Anchor Mission and Pillars

An anchor mission is a commitment to intentionally apply an institution’s place-based economic power in partnership with the community to mutually benefit the long-term well-being of both.

HAN supports health systems in implementing the anchor mission pillars by:

• raising the bar for anchor mission strategies through defining best-in-class commitments and leveraging sector recognition
• accelerating the adoption of anchor strategies internally, in partnership with other anchors, and in authentic collaboration with community
• fostering high-impact industry collaboration to scale impact of the anchor mission approach

HAN provides strategic support, curates deep dive peer conversations and facilitates initiative workgroups for members as they develop, launch, grow, and institutionalize anchor mission strategies at their institutions. 

Anchor Mission Pillars

Employing over 6 million workers, health systems are uniquely positioned as some of the largest employers and leading economic engines in their communities.

By committing to impact workforce strategies that connect individuals from underresourced communities to quality jobs and career pathways, health systems can address critical workforce shortages while building community wealth and economic opportunity. This comprehensive approach includes outside-in pathways that remove barriers to employment, inside-up strategies that support career advancement for existing employees, and systems-level changes that foster fair access to opportunity for un- and under-employed residents—especially for jobs that require less than a bachelor’s degree.

Directing dollars health systems spend everyday to strengthen local economies, build community wealth, and address community conditions that lead to poor health. 

With purchasing power of more than $600 billion, health systems have a unique opportunity to leverage their supply chains to create positive social, economic, and environmentally sustainable impacts in their local communities. By spending with local and high-impact businesses (including employee-owned enterprises), health systems can create a more resilient and responsive supply chain and keep additional dollars circulating within the local economy. Doing so creates a multiplier effect, increasing local economic activity, and thus enabling wealth accumulation in communities. 

Leveraging health systems’ financial assets to bring affordable, flexible capital to historically disinvested communities.

With over $500 billion in long-term reserves, health systems can shift a sliver of their investment portfolio to place-based investments (geographically targeted impact investments). These investments can earn an economic return, fill financing gaps in communities, and begin to tackle deep-rooted economic inequities in areas such as affordable housing, economic opportunity, and access to healthy food. Healthcare Anchor Network’s Place-based Investing (PBI) Commitment signatories have allocated 1% or $50 million (whichever is less) of long-term, unrestricted investment funds towards PBI. 

Note: Place-based Investing is often used interchangeably with “community investment,” geographically targeted “impact investing,” or “local investing.”

Policy advocacy on upstream determinants of health involves recognizing that health system efforts can only go so far, and that substantial improvements in economic equity will only be possible through changes in governmental funding priorities and policies, HAN member systems are utilizing their institutions’ influential standing and government relations resources to positively impact government funding and policy choices on upstream determinants of health. 

Leveraging Anchor Philanthropy involves the strategic acquisition and allocation of philanthropic funds by an anchor institution to enhance the viability and impact of anchor mission strategies, and to strengthen the local economic ecosystem to better address the root causes of poor health. HAN health systems look to effectively leverage flexible, discretionary, and philanthropic resources to support anchor mission initiatives.

Skills-Based Volunteering centers on health systems deploying the talent and passion of their employees and build and enhance the capacity of community-based organizations that have fewer resources at the same time. By more intentionally leveraging the diverse technical and operational skills of staff, health systems can allow those staff to deploy their professional skills in service of partnering more closely with communities to address social and economic conditions that contribute to poor health outcomes for local residents.

Creating Sector-Level Change & Partnering with Community

Collaborating with Community Stakeholders aims for community engagement that is aligned with anchor strategy leads and cross-institutional anchor mission teams to allow for more effective design, implementation, and evaluation of anchor strategies— in collaboration with community stakeholders, and which embodies a commitment to economic opportunity.

Data collection for anchor strategy indicators. The purpose is to build a compelling evidence base for anchor mission strategies. To that end, HAN members have worked together to build the framework for anchor metrics that create an understanding of program-level activities (e.g., local hiring) within health systems. HAN has developed and launched an internal dashboard platform for member systems to track collective and individual progress over time.