A Catholic healthcare ministry serving Ohio and Kentucky

SPONSORSHIP GUIDELINES Mercy is mindful of our stewardship responsibilities, to faithfully use the assets we are privileged to hold for the benefit of our patients and the communities we serve, particularly people who are poor and under-served. Our goal is to advance our top strategic priorities, as well as those with a shared sponsor history or Mission connectivity. Sponsorships are one-time contributions to support an activity that is statewide or regional in scope. They generally benefit causes that are not the beneficiary of United Way operating grants. To be eligible, organizations must have legal status as a not-for-profit organization. Priority Areas Sponsorship requestors must have established partnerships with Mercy Health and must align their request with Mercy’s mission and core values.

• Align with Mercy Health’s Mission and Core Values o Mercy Health Partners extends the healing ministry of Jesus by improving the

health of our communities with emphasis on people who are poor and under-served.

o Mercy Health Partners core values of compassion, excellence, human dignity, justice, sacredness of life and service.

Requests must fall under one of Mercy Health Foundation Impact Pillars or Mercy Health strategic priorities and regional efforts to eradicate underlying inhibitor childhood poverty.

• Align with Mercy Health Foundation’s identified Impact Pillars that support system community health priorities

o Improving Access to Care. Throughout the communities we serve, we identify and fund specific, innovative programs that ensure the availability of high quality, compassionate care for the poor and the under-served. Beyond our dedication to quality, compassionate healthcare, we are dedicated to closing the gaps in health outcomes caused by inadequate access to the basics of a healthy life, including food, housing and education.

o Advancing Clinical Care. Mercy Health serves Kentucky & Ohio with 23 award-winning hospitals, leading physicians, advanced technology, and experienced and compassionate caregivers. If our patients are to benefit from advanced clinical care, we must continuously increase our investment in our infrastructure to drive innovation in employee education, equipment, and research to keep our people, technology and facilities on the leading edge.

o Building Healthier Communities. Rooted deeply in the communities we serve, we identify and fund opportunities to make lives better by keeping our patients healthy. We lead, convene and collaborate to improve health outcomes and lower healthcare costs for individuals and communities.

• Align with the Cincinnati region’s efforts to eradicate underlying inhibitor childhood poverty. Poverty is only one of many environmental factors that degrades the health of people and communities, particularly those who deal with the constant pain and anguish of being unable to meet basic physical and emotional needs.

Ineligible Requests We regret that we are unable to support the following types of activities because they do not meet the criteria we've set for our sponsorship program.

• Multiple requests from one organization, or related organizations, in any one year • Local community or school sports organizations • Requests that benefit an individual person or family • National or international organizations/events that do not benefit the regional or

statewide community • Travel expenses • School-affiliated orchestras, bands, choirs, drama groups, yearbooks, class parties, or

class or team projects, etc. • General operating expenses or endowment campaigns • Political candidates or organizations • Agency- or school-sponsored walkathons, athletic events, or athletic group

sponsorships, etc. • For-profit organizations • Debt reduction • Requests for ongoing programmatic or operating investments

Evaluation of Requests Sponsorship awards are for one-time events and will be evaluated against four criteria. These criteria have been developed to ensure that Mercy Health is best utilizing the dollars to further our system as a whole, our Mission, targeted area points of care, the sponsored organization and the communities they all serve. The four criteria are:

• Strategic, targeted and measurable goals that tie to key outcomes in the priority area with which the request is aligned.

• Opportunity to create long-term value and awareness including leveraging volunteer opportunities or generating future impact for the community/individuals served.

• Ability to broaden and deepen relationships with organizations that share our values and commitment to improving community health, through underwriting events that increase reach and exposure for the Mercy Health message.

• Strengthening organizations that have a shared history with Mercy Health and our founding organizations.

Deadline The deadline is the last Friday of each odd numbered month (January, March, May, July, September, November). Requests will only be accepted through the online application process located at www.mercy.com/sponsorship