KFF’s External Funding

We support our operations at KFF from our endowment and from external funds, which mostly come from foundations and state and local health departments with whom we partner on Greater Than HIV. We use external funds chiefly for the incremental costs of projects we could not otherwise undertake. Today external funding represents about thirty percent of our overall operating budget. Our role as an independent source of information on national health issues requires that we maintain full, independent control of everything we do in our funding relationships whether funders are supporting our policy analysis, our polling, or our journalism through KFF Health News.

While we have a sizeable endowment for a national non-profit organization, we could not play the national role we play today without the external funding we receive. External funding has also led us to work with organizations we would not otherwise forge strong relationships with, making KFF – which as part policy, polling, and news media organization does not fall neatly into any community – not only a “grantee” but a fuller participant in the foundation and non-profit community. We greatly value these connections and the opportunities to expand our impact they bring.

Because our independence is central to our credibility and our role, our Board of Trustees has adopted guidelines which govern our relationships with all funders. In sum these guidelines require:

That any external funding advances our mission, program priorities and objectives;
That it will be used primarily for incremental project costs;
And that our external funding never compromises KFF’s credibility, independence, or reputation in any way, and hopefully will enhance them.

Our funders in 2024 include:

AARP
Arnold Ventures
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
California Health Care Foundation
California Wellness Foundation
Civic News Company
Colorado Health Foundation
Delaware Department of Health and Social Services
ESPN
Fledgling Fund
Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg
Fulton County, Georgia, Department of Health & Wellness
Georgia Health Foundation
Georgia Health Initiative
Headwaters Health Foundation of Western Montana
Jesse Parker Williams Foundation
John A. Hartford Foundation
John Templeton Foundation
Leona M & Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust
Milbank Memorial Fund
Missouri Foundation for Health
Montana Healthcare Foundation
Moses Taylor Foundation
Nina McCormick Kaiser 1999 Trust
Pacific Business Group on Health (with funding from the West Health Institute)
Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Peterson Center on Healthcare
PRX (with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)
Rita Allen Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Silicon Valley Community Foundation (Mackenzie Scott DAF)
Silver Century Foundation
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control
Space Coast Health Foundation
Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation
Texas Department of State Health Services
UNAIDS
Virginia Department of Health, Office of Epidemiology
Walgreens Co.
Well Being Trust