As the hectic holiday season and year-end activities draw to a close, many of us start planning for the coming year. If your plans include scheduling to attend any of our excellent Capacity Building Programs for Nonprofits, the online catalog is available. It can be viewed or downloaded for printing. https://www.healthfoundation.org/about/events.html The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati in cooperation with SC Ministry Foundation will continue to offer workshops particularly targeted to staff, volunteers and boards of small to medium size nonprofits. There are some new workshops as well as a few that have been core over the years. Our goals are to provide affordable workshops and to build expertise in business development, communication, evaluation and data, and fundraising. We anticipate adding some additional board development webinars. I invite you to share this blog or forward the information to any regional nonprofits. To register for a workshop, visit http://regisater.healthfoundation.org or call 513-458-6680.

At the opening of the 2011 American Public Health Association (APHA) Conference in Washington, D.C., last week, a collection of very provocative opening presentations challenged all 12,000-plus attendees to work harder for the health of those most in need. To view a few of the presentations, including one from former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, visit APHA's YouTube Page .

During that same opening session, attendees were encouraged to visit the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. I did that and found the monument very thought-provoking. Below is a quote and picture from the memorial. If you've been there, what did you think?

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. - Martin Luther King

The APHA Conference featured more than 1,000 scientific presentations, including one based on our work with the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky on the Kentucky Health Issues Poll (KHIP). Take a quick look at our slides:

This presentation reviewed how the addition of surveys with the cell phone-only population can affect the results of traditional landline surveys, and considered the costs and benefits of adding this hard-to-reach, but growing, population of telephone users.

KHIP is a random-digit-dialing telephone health opinion survey of more than 1,500 adults that has been conducted annually since 2008. Landline-only samples fell short of U.S. Census estimates of young and non-white people living in Kentucky. Therefore, a sample of more than 200 cell phone-only households was included in the 2009 and 2010 KHIP. In both years, the unweighted cell phone-only sample was significantly more likely than the unweighted landline sample to be non-white and to be younger than 35 years old.

Combining landline-only and cell phone-only surveys resulted in improved sample coverage, but did this improved coverage affect results? The answer is yes. The cell-phone sample included considerably more uninsured Kentuckians than would have otherwise been possible with a landline-only sample.

I had the pleasure of attending Philanthropy Forward 2011, the annual conference of the Ohio Grantmakers Forum, last month in Columbus. For me the conference was an initiation of sorts into the world of philanthropy. I came to my job as the Health Foundation's Director of Publications in June after a 15-year career in the newspaper industry. The world of foundations and grantmaking was almost completely new to me. Thanks to the conference, I now better understand the breadth and impact of philanthropy, both the kinds of organizations involved (from private community foundations to faith-based nonprofits) as well as the activities they fund (from health initiatives to social enterprise). Plus I met a lot of the great people who are doing this important work throughout the state every day.

The Health Foundation's own Shelly Stolarczyk-George presented the session "What Due Diligence Delivers," along with Kerry Shaw of the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations and Leonor Alfonso of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations. Shelly described her experiences with due diligence as the Foundation's Grants Manager. She helped participants develop strategies for getting information they need to make informed decisions about awarding grants while not overburdening grantees with information requests.

In addition, the two communications sessions I attended reinforced the importance of organizations' blogs and websites. It is there that groups can share their own story and engage advisers, donors and others interested in their mission. A well-designed, modern and sophisticated website can make a favorable impression of your organization on users. Thus, the use of photos and attention to the amount and spacing of type on a website are important. Finally, social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter are a great way to direct users back to content on your blog or website.

Health Foundation Program Officer Ann Barnum (from left), Director of Evaluation Kelly Firesheets, Program Officer Francie Wolgin, Grants Manager Shelly Stolarczyk-George and Director of Publications Jeff Williams attended Philanthropy Forward 2011 in Columbus.

Last year, we partnered with the Center for Effective Philanthropy to conduct our second Grantee Perception Survey. Ninety six of our grantees participated in the survey, which asks questions about our grantmaking and reporting processes, our work in the community, and grantees' interactions with our staff and associates.

These survey results were really important to me. If you haven't noticed, we've experienced quite a bit of change at the Health Foundation in the past year. I think those changes are good, and I hope you agree. But one thing I don't want to see change is the Health Foundation's commitment to doing the best work possible with and for our grantee partners. The Health Foundation has a longstanding commitment to learning, and the Grantee Perception Survey results are a critical piece of information in our feedback loop.

You can download the full report here. But for those of you who'd rather just have the highlights, I've made a quick list:

• Data are the little black dresses of the 21st century – invest in a couple of good data points, and you'll be prepared for any occasion.
• Data sharing is the new norm and we need to get all sectors in the game. Government, nonprofit and corporate partnerships around data will drive innovation.
• We've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the power of social networking in health care. Technology offers a new connectedness that can change and save lives, but we need to be willing to rethink some of our assumptions and practices in order to fully benefit from it.
• There really are some cool things happening in Cincinnati. Our region is poised to be a leader in data, technology and health improvement. That should make us very proud.

I want to thank the more than 300 health data enthusiasts, non-profits, entrepreneurs, hospitals, health departments, community planners, researchers, students, and funders who participated in our Data! Fostering Health Innovation in Kentucky and Ohio event last week. We had a rich set of presentations on how health data is being liberated and used in Ohio and Kentucky. We are lucky to be in a region so rich in health data innovation. This innovation was recognized in the opening video message from Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and one of the national leaders of the health data liberation movement, when he said, "The Cincinnati region is one of the shining stars in the health data and innovation sky." To view the video Click here.

He mentioned some great regional examples of health data innovation, including:

The co-hosts of the conference -The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati

Dave Heilman and SparkPeople and his "spectacular work"

Mark Carrozza from HealthLandscape and Andrew Bazemore from The Robert Graham Center for Primary Care for their development of HealthLandscape and their "incredible work, which was also featured at a national HHS conference."

Keith Hepp and HealthBridge and their work on Health IT: "We've been in absolute awe of the work."

Matt Rhodes at The Louisville Health Department: "massive kudos."

As promised, we've posted all 17 of the wonderful presentations online. Click here to access them. Thanks also to the 24 tweeters who helped share some of the most exciting moments with those who were not at the event. To read a transcript of #dataforum tweets, please see the attached file.

And finally, congratulations to HealthLandscape the winner of the People's Choice Innovation Award. Click here to see a photo.

Yesterday Kelly Firesheets and I visited one of our newest School-Based Health Centers located in Manchester School in Adams County. While only in operation a few weeks, it was impressive that they have already enrolled 620 students and school personnel! The staff was busy seeing a steady stream of children. It was wonderful to see the exceptional results of this grant. Superintendent Robert Ralstin attributes this success to their collaborative upfront planning and the things the school has put in place to facilitate the students' enrollment. They anticipate enrolling many additional students. Adams County Regional Medical Center is currently seeking a full time nurse practitioner to add to this center. This site recieved a HRSA grant that will enable them to build a larger center and provide primary care, dental and mental health services.