Where Does Nurse Funding Go?

the factors contributing to the current u.s. nursing shortage are well-documented and have been given high priority by government agencies and funding organizations. although concerned health care professionals and funders have been supporting initiatives to improve the shortage, it is hard to determine the impact of their collective funding efforts. this issue brief summarizes a study that documented where nursing funding ends up regionally and categorically. results from the study will ideally encourage collaboration among nurse funders and more strategic choices about what areas of nursing and the country to fund to achieve the most leverage against the nursing crisis.



key findings

• grants used to fund nursing education received the highest amount of funding. combined grants for nurse education from both private foundations and government agencies totaled $599 million.
• grants used to fund supply/demand studies received the lowest amount of funding. supply/demand studies forecast future nursing needs and discuss strategies to address the shortage. combined grants for supply/demand studies from both private foundations and government agencies totaled $21.1 million. eighty percent of these combined grants were used for recruitment and retention initiatives.
• organizations in the northeast received the largest amount of private foundation nursing funds ($132 million), while organizations in the southwest received only $26 million. within every region, however, there were highly funded states and poorly funded states.
• private foundations gave at least 67 percent of their grant dollars to organizations in their own region. the vast majority of foundations fund locally within their state or in neighboring states. states that have many foundations tended to be the states that received the most money