Coleman Foundation Blog

Coleman Foundation Announces Cancer Impact Plan

The Coleman Foundation has focused on three program areas for over twenty years – Cancer, Developmental Disabilities and Entrepreneurship Education.  Over the past several months, program staff has employed the “Getting to Impact” framework developed by the Association for Small Foundations as part of a strategic planning process to more clearly make the connection between grant strategies and intended outcomes in these three major areas.  On March 1, 2012, the Board of Directors approved these Impact Plans to provide a basic outline of the goals for the Foundation’s grantmaking in 2012. 

The Cancer Impact Plan is built on the Foundation’s vision that patients will be engaged in their cancer treatment and empowered to make decisions regarding their care.  The Foundation will adopt strategies that enable health care providers to gain effective tools and resources in supportive oncology (care from diagnosis through end of life).  A coordinated treatment plan developed by an interdisciplinary team is likely to help patients achieve the best possible outcomes and quality of life during the cancer journey.

The Foundation’s Impact Plans should inform potential grantees as to the particular strategies the Foundation seeks to fund. The Foundation welcomes potential grantees to review our grantmaking process which is available on our website.   Download Cancer Impact Plan 

Coleman Foundation Announces Cancer Vision

The Board of Directors of the Coleman Foundation recently approved a vision for the Foundation's cancer program.  The vision is considered a working framework that will inform grantmaking activities during 2011.  The Foundation actively engaged in support of local cancer programs beginning in 1981.  In 2010, the Foundation undertook a process of focusing work in its entrepreneurship education programs.  This effort similarly refines and clarifies the Foundation's interests with respect to cancer care.  The Board of Directors will revisit the cancer vision in 2012 and potentially further refine it.

 

Cancer Program Vision – 2011

Chicago metropolitan area cancer patients and cancer survivors can become more informed and engaged in the management of their disease and receive higher levels of:

• Diagnosis (e.g. screenings, diagnostic tests, staging tests)
• Treatment (e.g. chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, transplant); and
• Support (e.g. patient and family education, psychosocial care, palliative and hospice care).

Grantees of the Coleman Foundation will have quality facilities and properly trained staff to deliver high quality diagnosis, treatment and support along the continuum of their patients’ cancer experience through survivorship to end of life.

The Coleman Foundation will:

• fund clearly indentified programs targeted to areas of need in the Chicago metropolitan area;
• Purposefully identify strategic and tactical partners;
• Engage effective collaboration between grantees; and
• Successfully disseminate knowledge and lessons learned   

Catalyzing Local Support to Sustain Cancer Patient Navigation

In 2004, with support from CFI, American Cancer Society, Illinois Division (ACS) created Patient Navigation Services™ (PNS).  PNS provides cancer patients with an information lifeline, day-to-day help and emotional support from the moment of diagnosis forward.  ACS staffs PNS with patient service coordinators called “Patient Navigators” who are responsible for most of the one-on-one contacts with cancer patients, their families and caregivers, as well as maintaining a Community Resources Database which allows program employees to inform cancer patients from across the nation regarding services local to the inquiring patient. 

 

PNS has increased the delivery of services to its rural regions outside of the Chicago metro area.  In the same manner, it is developing local revenue sources.  Historically, ACS’s regional fundraising has revolved around special events run by volunteers.  ACS recognized that to ensure the sustainability of PNS in rural regions, local community funders and larger gifts needed to be identified. 

 

Core Activities

 

In 2009, ACS undertook the training of Regional Vice Presidents, Directors and volunteers to advance major gift fundraising from relatively high net worth individuals and family foundations in their regions.  The “Coleman Challenge” provided motivation and impetus for the development of sustaining supporters from the rural regions in which PNS delivers services.  CFI provided a matching gift incentive to campaign participants from the rural regions, matching $1 for each $2 raised.

