How Fully Funded Health Departments Can Lead with CHNA, CHIP & Strategic Plans

Introduction: Don't Just Comply—Lead

If you're one of the health departments that still has a secure budget, forward-thinking leadership, and public support—you have an edge.

This isn’t the time to play small. It’s the time to lead.

In this blog, we’ll show how fully funded health departments can:

• Elevate their CHNA and CHIP processes

• Use strategic planning to unify and future-proof operations

• Leverage ROI modeling to secure policy wins and funding growth

This is about more than compliance—this is about transformation.

1. Funding Is a Gift—Use It Wisely

As NACCHO and KFF highlight, not every health department has access to sustained funding. If yours does, you’re in the top tier—and you can use that position to:

• Implement full-scale CHNA + CHIP cycles

• Lead regional initiatives

• Attract and retain top talent

• Engage boards, funders, and community leaders with data.

2. Build an Integrated Health Planning Framework

AHP’s gold-standard model connects:

• CHNA – Full MAPP 2.0-aligned assessment, including CPA, CSA, and CCA

• CHIP – Community Health Improvement Plan with performance measures and action teams

• Strategic Plan – A long-term vision aligned with accreditation and cross-sector engagement

Each plan becomes stronger when built in sequence.

3. ROI is the New Language of Public Health

Your data isn’t just for tracking—it’s for justifying.

With Ascendant’s Cost to the Community Analysis™, we quantify the annual financial burden of leading health issues. That includes:

• Preventable ER visits

• Lost productivity from unmanaged chronic illness

• Costs of untreated mental health conditions

• Overutilization of services from lack of prevention

RWJF ROI Framework

This level of analysis lets you speak in the language of legislators, finance directors, and executives—turning insight into investment.

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