From the President and CEO
Dear Colleague:
I write this message feeling great hope, and also deep concern.
Over the past year, economic pressures and budget cutbacks have squeezed all Californians, especially the most vulnerable among us. Never in our state's recent history has the safety net been so urgently needed by so many; never has it been so fragile and imperiled. At the same time, hope for sweeping change in our healthcare system continues to build.
Against this backdrop, in 2008 the Board of Trustees and staff of Blue Shield of California Foundation reviewed our strategic direction, in order to ask ourselves a few questions. Are we using our resources to their best and highest use given the times, our skills and our core values? Are there ways to leverage our dollars for greater change in California's communities and if so, how?
We examined the landscape, talked to grantees and other stakeholders, and reflected on the most constructive and salient role that we can play over the coming years. We identified three key goals:
- Achieving universal health coverage for all Californians using a shared responsibility approach;
- Building a high quality and cost-effective safety net to meet the expanding needs of families in crisis; and
- Developing an effective, coordinated and comprehensive system to end domestic violence in California.
How can we best advance these goals? Our experience to date suggests that our foundation has gained traction by focusing on several key strategies:
- Cultivating leaders by providing them with the tools to be more effective and helping them build networks that magnify their individual impacts;
- Recommitting to core support and finding more ways to build institutional capacity; and
- Leveraging unlikely relationships across diverse stakeholders in order to build momentum for policy change.
Can we continue to do this across all of our existing program areas? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Strategy is as much about saying no, as it is about saying yes. In order to focus on these priorities, we will transition out of grantmaking that does not directly support these goals. This year, we will end our Health and Technology grantmaking. While we are proud of our partnerships with a host of exemplary organizations pioneering programs in telemedicine, health information exchanges, electronic health records and e-prescribing, we recognize that our level of resources and staffing are not ideally suited to having continued impact in this complex and capital intensive field.
What resources will we have available to apply to our foundation goals? Despite the economic downturn, this year Blue Shield of California met its anticipated contribution level of a $30 million gift to the Foundation. This profound generosity and commitment to social change provides the resources to implement this strategy. In 2009, the Foundation will meet all existing grant commitments and will release new requests for proposals for core operating support and capacity building initiatives that fund community clinics and domestic violence service providers.
We understand that especially in tough times, funders can be supportive by being as clear and specific as possible. We will try to meet that standard. More details about our strategic direction can be found on our Web site.
I look forward to working with you in 2009 and the coming years to weather these storms and build toward our hope and our promise. We are better than the broken systems in front of us, but we have to find ways to work harder and smarter to realize the transformations about which we dream.
Best,
Crystal Hayling
(January 12, 2009)
