Introduction
Philanthropy and healthcare have great potential to change people’s lives for the better. They also have a long history of neglecting, or even directly harming, historically underserved communities.
The Health Foundation for Western & Central New York works to improve the health of the communities of western and central New York. The Health Foundation came to Mixte with a vision and strategic plan firmly rooted in racial and socioeconomic health equity looking for help to ensure that equity showed up in every aspect of its work — both internally and externally.
Our Objectives
Evaluate how well the Health Foundation was prioritizing equity throughout communications, and provide and execute on strategic recommendations for improvements.
Here’s how we did it:
- Assessed how well the Health Foundation’s communications assets reflected the organization’s commitment to racial and socioeconomic health equity — conducting interviews and surveys with the team and partners, diving into their existing communications materials and combing through research on public health, equitable grantmaking, trust-based philanthropy and advocacy.
- Provided strategic recommendations and a roadmap for the Health Foundation to revise, update and continue its efforts — and then help to execute those recommendations, including:
- Designed an infographic that captures the organization’s ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts — presenting their continuous journey and commitment to equity in a clear, visual way for their team and external audiences.
- Reimagined the Health Foundation’s advocacy web page into a hub for education and calls to action — making it easier for partners, fellow advocates and funders to see the impact of the Health Foundation’s advocacy efforts and get involved.
- Provided tools for staff and board to become digital ambassadors of the Health Foundation. We engaged in direct conversation with them to learn what obstacles they faced to represent the organization on social media. From there, we provided in-depth guidance meeting them where they are at — providing a comprehensive digital toolkit, video tutorials, and template social copy and graphics.
The Outcome
From recommending processes for consistent conversations with nonprofits serving Black, Indigenous, People of Color and rural New Yorkers, to writing bolder advocacy content as the Health Foundation pushes for effective health policies in New York State, Mixte’s analysis, guidance and tactical execution supported the Health Foundation in clarifying and elevating their equity-centric efforts.
Check out what Kerry Jones Waring, the Health Foundation’s Vice President for Communications, had to say: “Since we have started disseminating [our new advocacy content]… we have had so much good feedback from our partners. We even heard another foundation was forwarding it around internally and talking about how they need to get into the advocacy game too. To me, that’s as good as a compliment gets!”
