BCH Foundation’s Besser eyes ‘ambitious’ goals

BOULDER — As incoming president of the Boulder Community Health Foundation, Grant Besser is focused on fueling the momentum for the fund-raising arm of Boulder Community Health.

The foundation seeks to enhance the quality and availability of health-care services in Boulder and Broomfield counties.  The means of doing that include providing health-related public education, as well as generating and administering charitable gifts to the local not-for-profit, community-owned hospital and health system, Boulder Community Health.

“Grant is a visionary,” said Dee Perry, a member of the Boulder Community Health board of directors who served as the foundation’s interim president.  “A lot of people had more-traditional fund-raising backgrounds, but we’re realizing that in today’s philanthropic market, it’s necessary to be able to identify multiple ways to raise money, rather than sticking to just the typical kinds of campaigns.”

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Besser’s background includes working as chief marketing officer with Teach for America, marketing director with Yahoo! and vice president of international marketing with Warner Bros.

He sees the new position as a good blend of his skills from the social-impact sector and the corporate arena.  “What’s in common with all of these is that they’re based on relationship building with both organizations and individuals,” he said.

The Boulder Community Health Foundation has been building those relationships since 1978, and over the past three years, its grants to hospital departments and health-care services have exceeded $2.5 million annually.

Those funds support a variety of programs, including diabetes education for people who can’t afford access to the service, pediatric rehabilitation services and scholarships, state-of-the-art medical technology and filling in the gaps of unmet community health-care need.

Grants focus on areas such as patient care, unmet needs and technology.  Recent awards include medical co-payment and medications for the uninsured, a breast-cancer support group and treatment fund, HIV counseling for patients at the Beacon Clinic, and a portable X-ray machine for cancer-care services and intensive-care-unit patients.

With just more than a month under his belt, Besser describes his first priority as focusing on where the foundation needs to further invest in current funds and endowments.

“There’s a strong history of supporters within this community, and I’m working to continue building relationships with them and asking where the opportunities are for broader community programs, events and patient funds,” he said.  “That can mean grants given within the system, scholarships or capital investments for equipment.”

Determining funding goals for 2017 is in the works.  “It’s fair to say that they’ll be ambitious,” he added.

Perry credits the foundation with keeping Boulder Community Health in an esteemed category.  “For one thing, it’s helped the hospital be able to hire top-notch physicians and providers so people don’t have to go to Denver for high-quality service,” she said.

As a community-owned organization, BCH has responded to what the community wants by going beyond offering traditional health care.  “The foundation has been part of bringing in more alternative procedures, called integrative care, that are alternative strategies to medication,” she said.  “Stephen Tebo originally insisted that integrative care be part of the cancer treatment.”

Tebo donated to and raised money for the Tebo Family Medical Building, a state-of-the-art cancer treatment center located at Boulder Community Health’s Foothills Hospital. The 42,000-square-foot complex blends high-tech cancer-fighting equipment, medical expertise and advanced research to treat cancer patients. 

The Center for Integrative Care provides specialized treatment for cancer patients, cancer survivors, their family members and caregivers.  Those services include massage therapy, acupuncture, meditation, Healing Touch, Reiki, nutritional consultation and music therapy.

“We’ve funded training with providers — it all helps with recovery,” Perry explained.  “Staff also has a lot of stress, and when they practice these things, they can help keep others calm.”

Funding unmet health-care needs is on the rise as a result of Colorado having more patients on Medicaid, which often isn’t enough to cover treatments, Perry said.  Providing money to help make up some of the difference is one of the gaps the foundation fills.

“We have three cancer funds that go to breast-cancer treatment, the acute cancer-care center, and the Red Lipstick Fund,” she explained. 

Through the Red Lipstick Fund, the foundation writes checks directly to patients who are receiving treatment at the Tebo Cancer Center to help with transportation to and from treatment, day care, medication, shelter and food.

Boulder Community Health is one of only two independent health systems along the Front Range.  Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo is the other.

“A community receives many advantages from having a nonprofit independent health system,” said Richard Sheehan, BCH director of marketing and public relations.  “The goal of a nonprofit organization is to fulfill its mission, not to generate dividends for shareholders.”

Perry pointed out that BCH behavioral health care is one of those services that doesn’t add much to the bottom line.  “We have to respond to what the community needs,” she said.

“Being independent means our board of directors, composed of local citizens, set the priorities for BCH and keep us focused on developing innovative ways to address the specific health challenges of local citizens,” Sheehan said.  “In a regional or national health system, hospitals from different communities compete with each other for resources. All of BCH’s resources go toward meeting the needs of people living in Boulder and Broomfield counties.”

Profits are reinvested in the local health-care system by adding new equipment, new services and new facilities.

The foundation aims to raise at least $2 million annually to support BCH’s efforts, and if there’s a capital campaign needed for buildings or other high-ticket items, the foundation has raised as much as $4 million, Perry said.