from us is produced by us.
Almost every product, except our editorially independent KFF Health News stories that are vetted through our newsroom’s editorial process, is an organizational product that runs the gauntlet of a rigorous review process up through me.
Everyone at KFF is mission-driven. They are here for the work and because they believe in what we do.
That’s KFF in a nutshell. We’re a combined research, polling, and news information organization playing a special role on the national health care scene, with no delusions about how hard it is to do that. We keep changing and evolving as an organization and would rather make mistakes than stand pat. Since we operate our own programs, if something isn’t working as planned, we can adapt and fix it. We change constantly to try to be more effective. We love the work, and along the way, we have created a family of colleagues who truly enjoy working together and are devoted to our unique mission and operating style.
As you no doubt have noticed, in health policy the challenges keep coming. That’s why we are here.