How does Community Health Foundation decide what to fund? In the following interview, Foundation President Ann Monroe gives her thoughts on the organization’s working philosophy.

Q: Why does a foundation need a philosophy?

Ann Monroe: First, let’s define “philosophy” in this context. I use the term to mean a set of beliefs or ideas that influence the investments a foundation makes. If you don’t have an overall philosophy about what investments you believe will help you achieve your mission, decisions about where to invest and what outcomes to expect become much more difficult.

Achieving results is especially important for healthcare foundations. That’s because they’re formed specifically to benefit the public, often as a result of a merger between two healthcare organizations. And so they have a high standard to meet in demonstrating their value to the community.

Q: What influences a foundation’s working philosophy?

Ann Monroe: Most foundation grant-making philosophies have a range of influences. One key aspect is the foundation’s roots. In family foundations, for instance, the person who created the endowment might have been active in conservation, so the foundation invests in environmental efforts. Corporate foundations might be much more tied to the community-benefit aspects of what they do as a business. For example, the Statler Foundation funds training for hospitality workers, and Hewlett Packard Foundation supports requests for IT equipment.  CHFWCNY is rooted in a long tradition of delivery and financing of high-quality, accessible health care, which obviously influences our perspective.  

Q: Describe Community Health Foundation’s funding philosophy.

Ann Monroe: Our funding philosophy reflects the vision of board members responsible for our overall strategy; our communities’ needs; how those needs are currently met and what efforts might bring about improvement; and the theory of change to which we subscribe. Generically, a theory of change answers the question, “Why do you think investing in x will get y?” In CHF’s activities, we believe that overall improvement will come from a focused attention on specific fundamentals, including measurement, integration of best practices and tracking of outcomes.

Overall, our philosophy is multi-faceted and guided by several principles.

• We are person centered and advocate for the most vulnerable in our communities—the frail elderly and children living in communities of poverty.
• We believe change comes about most effectively though meaningful collaborative efforts among organizations.
• We value quality improvement and sustainability of effort. In other words, we focus more on improving the performance of the system on behalf of its beneficiaries and less on creating new programs that might not be sustainable over time.
• We stress outcomes. We want to invest in activities that actually improve the lives of people we’re concerned about, and place a high importance on best practice and evidence-based interventions.
• We look at all of our activities as part of a body of work that ties efforts together and advances one idea through another. Our initiatives may look separate at first, but we see them as synergistic and leading toward anticipated outcomes.
• We use all the tools at philanthropy’s disposal. Grants are the most obvious, but we also intend to use other valid, less traditional means — convening, publications, independent evaluation, advocacy, public education and more — to advance our goals.

Our investments will be primarily foundation-initiated. Based on our learnings, best-practice evidence and gaps we see, we identify vital issues or ideas and then seek partners to work with us to address those issues or advance those ideas.

Q: How does the foundation’s funding philosophy affect its activities?

Ann Monroe: Here’s an example: One of the big barriers to positive, constructive change is the lack of communication among people doing the same kind of work and their lack of exposure to others who have been successful in similar endeavors. That’s why we value collaboration.

Recently, we’ve decided to support the ability of community coalitions to improve the quality of care and life for the frailest elders by increasing public awareness and stimulating practice and system changes in healthcare decision making. We invited all of our communities’ long-term care coalitions to come together for some educational activities around advanced directives, care planning for seriously ill, etc. These sessions were led by people from organizations known nationally for their best practices. At the end of the sessions, we gave all the coalitions the opportunity to submit a response to a foundation RFP.  Through that RFP, many of these coalitions will receive a two-year grant from the foundation. During those two years, in addition to some program assistance, we’ll provide opportunities for them to meet with each other and with people from successful programs in other parts of the country, helping them develop relationships in which all the participants will become resources to one another.

 

CHFWCNY Statement of Principle Concerning Learning Organizations and Communities

 STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE:  CHFWCNY embraces a philosophy that its employees, trustees and consultants—individually and as an organization—should be dedicated to continuous learning as a necessary component to achieving maximum and sustaining impact of its funding efforts.   It will espouse such a philosophy when interacting with grantees to add value and sustainability to the initiatives and organizations that it funds.  In short, CHFWCNY consciously will design and make efforts to create learning communities, that is, environments of shared learning among all the participants, in the initiatives it leads.

 DISCUSSION:  In order to maximize the value of CHFWCNY’s grant-making beyond the funding period, the foundation will support efforts that produce lasting change. To do this it will find measures that assure that lasting change has occurred.  Thus, CHFWCNY with its grantees will develop means by which it can develop and exchange knowledge and information that stimulates effectiveness and sustainability of the efforts it funds and that allows results to be measured.

Individual learning and constant growth are essential to organizational learning and growth.  Organizational learning and growth contribute to an organization’s viability, effectiveness and the sustainability of its impact.  Moreover, to make the most of its financial investments, CHFWCNY will promote inter-organizational learning and collaboration designed to produce improvements in society that are substantial and lasting. 

It is in this spirit and under this philosophy that CHFWCNY creates learning communities in all of its major initiatives intentionally designed to leave:

 1)  Individuals whose skills are strengthened in ways that can have momentum and impact in their organizations and their organization’s purposes beyond the funding cycle;

2)  Organizations that are more effective and innovative resulting from a culture of learning advanced during the grant period;

3)  Organizations that recognize and appreciate the need to work and learn with others to achieve a greater good than they could accomplish alone;

4)  Learning relationships among organizations that are self-perpetuating; and thus

5)  Systems and communities that are permanently improved by a commitment to learn and a commitment to improve continuously.

September 2006