Case for Support Example 2: Updating in Light of COVID-19
A capital campaign case for support is a document that outlines the needs and benefits of a nonprofit’s capital request. The very best cases for support weave together the image of the nonprofit, its role in the community, and how fulfilling that role benefits its users and the community. Presented below is a notated case for support example from a health care facility capital campaign with notes on how it was amended to address COVID-related fundraising impacts.
Use this case for support example to assess your own case. The case for support should focus on a specific capital appeal. It includes the nonprofit’s mission and vision, but also places focus on the quantified and qualified details of a project.
A thorough case for support includes these elements:
Overview: A brief historic overview of the nonprofit – when did it open, who does it serve, how does it benefit the community, accolades.
Mission and Vision
Administration and Board of Directors
Challenge/Current Situation: What operating/programmatic/infrastructure shortfall(s) brought about the nonprofit’s desire to seek capital? This is the nonprofit’s “Need.”
Opportunity/Solution to Current Situation: Once the capital is raised, how will the nonprofit’s users and the service region benefit? This is the nonprofit’s “Benefit.”
Project Budget and Business Plan: The Business Plan is needed if staffing and/or expenses are increasing. This shows financial readiness or break-even point.
Project timeline: When will the project begin and end, including time for fundraising.
Summary: A blending of overview, challenge and opportunity that summarizes the needs and benefits of reaching the capital goal. Focus more on benefits; donors give more to solutions rather than challenges.
Explore the example below to gain insight and ideas for developing your own case for support or for updating your case for support to address the challenges created for your nonprofit by COVID-19.
Special thanks to Angel Ledesma, executive director of the Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation, and Abel Noah, vice president and executive trustee of the Confluence Health Foundation, for permission to use their $3.5 million campaign’s case for support as an example.
Case for Support
Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation and Confluence Health Foundation
“Your Local Cancer Care”
1. Overview. A brief historic overview of the nonprofit – when did it open, who does it serve, how does it benefit the community, accolades.
Background
The Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation (CBCF) was established by Howard Gallion in 2000, shortly after his wife died of cancer. From the beginning, CBCF has been committed to providing support, services, encouragement and information to cancer patients in Grant and Adams counties.
CBCF provides critical emotional and financial support to its clients. Cancer patients and their caregivers living in the region travel at least one-and-a-half hours to receive radiation treatment. This causes financial and emotional stress. The foundation helps alleviate that stress with its services and friendly staff.
The services provided by CBCF focus on holistic care and support. The monthly support group helps clients cope with the psychological stress that comes with a cancer diagnosis. The CBCF community center provides a safe and welcoming place where clients can reflect on their treatment process. Because cancer patients in the Columbia Basin must travel out of town for treatment, CBCF provides gas vouchers and sponsors the People for People bus to transport patients from the Moses Lake clinic to Wenatchee. CBCF also distributes nutritious bone broth and meals through the Meals to Heal program while patients are in treatment. Educational reading materials, hats, head coverings, wigs, and family photos are more of the services that cancer patients in need receive at CBCF.
Confluence Health is one of the leading comprehensive health care providers in Washington. Their goal is to deliver high-quality, safe, compassionate, and cost-effective care close to home. Confluence Health is a nonprofit organization. It took over ownership of the Moses Lake Clinic in 2013 when Central Washington Hospital merged with the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center to form Confluence Health, which is based in Wenatchee, WA.
Confluence Health and its Cancer Treatment Center in Wenatchee are affiliates with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), which brings together the leading research teams, treatment protocols and cancer specialists of Fred Hutch, Seattle Children’s, and University of Washington Medicine.
2. Administration and Board of Directors - This case does not include this information.
3. Mission and Vision
Confluence Health and CBCF have a unifying goal: bring cancer care closer to home by opening a radiation treatment facility in Moses Lake, WA. Therefore, the Confluence Health Foundation (CHF) and CBCF are leading a $3,500,000 capital campaign to fund half of the cost to build and equipment a new radiation treatment facility that will be attached to the existing Confluence Health Moses Lake Clinic. The total project cost is estimated to be $7,000,000. Once the campaign is successful, Confluence Health with match it with another $3,500,000.
4. Challenge/Current Situation: What operating/programmatic/infrastructure shortfall(s) brought about the nonprofit’s desire to seek capital? This is the nonprofit’s “Need.”
Current Situation
Currently, Confluence Health radiation oncology treatments are delivered at the Wenatchee Campus. This center partners with Grant County Transit Authority to provide bus services from the Moses Lake Clinic to Wenatchee for patients living in Moses Lake, Ephrata and Quincy. The distance between Moses Lake and Wenatchee is 71.6 miles. Confluence Health cancer patients can see their oncologist in Moses Lake, but cancer treatments must occur in Wenatchee.
Cancer patients living in the Columbia Basin who require radiation treatment can travel to Wenatchee, Spokane, Tri-Cities, Seattle or out-of-state for treatment. Confluence Health and CBCF realize that this travel causes significant emotional, physical and financial stress on patients and their caregivers. It is their collective mission to bring radiation treatment closer to home for these patients.
We added the following paragraph address to the impact of COVID-19 on cancer patients in the Columbia Basin.
