Giving Tuesday is here, and if you’re looking for a cause that hits close to home in healthcare, start with the women who make up nearly 80% of the workforce. The Zorya Foundation is helping them stay in the field by providing direct financial support for childcare and caregiving.

I also want to share 3 housekeeping items that bear repeating:

1. We’re actively planning our Hospitalogy events calendar for 2026 and I want to meet up with as many of you as possible next year! If you haven’t already let us know which industry events you'll be participating in, would you do me a huge favor and take 2 minutes to respond here? This will help me!
2. We’ve got 3 Hospitalogy IRL Meetup Events happening in 3 cities on December 5 - join us!
3. Thanks for your feedback on the Healthcare Black Friday article! We created this fun BOGO mug that would make a great gift for yourself or your "white elephant" gift exchange. $20, includes shipping.

Now let’s dive into a great cause deserving of your money for Giving Tuesday.

BLAKE'S BREAKDOWN

Going deeper on an interesting topic, theme, or trend 

1. Zorya supports women in healthcare.

2. They do so by providing cash grants to women in healthcare roles through multiple funds.

3. This week they’re raising $$$ for the new fund, which aims to support women on a longer term basis.

4. Zorya wants to support four more women in this fund - $1,000 a month, over 12 months, for caregiving/childcare needs.

5. The long-term support helps women in healthcare get back on their feet, stay in the workforce, and thrive.

6. Every single dollar goes straight to the women they’re helping.

7. If every Hospitalogist gave $1, we would raise $50,000+ for women in need.

1. Donate here: Link to Giving Tuesday 2025 Donation Page

a. We received an overwhelming number of applications for our last round of full-year childcare grants for moms working in healthcare. Thanks to our community of supporters, we were able to fund six of these hardworking moms, but we have a long waitlist. This Giving Tuesday, help us raise funds so we can take at least four more moms off the waitlist. Let's help them and their families, and CAREERS, thrive! 80% of healthcare workers are women, and many are mothers struggling to afford childcare. Join us to help us support a strong, resilient American healthcare workforce.

2. Follow along with Zorya here: LinkedIn Page

3. If you or someone you know is a woman in healthcare in need of support, apply for a grant here: Link to Application

This Giving Tuesday, let’s talk about something close to mine and all of our hearts - the women who make healthcare work.

Women represent nearly 80% of the healthcare workforce. They’re the ones grinding on a day to day basis balancing caregiving responsibilities and often burning out while keeping our healthcare systems running smoothly. Some of my wife’s closest friends are social workers, nurses, nutritionists, doctors, and therapists. Oh, and she’s a speech therapist, too. Doing her job part time while raising our son over the past year has been daunting enough. That was with incredible grandparent support. But if you’re a woman in healthcare without the level of support we were fortunate to have, let’s just say I have a newfound level of respect - I don’t know how you do it.

Of course, Zorya Foundation’s work goes beyond mothers. Their mission is simple: Support Women in Healthcare. And how they show support is simple, too: provide cash grants to women who work in healthcare and are struggling, plain and simple. Zorya finds women to support through an application process, and so far they’ve helped support women across a variety of healthcare roles:

• Registered nurses;
• Medical assistants;
• Respiratory care providers;
• Patient advocates;
• and many many more in clinically facing roles.

Burnout, poor maternal care benefits, unpaid maternity leave, high costs of childcare, and caring for aging parents takes its toll.

If we can help reduce just one caregiver’s burden, keep one promising leader in the industry, or ease the financial strain for a hardworking nurse, it’s money well spent. The Zorya Foundation is making that happen, one grant at a time.

Alright, so what exactly are you giving to here? Where would your $$$ or support be going?

Zorya runs a few different grant programs, all supporting woman clinicians in healthcare. This fall, they announced the launch of a new fund.

For this new fund, Zorya wants to provide full-year grants - supporting women for 12 months. $1k / month for caregiving support. Zorya set a $48k goal, which would grant (pun intended) them the ability to support 4 more amazing mothers in need.

