Olivia and Tom Walton commit $100 million to a campaign to halve U.S. maternal deaths in five years
Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America announced the initial five-year commitment on Sept. 10. The money is to pay for state matching grants, partnerships and infrastructure; the campaign has not said who will receive it or how.
New York. Olivia and Tom Walton, philanthropists who live in Arkansas, have committed an initial $100 million over five years to Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, a campaign that aims to cut maternal deaths in the United States in half by 2031. The campaign announced the commitment on Sept. 10. Mr. Walton is a grandson of Walmart's founder, Sam Walton.
According to the campaign's release, the money will fund state matching grants, what it calls high-impact partnerships, and the infrastructure needed to put proven maternal health practices into use at scale. The campaign describes it as catalytic capital and says it will seek more public and private commitments to multiply it.
A bet on the states
Ms. Walton, the campaign's founder, told The Associated Press that it plans to pay for improvements in care through the states, using the commitment to encourage state governments to match it, and that she hopes corporations and other funders will contribute too. States have the most say over maternal and infant care, she said, in part because Medicaid pays for about 40% of births.
“Taking on risk and going first is a great use of philanthropic capital. The goal is to prove that this works and then have state funding take it over.”
The campaign's plan centers on care in rural areas through telehealth, a larger maternal health workforce with an emphasis on training midwives, research and data, more postpartum care, and help for states to adopt interventions with measurable results. It also backs two bills pending in Congress, the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act and the NIH IMPROVE Act.
What is not yet known
The release names no recipients, no amount for any state and no way to apply, and the campaign's website describes no grant program.
Ms. Walton founded the campaign in May. Its president since August is Dr. Neel Shah, a physician and former chief medical officer of Maven Clinic, and its executive director is Robin Reck. The campaign's website is run by Heartland Forward, a nonprofit policy group in Bentonville, Ark., according to the site's terms of use; the AP called Heartland Forward the Waltons' nonprofit. Heartland Forward's maternal and child health center wrote the campaign's call to action, dated March, which proposes the five-year goal.
In 2024, 649 women in the United States died of maternal causes, or 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. That was not significantly lower than the rate of 18.6 in 2023. The campaign, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says 87% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.
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