Building Bridges to Better Health

Community Benefit Reports

The John Muir/Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund was formed to add a new component to John Muir Health's community benefit programs. Our function is to award grants that support community-based health care services reaching the most vulnerable populations living in central and east Contra Costa County. Our stated mission is to improve the health of adults and children who are un- and under-insured, have limited access to health care, are at-risk for poor health, and are most likely to experience disparities in health care.

This community benefit mission translates into action with at least $1 million of funding provided annually from John Muir Health for our grant program, plus additional dollars to fund our program support expenses. It is an industry standard for nonprofit tax-exempt hospitals to report annual "community benefit contributions" by combining grants for health projects with program support costs. At the Community Health Fund, we take seriously the community benefit designation of our program support costs; we use the expertise of our professional staff and consultants to help broker interagency collaborations, catalyze work on systemic barriers to health access, draw attention to important health issues and needed policy changes, and help nonprofit leaders strategize, create plans of action, and take advantage of professional development opportunities. The result is that more needed services have become more available to more people.

1st Decade of Community Benefit Contributions: 1997-2006

During our first decade the Community Health Fund's share of John Muir Health's community benefit contributions totaled $13.6 million. The bar graph below depicts the annual distribution of these community benefit dollars for grants and program support expenses: the red bars depict grants and the yellow bars depict program support.

2nd Decade of Community Benefit Contributions: 2007-2016