To date, Zorya supports 5 moms on an annual basis - and dozens of others through one-time monthly grants.

100% of all individual donations go directly to Zorya grantees. Every dollar contributed goes directly into the pockets of women working in frontline healthcare roles. And they welcome contributions of all sizes.

Here’s the donation link (for the Full Year Grant Program): https://donorbox.org/giving-tuesday-2025-full-year

The Zorya Foundation is building a brighter, more equitable future for women in healthcare—and you can be part of that story.

Let’s rally together this week and show what the healthcare business community can do when we support the people at the heart of the industry.

Visit Zorya Foundation’s website to learn more and make your Giving Tuesday count.

Even if you can’t give, boost Zorya’s voice by following them on social media:

• LinkedIn: Zorya Foundation
• Twitter/X: @hellozorya
• Instagram: @hellozorya
• Facebook: Zorya Foundation

And finally, here is a message from Zorya Foudation Founder Kat McDavitt:

Hello, Zorya Foundation supporters!

Our goal for Giving Tuesday is simple this year: take as many moms off our waitlist as possible.

Thanks to all of you, we raised enough at the end of summer to be able to fund six more full year childcare grants for healthcare workers (special thanks to Kary Nulish of Castlemark Consulting, Michael Meucci and Innsena for sponsoring four of these six grants! We had an overwhelming response to our call for applicants for this cohort. All of the moms who applied are so deserving. Most are single moms with multiple children and most are pursuing education to advance in their careers. We're going to try to help as many more as possible.

Each full-year grant is $12,000. I'm throwing in for an additional full grant and we have a healthy head start toward our next one from Dr. Ben Zaniello, Nora Cox, Mandira Singh and...my own mama, who always flew down to Atlanta at a moment's notice so I could travel for work and know my boys were loved and happy (she still does!).

So many of you donate year after year. We couldn't do any of this without you. Giving Tuesday is a busy day and there are many worthy causes. But if you'd like to support us in today's goal by donating again to help us give more moms in healthcare the gift of a childcare grant, we would be so grateful for your support. Any amount, no matter how small, makes a difference. You can donate here: https://donorbox.org/giving-tuesday-2025-full-year

(if you are planning to send via a DAF, please let us know and we'll include you in the total!)

I'll leave you with a note from one of our first full-year grantees--which wrapped a couple of months ago. You all are doing amazing things for healthcare workers and their families. "Because of Zorya Foundation’s full-year childcare grant, I was able to focus on my studies and successfully pass my TEAS exam for nursing while working full time as a medical assistant. I was then accepted into a nursing program, a huge step toward my career goals. As a single parent of two children, without this grant I wouldn’t have been able to even focus on such a thing. This grant  allowed me to get as far as I have in pursuing my career. I am truly grateful for your support."

Thank you for supporting the Zorya Foundation. It's an honor of a lifetime to have your support to do this work.

Kat McDavitt

CEO & Founder

Zorya Foundation

TOP READS & RESOURCES

My favorite reads & resources from the week

• CMS will begin accepting applications in January for ACCESS, a new volunteer payment model designed to give beneficiaries of Original Medicare greater access to technology-supported care services for managing their chronic conditions. The approach includes Outcome-Aligned Payments (OAPs). These FAQs clarify key details on timelines, funding, and eligibility.

• In this on-demand HFMA webinar with Houston Methodist, see how hospitals can use AI to bridge the gap between physician notes and the revenue cycle so hospitals get paid fairly for the care provided.*

• Payors and health systems are entering what McKinsey & Company calls a “gathering storm 2.0” of unprecedented margin pressures, regulatory shifts, and inflation. They warn failing to take action now could cause margin pressures of up to 5.5 and 13.0 percentage points, respectively. Read more.

*This read is brought to you by one of my brand partners who help make this newsletter possible!

Thanks for the read! Let me know what you thought by replying back to this email.

— Blake  

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