Sharpening the Focus – Making a Difference
Preamble
This strategic design is intended to guide the Foundation in its work in the coming years. It is the result of thoughtful reflection on the first nine years of Foundation operation, and equally enthusiastic anticipation of the success the Foundation can enjoy in the future. The design is informed by nine years of experience and by the collective wisdom of board members and staff. It will enable the Board to know more confidently that the Foundation’s work matters; that it makes a positive and measurable difference.
Mission
To invest in the development and support of activities, programs, and organizations that measurably improve the health of people in the geographic area served by Moses Cone Health System.VisionA health conscious community, where social and physical environments support healthy choices; A community that identifies good health as an asset, recognized as one of the most important quality of life features Greensboro has to offer: A primary health care home for each person, with access to services as needed.
Values
Strategic Endeavor: To encourage, foster, and support positive, systemic, and permanent change in that which impacts the health of our community.
Collaboration: Collaboration among organizations or programs that share common objectives is a sound strategy, and one that through synergistic activity and the elimination of duplication results in measurable return on investment. This leverage effect extends the benefit of the Foundation’s investments with grantees and among grantees, other foundations and other public and private organizations.
Accountability: The Foundation recognizes its stewardship responsibility for use of funds entrusted to it, as well as to the grantee community with which it partners, and to the community at large whose health is the object of the Foundation’s mission and purpose.
Relationship with Moses Cone Health System
A critical element of the Foundation’s strategic design is its relationship with the Moses Cone Health System. The Foundation is a supporting organization of the Health System and a majority of the Foundation board members are appointed by the Health System. The Health System is represented on the Foundation's Program (Grant) Committee and there is Foundation representation on the Fund Development Board of the Health System. In addition, Foundation staff members participate on the Health System Leadership Council and the Department Head Group. The Foundation’s advocacy strategy is also closely integrated with that of the Health System. Beyond these ongoing relationships, Foundation and Health System staff join together on projects such as the Health System's smoke free campus initiative, reduction of infant mortality and the Foundation’s community-wide obesity initiative.
Principal Functions
Analysis and Research; Knowledge Management ~ The Foundation will work in collaboration with the Guilford County Department of Health and Academic Communities to stay abreast of the status of the community's health and of the various indicators of community health. It is important that the Foundation be knowledgeable about both evidence based and promising interventions in areas of Foundation priorities. This body of knowledge is immense and growing. Foundation staff will build their own knowledge and rely on experts to help them monitor and evaluate both evidence based and measurably successful programs in the Foundation's areas of focus.
Catalyst and Convener ~ The Foundation takes a proactive approach to building community partnerships and coalitions. The strategy is to join together with others to do what needs to be done using Foundation and partner resources. This involves identifying like-minded community organizations, fostering relationships and encouraging vision and action. We want to build relationshps with other foundations and investors so that through coordinated efforts, we can make the most effective use of our collective resources. The Foundation does not intend to operate community programs.
Health Program Investor ~ The Foundation makes its assets available to support projects and programs aimed at improving the health of the community. The term Investor is designed to emphasize Foundation interest in outcomes directly related to valid measures of health status; i.e. a return on investment. The Foundation is interested in knowing that the funds invested actually had the predicted impact on the lives of the people targeted by the investment.
Implications of this strategy are two fold: The Foundation will be increasingly proactive and explicit with regard to the outcomes or returns on investment it seeks, as specified in our Requests for Proposals, and will favor those grantees that reflect an understanding of this fundamentall premise and a commitment to its fulfillment. The Foundation will also exercise increased ecision-making discipline, favoring those proposals that reflect the Foundation's return on investment philosophy and objectives. Grantees inturn will be held to a high standard of reporting progress against interim markers of success, expenditures, and ultimately achievement of the outcomes on which the Foundation's investment was initially predicated.
Advocate and Communicator ~ The Foundation considers it vitally important to connect with the community it seeks to serve. Many health issues facing the community are matters of behavior and lifestyle; indeed as much as half of the health status of the individual and of the community is determined by these factors. Public policy and the environment are also major factors influencing the community's health. Thus, the Foundation will carefully expand its role from that of just communicator to that of advocate within the framework of the Foundation's health investment priorities.
Strategic, Scalable and Sustainable
The Foundation expects projects to be strategic, scalable and sustainable. Strategic projects are those that result in permanent and positive changes to one or more fundamentals that influence the health of the community. Scalable projects are those that can be expanded to community-wide scale. Sustainable projects are those that allow a project or program to become self-sustaining. The Foundation will fund core-operating support in the priority areas, with the understanding that its support is dependent on the achievement of its mission and not intended as an endowment of any kind.
Strategies and Process
For each of the funding priority issues, there is a specific strategy that guides the investment decisions of the Foundation. As a general rule, individual strategies are based significantly on best demonstrated/evidence based practice, and will be updated periodically as the research and knowledge yields new and important information. The Foundation will establish and maintain the following: the percentage of assets allocated annually to each priority, baseline statistics used to evaluate outcomes for each priority. outcome goals for each priority, and the date or timeline for the achievement of each goal. The Foundation will also continue to set aside a portion of its assets each year to continue the Community Health Improvement Fund (CHIF). This Fund is intended to provide support for new programs that address emerging or priority health needs; programs that demonstrate new and innovative approaches to addressing such needs; or to provide start-up funding for demonstrated best practices. CHIF investments will be one time grants for projects of 24 months or less duration and are not renewable.
|
