STATE EXCHANGE

for Maternal Health

Driving Change Through Place-Based Philanthropy

The State Exchange for Maternal Health unites state-level funders, government agencies, and community partners to create optimal birthing conditions for all.

Illustration of a woman cradling a baby in the center of concentric circles with varying colors.

The State Exchange provides partners across the country with technical assistance designed to accelerate maternal health initiatives and amplify impact at the state and community levels.

A conference room with a woman presenting in front of an audience seated at round tables. She stands near flip charts with colorful sticky notes and a screen displaying "Birth Equity Funders." Chandeliers hang from the ceiling.

In collaboration with Afton Bloom and Boldly Go Philanthropy, CHAP helped launch the State Exchange to provide a platform where funders could share best practices for public-private partnerships; direct more funding to state-level maternal health initiatives; and strengthen existing health systems by ensuring resources go where they are needed most.

Unlike traditional approaches that add complexity to already-strained systems, the State Exchange strategically advances high-impact solutions to create lasting change.

Working Together for Longterm Transformation

HOW WE WORK: TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

  • Through monthly gatherings, we help private, state-based funders find alignment and coordinate priorities.

  • Through research, surveys, and interviews, we help identify strategic areas for support based on individual state needs.

  • Our team members provide strategic guidance on issue areas, change-making approaches, and funder collaborative structure and operations for all State Exchange partners.

  • We help state-based collaboratives identify and implement grantmaking structures that best suit their needs, from co-investments to pooled funds.

  • By making introductions to peers in other states and organizing regular huddles, we fuel connection and learning across the country.

Map of the United States showing states involved in exploratory conversations and technical assistance, highlighted in different colors. Purple indicates exploratory conversations, and pink signifies technical assistance. States include CO, IL, MA, NC, PA, TN, WA under technical assistance, and others like CA, NY, TX under exploratory conversations.

An Expanding Footprint

Since 2022, the State Exchange team has provided technical assistance to funders and government partners in nine states and held exploratory conversations in fourteen more.

Additional funding for the State Exchange is provided by the Cambia Health Foundation and Pritzker Children’s Initiative.

The New Jersey Model:
A Blueprint for Change

In 2018, CHAP played a pivotal role in launching Nurture New Jersey, a statewide initiative to improve maternal and infant health. To ensure long-term impact, CHAP also established the New Jersey Birth Equity Funders Alliance, a collaborative fund that mobilized over $2.5 million from six funding partners.

Through strategic partnerships with state agencies and community leaders, this initiative has helped to improve perinatal and postpartum health and move New Jersey’s maternal health ranking from 47th to 28th in the nation.

STATE-BY-STATE: ACTIVITIES & IMPACT

Colorado

  • Fourteen funders reconvened the Colorado Reproductive Equity Funders Network—originally established by ReproCollab in 2021—in 2024. Facilitated by the State Exchange team, this reinvigoration led to identifying key funding opportunities collaboratively with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative.

  • The REFN has a clear strategic plan; tools to fund reproductive equity have been identified; an existing working group structure has continued providing governance and operational support to funders.

Washington, DC

  • A Washington area foundation wanted to designate maternal health and birth equity as a new strategic focus area. The foundation and State Exchange team co-funded a 6-month engagement in 2023 to conduct a comprehensive landscape analysis and identify meaningful grantmaking and advocacy opportunities.

  • The foundation launched Maternal Health and Birth Equity as a new program area in 2025.

Illinois

  • Eleven funders focused on Reproductive Justice, Maternal and Child Health, and Early Childhood — areas typically addressed independently — have formed a funder collaborative to break down silos and tackle the interconnected challenges caused by separate systems and policies, which result in inefficient access to services for people in Illinois.

  • The collaborative instituted a model where members can opt-in to specific grantmaking opportunities. Funders are more inclined to share funding opportunities with other members to fill gaps for grantees. The group is now seeking unique opportunities to work on together—especially things they cannot fund alone.

Maryland

  • The Maryland Department of Health wanted to establish new public-private partnerships with funders to improve maternal health outcomes in the state. Together with five Maryland foundations, the State Exchange co-funded a 5-month engagement in 2024 to identify key opportunities for funders to collaborate with each other, and with MDH within its priority areas for philanthropic engagement.

  • Participating funders made a three-year, $225,000 grant to fully fund a doula advocacy organization that previously had no funding. In April 2025, the ground also hosted a 40-person convening of government stakeholders, birth workers, and nonprofit staff to discuss the landscape scan findings and how philanthropy can play a meaningful role to advance birth equity.

Rhode Island

  • The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) won a federal Maternal Health Innovation grant to co-create a maternal health strategic plan with a 50-person, representative Task Force. Together with the State Exchange, the RIDOH, and two Rhode Island funders, co-funded a 6-month engagement in 2024 to establish a collaborative that would support the plan’s implementation and align Rhode Island funders more strategically.

  • Funders are co-creating a participatory pooled fund in partnership with the Rhode Island Maternal Health Task Force and other key community stakeholders that will launch in late 2025/early 2026.

Tennessee

  • A Tennessee-based family foundation was interested in working more collaboratively with other funders in the state to improve maternal health outcomes. Concurrently, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) announced its first ever maternal health strategic plan. The State Exchange funded a 4-month engagement in September 2024 to convene key stakeholders and identify opportunities for philanthropy to support the plan’s implementation.

  • TDH’s Maternal and Child Health (MCH) division built relationships with philanthropic funders for the first time. The funders and TDH established themselves as a new working group of Tennessee’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Financing and Policy Team, an existing state-wide coordinating body.

Washington

  • An Oregon-based funder was interested in working more collaboratively with other funders in Washington to improve maternal health outcomes. Together with the State Exchange team, they co-funded a two-year engagement beginning in 2022 to identify and act on unique opportunities for philanthropy to improve maternal health outcomes, particularly for Indigenous and Black birthing people.

  • The new collaborative has disbursed $50K in grants to support the wellbeing of Black and Indigenous birth workers; and an impact analysis is in progress. The group will also be providing small grants to local leaders to better understand current goals and challenges—and inform the funders’ future strategy.

2024 State Exchange Convening: Key Takeaways and Next Steps

In October 2024, over 100 funders interested in maternal health gathered to share strategies and best practices, recognizing that state-level work that engages government, community, and philanthropy can serve as a critical leverage point for addressing—and improving—care.