Ensuring the long-term financial and organizational sustainability of the public health legal infrastructure

The Foundation's program, Public Health Law Research: Making the Case for Laws That Improve Health, was designed to build the evidence for public health law and policy, translate research findings into practical tools to increase the support for and use of law by policy makers and public health practitioners, and to translate findings to other fields and venues to improve and protect health.Under this program contract, the Bridgespan Group will work with the newly created public health law network, and especially its national coordinating center (NCC), to develop a sustainable financial and organizational model for the NCC and the network. The goal of this funding is to secure the maximum social impact from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) investment and make sure that the benefits of the use of legal tools to advance public health last far beyond the end of RWJF financial support. Deliverables will include a comprehensive business and sustainability plan for the national coordinating center. This plan, which will be due during the first six months of the project, will identify financial and organizational indicators that will be tracked through a program evaluation that is scheduled to begin in tandem with the launch of the network. Other deliverables will include: (1) identifying feasible organizational structures for the Network and NCC; (2) creating sustainable funding model(s), a decision-making and governance structure, staffing models, and a network scale-up strategy, including a road map and toolkit for adding new partners and engaging new organizations as regional or topical centers; and (3) developing a detailed knowledge strategy to capture and communicate lessons, including those related to coordinating delivery of technical assistance and creating a network with the maximum effectiveness. Following the deliverables' time line, Bridgespan will continue quarterly check-ins and annual meetings with RWJF and NCC.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $390,000.00

Awarded on: 9/1/2010

Time frame: 9/1/2010 - 12/31/2013

Grant Number: 68095