 

Outcomes

• Over the course of the 18-month campaign, $419,338 was raised from 671 contributors.
• Average gift size was $623, a 409 percent increase over the pre-challenge average.
• PNS program added value to the patients’ experience with a hospital and in turn hospitals endorse the PNS program via physician referrals and financial support.
• New sustainable funding relationships were formed with local high net worth individuals and family foundations.

Key Lesson Learned:  Matching gift campaign motivated givers even in a down economy

 

The matching funds provided by CFI to ACS attracted sustainable major gift philanthropy even in the midst of the recessed U.S. economy.  The primary example was demonstrated by the improvement in overall giving in the ACS’s Peoria Region. Though this community had been heavily burdened by employment cuts at the area’s largest corporation, matching funds stimulated four new major gift relationships.  The value of these relationships increased the average monthly contribution levels by a factor of nearly 550 percent during the grant period.

 

Key Lesson Learned:  Volunteers can be turned into de facto major gifts officers

 

ACS also learned that training local volunteer leadership on the principles of relational fundraising and capital campaigning can lead to new behaviors and pay big dividends.  In the Champaign region, the voluntary campaign chair reached out to his employer in a new way and garnered a $25,000 gift.  Spurred by this success other local volunteers reached out to their spheres of influence for major gifts.  Over the course of the challenge, these actions improved annual contributions to PNS from less than $1,000 to over $116,000. 

Study Reveals Opportunity for Cord Blood Collection in Minority Communities

A recently published study funded by The Coleman Foundation indicates an opportunity exists to increase treatment options for certain cancer patients of African-American and Hispanic heritage.  A new pilot program will commence shortly in an effort to realize this opportunity.

Contained within a new mother's umbilical cord after the delivery of her baby are stem cells.  These cells, known as hematopoetic progenitor cells, can be painlessly collected by a doctor or medical technician immediately after delivery of the baby for the purpose of donation for use in transplant procedures to treat cancer and other diseases.   The Coleman Foundation has established a goal to support the increase in altruistic cord blood donations from across Chicagoland, especially in minority communities, to facilitate greater availability of hematopoietic progenitor cells for transplant and research purposes.

The study was done by HealthConnect One, Mercy Hospital and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and involved focus groups of African-American and Hispanic women.   The results indicate that women are interested in donating their umbilical cord blood and would do so if provided the opportunity.   Lack of basic information regarding umbilical cord blood, its harvesting and use, and the steps and conditions necessary to donate were primary barriers to donation. Women expressed confusion over the differences between altruistic donation and the private banking alternative which involves a family paying a private entity to store cord blood stem cells for their exclusive use. 

Doctors were viewed as critical sources for information about donation, although women expressed skepticism about doctors' ability to convey sufficient information during short office visits.  In response to these results, a three-month pilot is taking place at Mercy Hospital and Mt. Sinai Hospital, both in Chicago, accompanied by trainings of community health workers at clinics and organizations serving women who deliver at those hospitals.  A outreach "toolkit" developed by HealthConnect One in consultation with hospital professionals, transplant doctors, cord bank professionals and community health workers will be used by health workers to educate potential donors about umbilical cord blood donation.

Download Cord Blood Study Press Release

New Outpatient Infusion Center at Mount Sinai Hospital

Mount Sinai Hospital is a 431-bed teaching, research and tertiary-care facility providing health services to Chicago's West Side Community. 

In February 2008, a $75,000 grant was made to the hospital which was used to refurbish its outpatient infusion center, the facility in which patients of the Sinai Cancer Care Center receive chemotherapy treatments.  The project integrated the hospital's inpatient and outpatient services, allowed for additional chemotherapy patient privacy, substantially increased outpatient capacity and enhanced aesthetics of the physical space.

On June 20, Mt. Sinai Hospital held a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the opening of the new Sinai Cancer Care Center.  At right, Beth Hayden, RN, Director, Oncology Patient Care, makes remarks to a group including Michael Hennessy; Alan H. Channing, President and CEO, Sinai Health System; and Dr. Pam Khosla, Medical Director, Oncology.