In 2013, the Advisory Board achieved the unique milestone of 100% employee participation in their corporate volunteer program

As part of its commitment to building a healthier world, The Advisory Board Company recently became a partner in the BUILD Health Challenge - a national program that will award up to $8.5 million and a range of support services to proposals that strengthen partnerships among hospitals, nonprofits, local health departments, and other community organizations to improve the health of low-income neighborhoods within cities with populations greater than 150,000.  The first application round has seen hundreds of submissions flooding in from across the country.  

“This initiative represents a critical step in the Advisory Board’s effort to aggressively target the root causes of population health issues,” said Graham McLaughlin, Managing Director of Community Impact, the Advisory Board’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. “The mission of our firm and the core purpose of our CSR efforts inherently align with the BUILD Health Challenge focus on identifying and addressing the complex problems that influence overall health.”

The BUILD Health Challenge brings together an unusual set of funding partners. The Advisory Board Company – a publicly traded firm – launched this initiative alongside four not-for-profit foundations, a collaboration they hope will inspire other diverse, community-level organizations to work together to find solutions for difficult problems and discover new best practices for the field.

“Thoughtful partnerships like this are vital to implementing effective solutions and are the only way that any of us can be true change agents,” said McLaughlin. “The factors that influence the social correlates of health – lack of transportation, housing, and access to healthy food, as well as poor socio-economic and environmental conditions – encompass enormous, messy problems that can’t be solved by staying neatly within the confines of one narrowly-focused program.”

The Advisory Board has firmly established itself as a leader in CSR. In 2013, 100% of their employees voluntarily participated in their corporate volunteer program, a unique milestone for a company of their size. Bolstered by the engagement from this movement, the firm’s CSR team has turned their attention to designing and executing interventions that effectively address the root causes of community health issues. 

“CSR practitioners are consistently pushed to designate a signature program issue and produce outcome metrics that definitively demonstrate their singular organization’s societal impact, but that’s just not reasonable or effective when you’re working to solve challenges like this,” McLaughlin noted. “Our team is committed to pursuing real and meaningful improvements in the areas we’re focused on, even if that means going outside of the traditional structures and reporting mechanisms that have defined CSR to date.”

Alongside their financial commitment to BUILD Health, Advisory Board employees are already lining up to offer their support in implementing collective root-cause solutions. The Advisory Board’s CSR program emphasizes pro bono commitments to improve health around the world, ranging from syndicating best practices of effective medical-legal partnerships to address socioeconomic factors in communities across the US to working with schools in India on hygiene initiatives and Pakistani health officials on quality of care improvements.

The Advisory Board’s Community Impact team welcomes inquiries from any organizations interested in collaborating to improve health at the community and national levels. Please email CommunityImpact@advisory.com for more information on the Advisory Board’s Community Impact initiatives and potential partnerships.

About The Advisory Board Company

The Advisory Board Company is the leading provider of insight-driven technology, research, and services for the health care and higher education industries. Through its innovative membership model, the company collaborates with more than 200,000 leaders at 4,500 member organizations to elevate performance and solve their most pressing problems. The company provides strategic guidance, actionable insights, web-based software solutions, and comprehensive implementation and management services. For more information, visit the firm's website, www.advisory.com.

The Advisory Board Company

The Advisory Board Company

The Advisory Board Company is a global technology, research, and consulting firm partnering with 200,000 leaders in 4,500 organizations across health care and higher education. Through its innovative membership model, the company collaborates with executives and their teams to elevate performance and solve their most pressing challenges. The company provides strategic guidance, actionable insights, cloud-based software solutions, and comprehensive implementation and management services. In 2014, more than 60% of the nation's inpatient admissions now flow through The Advisory Board Company's performance technologies. For more information, visit www.advisory.com.

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