Health care organizations (HCOs) face a conundrum: an intractable shortage of clinicians, with no visible projected relief; paired with systemic underfunding of the key jobs necessary to attract and retain people in clinical careers. How might we effectively address the caregiver crisis to give more families access to the health care services they desire and deserve?
Fundraising as a Catalyst for Career Pathways
Bold innovations are needed to bridge the supply-demand gap in health care. Career pathway and career ladder programs are frequently celebrated for attracting more aspiring clinicians, growing their expertise and earning potential, and tempering the costly “talent treadmill.” Fundraising can serve as a strategic accelerant and catalyst for such talent pipeline innovations.
However, in contrast to the traditional fundraising paradigm of perpetually raising and expending funds, philanthropic investments that catalyze financially sustainable career pathway programs can produce a Triple Win.
- For the employee, significant value added to their self-efficacy, marketable skills, continuing education, mentorship, career growth, and job satisfaction;
- For the organization, fulfillment of mission and returns on investment by serving more clients and reducing talent replacement costs; and
- For the public good, enhanced quality and access to care, expanded career pathways for the un- and underemployed, and more equitable access to meaningful professions.
In short, catalytic philanthropy can enable health care providers to scale up career development programs more rapidly, while controlling financial risk to the organization. The magic of sustainability lies in the nonprofit’s ongoing ability to fund its talent platforms solely from program revenue and internal investments—a challenging plan to construct, but empirically feasible as the HCO buoys its finances by slowing its talent treadmill.
Braided Funding to Enhance Sustainability
Nonprofit HCOs can reinforce the resiliency and sustainability of their fundraising by braiding funds—weaving multiple streams of money together from a combination of public and private sources, thus avoiding overreliance on any single funder.
Often, prospective funders share an interest in career pathways, but for different purposes (as examples, community health, equitable access, or workforce development). They may want their contributions earmarked for a specific community, region, or demographic. By orchestrating multiple funding streams to complement each other, an HCO can create a robust talent ecosystem that addresses diverse needs and maximizes the influence of each contribution for greater and more sustainable impact.
The Long Arc of Career Pathway Programs
Most importantly, there are game-changing benefits to a homegrown talent program that is comprehensive enough to nurture employees “from hire to retire.” As examples:
- For entry-level clinicians, they receive immediate training and rapid compensation, with clear opportunities for professional advancement;
- For newly credentialed clinicians, they engage in a workplace-embedded bridge between school and practice, enriching their specialty-specific competence and confidence in a safe, mentored environment;
- For upwardly aspiring clinicians, their career pursuits are sweetened by professional development opportunities, career advising, and financial supports that subsidize or sidestep the burdensome cost of traditional higher education credentials; and
- For all, flexible work-study scheduling enables them to keep “earning while learning,” to pursue the continuing education of their choice.
The cumulative effect enhances every aspect of an HCO’s business, from attraction to retention to quality assurance to employee engagement and patient satisfaction. And that translates to more families receiving the high-quality health care services they desire and deserve.
Michael LaRosa
Michael LaRosa is Division Director of Workforce Development at BAYADA Home Health Care. With the goal to expand career pathways for those with the passion to serve, Dr. LaRosa is building a scalable, financially sustainable platform to attract and employ new home health care professionals and to elevate the progression of their careers through public-private investments. Dr. LaRosa holds a doctor of education leadership (EdLD) degree from Harvard University, an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor of engineering degree from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Contact Dr. LaRosa at [email protected].
Adelina Garcia
Adelina Garcia is Director of Workforce Development at BAYADA Home Health Care, where she helps build a financially sustainable talent development platform preparing health care workers to advance BAYADA’s vision of bringing quality home health care to millions of people worldwide. To this end, Adelina leverages apprenticeship to build supportive pathways from entry-level jobs to higher pay, higher skill careers and leads fundraising and grant management for a growing portfolio of workforce development programs. Adelina has a master of education degree in human development and psychology from Harvard University and a bachelor degree in philosophy and Spanish from the University of Washington.
