Hershey|Cause

The Institute of Medicine/The California Endowment

Since it was established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine has been the nation’s leading authority on matters of biomedical science, medicine and health. The California Endowment is the state’s largest health foundation and the nation’s fifth largest private foundation.

Hershey|Cause distilled a little-used 750-page report from the Institute of Medicine into a user-friendly 24-page tool that was then used to create an awareness campaign, in partnership with the California Endowment, demonstrating how people of color have poorer health and higher death rates than their white counterparts. Our efforts on this complex initiative also included collaboration building, positioning and implementing a comprehensive public relations effort.

Hershey|Cause designed and distributed the resulting “Unequal Treatment, Unequal Health” package to advocacy groups, key public figures and California media. Its release coincided with statewide California ballot initiative Proposition 54, which, if passed, would have prohibited the data collection that led to the Institute of Medicine’s findings. Due to increased public awareness about the importance of such research, Proposition 54 was overwhelmingly defeated, with 64 percent of all voters casting ballots against the measure and only 32 percent of voters supporting the measure.

Issue advocacy
Materials design and development
Positioning, frames and messaging
Public relations
Research and analysis

Hershey|Cause: One umbrella identity. Three decades of experience. Whether for corporate clients or nonprofit organizations, we’ve always shared the same mission — using ‘Communications for Good.’ Hershey Associates and Cause Communications exist separately for legal and business purposes.