The California Endowment - Public Policy And Advocacy

Why Public Policy?

The California Endowment believes that public policy is essential to achieving meaningful changes in access to quality health care and improvements in the health status of California's underserved communities. The laws and regulations that govern state and local institutions – governments, hospitals, schools, private business – affect the health of Californians. Therefore, public policy change must be part of any long-term solutions to California’s health issues.

What Makes an Effective Advocacy Organization? A Framework for Determining Advocacy Capacity

Advocacy as a strategy for the nonprofit sector has become increasingly widespread. Foundations are looking to fund more of this type of work; nonprofits are learning how to harness its power to achieve their mission; and both are trying to better understand how to evaluate success. To that end, The California Endowment asked TCC Group to conduct an evaluation of a cohort of advocacy organizations who were receiving general support from the foundation. One of the important outcomes of that evaluation was a much deeper understanding of the characteristics of effective advocacy organizations.

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Prevention for a Healthier California: Investments in Disease Prevention Yield Significant Savings, Stronger Communities

The Prevention for a Healthier California: Investments in Disease Prevention Yield Significant Savings, Stronger Communities report finds that if California were to invest in community-based disease prevention programs both the state and private health insurance payers could save significant amounts in health care costs annually.

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Overcoming Language Barriers to Health Care

This publication describes policy efforts at the state and federal levels to overcome language barriers to health care faced by non-English speaking patients. Importantly, this case study demonstrates the critical role that the administrative and regulatory process plays in establishing and implementing public policy. It also describes the inter-relationship between state and federal policy. This report also seeks to identify ways in which The Endowment—primarily through its support of advocacy and convening—helped raise the visibility of this issue, bring critical stakeholders together, and achieve meaningful progress.

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