May 2007 National Reporting Campaign
In May 2007, CHA published an ad in USA TODAY and several other publications describing the community benefit contributions of member Catholic hospitals. The ad — under the headline, "Health. Hope. Here & Now." — features stories about several community benefit programs that exemplify how Catholic providers serve communities nationwide. In addition, the ad includes an aggregate number of the financial contributions of member hospitals based on use of CHA's guidelines for reporting community benefit — guidelines for standardized terminology, consistent accounting methodology, and greater transparency.
In developing the ad, CHA tested the layout and text with focus groups in Des Moines and Denver who confirmed that the $5.7 million community benefit contribution is impressive and that the examples of services presented in the ad are persuasive about the positive impact of Catholic health care in communities.
CHA can make available a similar, smaller ad template for your organization's use. In doing so, we suggest that you replace some or all of the photos with ones from your local community benefit programs and write corresponding descriptions of the outstanding services your organizations are providing to their communities. Adequate space is provided at the bottom of the ad for your organization's logo, website address, and any other copy you choose. Also, the ad copy could be customized for your system and/or facilities. We suggest you revise the copy to read:
In One Year, a $5.7 Billion Contribution
In 2006, Catholic-sponsored not-for-profit hospitals contributed more than $5.7 billion in services identified as community benefit—programs and activities that provide treatment and promote health and healing in response to identified community need (based on latest fiscal year data for calendar year 2006). Of that total, [SYSTEM OR FACILITY NAME] provided [YOUR TOTAL FIGURE] in community benefit services to our communities.
Among the Catholic organizations adopting the USA TODAY ad concept for their use is Catholic Health East (CHE). View page 12 of CHE's Summer 2007 Horizons publication. The publication is sent to sponsors, boards, regional leadership, system office and colleagues of CHE organizations.
For more information on obtaining templates to develop your own customized ads based on the USA TODAY format, contact Nick Osterholt.