From 1994 to 2003, the Project on Death in America (PDIA) worked to understand and transform the culture and experience of dying and bereavement. Over the course of nine years, PDIA created funding initiatives in professional and public education, the arts, research, clinical care, and public policy. PDIA and its grantees have helped build and shape this important and growing field, and have helped place improved care for the dying on the public agenda.

Although PDIA is no longer making grants, the Open Society Institute's International Palliative Care Initiative will continue its work in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and South Africa. Part of the Open Society Public Health Program, these international initiatives exemplify the Open Society Institute's continued commitment to advocate for palliative care as a public health issue. These global issues are an important part of the legacy of the Project on Death in America.