Through corporate social responsibility programs, companies have an opportunity to change millions of lives for the better, not just through products and services, but also through social impact. In fact, companies are indispensable to organizations like Children’s Health Fund (CHF). For CHF, corporate social responsibility investments give us opportunities to further both our mission and that of our corporate partner, and craft initiatives that inspire others to support as we have done with our partner, Guardian Life.
Guardian Life—one of the largest mutual life insurance companies in the world—partnered with CHF to help improve social determinants of health in confronting the nation’s crisis in racial health disparities.
Guardian has been a corporate funder of CHF since 2018. In 2020, flexible funding from Guardian provided a lifeline to children and families. Together, we recently launched “2020 Dental Impact Report” that provides an in-depth look at their contributions during the pandemic.
As the COVID-19 disrupted oral health services across our National Network and vastly reduced in-person visits, the clinical programs Children’s Health Fund supports leveraged Guardian funding to activate other essential medical responses in their local communities while prioritizing emergency care.
Our partners:
- temporarily repurposed dental staff during shutdowns to support COVID-19 screening and testing; this allowed the retention of staff to be ready to reopen dental practices;
- expanded teledentistry to serve their communities, especially to address emergency care; and
- expanded community outreach for oral health prevention when safe to do so.
In 2020, Guardian funding supported 23,084 dental visits with children and family members attending CHF partner dental clinics in nine locations: southern Arizona, Dallas, South Central Idaho, Los Angeles, Mississippi Delta, New York City, Nevada, Trenton, and Washington, D.C.
Here’s one story from the Trenton, N.J. dental team about a patient served during the pandemic through teledentistry.
“A mother called about her 6-year-old son who had dental pain, but due to COVID-19, the mother was afraid to go out. Dr. Moten, the dentist, was able to speak to the boy’s caregiver and offer reassurance, providing services through teledentistry. Over both the phone and video, Dr. Moten made the diagnosis of an abscess and prescribed the boy antibiotics. Two days later, the patient was seen on-site for an evaluation and tooth extraction.”
Awareness Created by Partnership
Over the lifetime of CHF’s partnership with Guardian Life, we’ve activated numerous digital marketing initiatives and events that have helped Guardian raise awareness about the steps it is taking towards meeting its corporate social responsibility goals. Cumulatively, these efforts have created millions of trackable impressions across digital and media channels. CHF digital channels include a 12K+ email audience, over 35K social media followers, and 41K+ website visitors.
Highlights:
- Created a campaign name, logo and mascot, the Guardian of the Smile, who visited kids through events in several cities;
- Designed Scholastic oral health educational resources for ages 5-8, which have been utilized in classrooms across the country;
- Disseminated reports that promote the impact of Guardian’s funding;
- Activated electric toothbrush giveaways through social media ad campaigns to promote the partnership; and
- Created a microsite that detailed the work Guardian and CHF have done to promote good oral healthcare habits for kids.
National Impact on Physical, Mental Health, and Oral Health of Children
Collectively, Children’s Health Fund’s (CHF) 25 National Network partners served over 100,000 children and their families in 2020 through over 400,000 clinical service visits. These health services are provided regardless of families’ financial resources, through fixed sites, mobile clinics, and telehealth.
Of our partner programs, one-third provide dental services to children, some through a mobile dental clinic or teledentistry, and many more through referrals to external dental providers.
Want to Learn More?
Contact your corporate relations liaison, Maisel Mazier, mmazier@chfund.org, to discuss how a partnership with Children’s Health Fund can help your company reach its CSR goals.