The stress of traveling for treatment is manifesting in new ways during this COVID-19 pandemic. Now, cancer patients also worry about the virus in relation to their compromised immune systems. Whether it’s a stop for gasoline or coffee on the way to Spokane, or a ride on the Grant County Transit Authority bus to Wenatchee, these commonplace elements of traveling for treatment now pose a greater risk for cancer patients in the Columbia Basin. During the pandemic, Confluence Health and the Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation stepped up as leaders in the community. Right away, Confluence Health began offering virtual visits; they continue to do telehealth appointments while ensuring the safety of in-person patients through mask requirements, frequent sanitization, and limiting patient visitors.
There is regional market competition from cancer diagnosis and treatment providers in Spokane, Seattle, Tri-Cities and Walla Walla. Beyond this regional competition, there is also the possibility of national, privately-owned cancer diagnosis and treatment firms moving into the Moses Lake area.
Confluence Health is a financially stable organization. However, building, equipping and staffing a new radiation treatment facility is beyond its near-term financial capacity. With the region’s philanthropic support, Confluence Health can build, staff and equip a radiation treatment facility in a relatively short period of time, 2-3 years, and the facility can be financially self-sustaining.
5. Opportunity/Solution to Current Situation: Once the capital is raised, how will the nonprofit’s users and the service region benefit? This is the nonprofit’s “Benefit.”
CBCF provides necessary support services to cancer patients and their families. However, the foundation’s ultimate goal is to bring cancer care closer to home. By working in conjunction with CHF, the two organizations will combine professional and personal resources to unite the region in one vision – improve the lives of cancer patients and their caregivers that must endure cancer radiation treatments.
CBCF has formed mutually beneficial relationships with both Confluence Health in Wenatchee and the local hospital, Samaritan, which is the Grant County Public Hospital. Samaritan is aware of this project and supports its vision.
A Moses Lake radiation treatment facility will achieve three critical goals:
Provide radiation oncology services closer to home for patients and their caregivers in the Columbia Basin
Bring state-of-the-art radiation treatment protocols to the Columbia Basin in a cost-effective, self-sustaining model of care
Grow CBCF’s mission to include more local support services to cancer patients
We added the following paragraph show how important a local radiation treatment facility is to the community.
During these difficult and uncertain times, the new radiation treatment facility in Moses Lake will better ensure the safety and health of local cancer patients by bringing the treatment closer to home. By limiting their exposure to COVID-19 during any travel that was previously necessary to get radiation, our neighbors with cancer can have greater peace of mind throughout their treatment. Cancer is risky enough – bringing the treatment to Moses Lake can reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure for cancer patients and their loved ones.
6. Project Budget and Business Plan: The organizations added this information to other solicitation materials.
7. Project timeline: This information was included in other solicitation materials.
8. Summary: A blending of overview, challenge and opportunity that summarizes the needs and benefits of reaching the capital goal. Focus more on benefits; donors give more to solutions rather than challenges.
Confluence Health defines its service area as Grant, Adams, Chelan, Douglas and Okanagan counties of Washington State. The population statistics indicate the total population of this region to be estimated at 259,942. While this number may seem small, the Advisory Board Cancer Incidence Estimator expects nearly 1,000 new cases of cancer in these treatment areas in 2019; approximately 60% of those individuals will need radiation. As the number of cancer patients continues to grow, transporting hundreds of sick patients out of the Columbia Basin to receive their treatment no longer makes sense.
A Patient-Centered Partnership
The word “confluence” means “a coming together of two forces.” Confluence Health and Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation are forces in and of themselves; when joined together, they have the opportunity to be even more powerful. Their missions are aligned perfectly: their commitment to providing care and resources to cancer patients is an excellent reason to partner on building a radiation treatment facility in Moses Lake.
For years, Confluence Health has been recognized as a leading healthcare provider in Washington. Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation has always been valued and appreciated for the thoughtful, relieving programs it offers. To continue meeting and growing these organizations’ visions, a local radiation treatment facility is a logical next step that the community needs.
We added reference here to the importance of helping cancer patients avoid COVID-19 exposure.
Both organizations are committed to safe, reliable care closer to home. Building a new radiation treatment center in Moses Lake would eliminate additional patient stress of traveling several hours to receive treatment. It would also reduce possible exposure to COVID-19 for our immunocompromised neighbors with cancer.
Considering the possibility of future market competition in Moses Lake, now is the time to act. Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation and Confluence Health are local nonprofits. They have been living in and contributing to the Columbia Basin for more than two generations. The physicians, staff and board members who work for these organizations are fully invested in the region. They enjoy taking care of their family, friends and neighbors and hope to expand upon that legacy with this project.
The leadership in place and the potential donor base exists to make this $3,500,000 campaign a success. Building a radiation treatment facility will expand Confluence Health’s services in Moses Lake, fulfill Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation’s mission, and – most importantly – improve the lives of cancer patients in the Columbia Basin for years to come.
To see a library capital campaign case for support example, click here. For more information on cases for support and capital campaigns, contact us!
Kevin Wallace is president of CampaignCounsel.org.
