Community Health Charities of America

Community Health Charities of America (CHCA) is non profit organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. CHCA works to improve the lives of people affected by a disability or chronic disease by uniting caring donors in the workplace with credible national and community based health charities. Since 1957, CHCA has partnered with its member health charities in the workplace to provide a cost-effective partnership that enhances the ability to deliver more of every donated dollar through the workplace towards the missions of its member health charities. The organization operates through a nationwide network of 36 state-based affiliates. Community Health Charities connects the American workplace to more than 1,200 local and national health charities.^[1]

Mission

The mission of CHCA is to unite the workplace with the nation's most trusted health charities. Working with its member health organization, CHCA's vision is to improve the lives of all people affected by a disability or chronic disease.

History

In the early 1940s, the federal government began to set up tables where federal employees received their paychecks. The government did this to make it simple for federal employees to make donations to local charities that were important to them.

In 1957, twelve national health charities banded together to create the National Voluntary Health Agencies (NVHA), creating what is known as a federation.^[2] Federation are groups of nonprofits united for fundraising and/or marketing purposes around a common area of societal focus or concern such as human and social welfare, the environment, medical research, or international relief.^[3] CHC is one of 34 federations that work with the federal government's Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). Community Health Charities of America is the largest federation dedicated exclusivley to health.

In the private sector in 1983, the idea of a federation also became appealing to corporations who wanted to make it easy for their employees to give to local charities. The administrative and clerical cost associated with setting up, managing and maintaining relationships with dozens of charities to implement such a campaign could create a significant burden to the corporation. Nonprofits often join federations to help ease donor confusion, promote access, and make and save money.^[3] Similar to the public sector, 13 national health charities banded together to form the Combined Health Appeal of America (CHAA) to provide support and services to private sector corporations to conduct workplace giving.

In 1998, NVHA & CHAA merged, making Community Health Charities^[4] the largest workplace giving collaborative with a sole focus on health issues. From 2002 to 2007, Community Health Charities has distributed more than $330 million to its member charities^[2].

References

1. ^ http://www.healthcharities.org/chc.asp?sid=2
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.healthcharities.org/chc.asp?bid=145
3. ^ ^{a b} http://www.asaecenter.org/PublicationsResources/articledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=35827
4. ^ http://www.healthcharitiesmass.org/About_Community_Health_Charities_of_New_England.php