Archstone Foundation CEO Christopher Langston, SAAHAS for Cause
founder Payal Sawhney, and I sat down this summer with Guenevere Crum, Director of Community Engagement at Catchafire, to kick off its Wednesday Leadership Series: Philanthropy in Health.
The provocative question that was the topic of our 50-minute online discussion: “Are Older Adults Being Left Behind?”
We believe we can do our best work in collaboration. Sharing insights and listening to our community partners can help us achieve our goals together. This conversation highlighted how Archstone Foundation, Catchafire, and nonprofit organizations like SAAHAS for Cause have worked together toward achieving the goal of improving the health and well-being of older adults.
Last year, Archstone Foundation launched a collaboration with Catchafire to provide nonprofits with expanded capacity building support. Catchafire is a social enterprise and nonprofit that matches professionals who want to donate their time with nonprofits who need their skills. Organizations can search for support by category – in a wide variety of areas including finance and operations, fundraising, customer relationship management and IT support.
Integrating Health and Social Services
Chris opened the conversation by discussing the importance of health care and social connections. While increasing access to health care is important for people of all ages, adults older than 65 generally have more complex needs — and also a higher per capita utilization of health services than younger age groups. This makes it increasingly important for organizations and foundations to work together to expand the reach of programs designed to improve the quality and efficiency of care for older adults.
We next turned to gaps in the system. We see the biggest issue as a lack of connectivity among existing resources. This denies people the quality of care they deserve and puts them at undue risk. We believe medical and social services should be coordinated and integrated to provide high quality care that is unique to each person’s needs while reducing cost.
We then talked about the need to reduce racial health disparities. It’s simply not acceptable that people of different races have different life expectancies and health outcomes. The recent Health Equity Report discusses in more detail how Archstone Foundation is seeking to address health equity.
Not many funders focus exclusively on serving older adults, but those working in the community across a variety of areas and settings should consider the variety of roles played by older people. Too often they are an untapped resource for knowledge and experience that can be leveraged to increase the impact of grant dollars and volunteer services like those Catchafire provides. Conversely, there may be unmet needs, specific to older adults, that would justify paying more attention to how this population is included in programs to improve nutrition, housing, transportation, behavioral health, and more. For other funders interested in supporting programs for older adults, we suggest checking out Grantmakers In Aging and the excellent resources they offer.
Catchafire in Action
Payal gave an overview of some of the capacity building projects SAAHAS for Cause has completed with the support of Catchafire volunteers. As part of its capacity building grant program, Archstone Foundation has offered both declined applicants and grantees, including SAAHAS for Cause, access to the Catchafire platform. Since receiving access, SAAHAS for Cause has completed 39 projects and consultant calls worth an estimated $153,864, including a review of its employee handbook and the creation of an education campaign to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, specifically targeting the South Asian community that it serves. SAAHAS effectively utilized Catchafire’s support to set itself up to receive a grant from our most recent round of capacity building funding.
Collaborating with Catchafire has expanded the impact of Archstone Foundation’s dollars by allowing nonprofits like SAAHAS for Cause to tap into the resources provided by professionals who are volunteering their time in order to assist nonprofits more effectively and efficiently deliver on their mission.
We invite you to watch our discussion.
