Our Expanding Community of Caring

Last week we celebrated our growth as a company, including the expansion of our operations beyond Austin, TX to Madison, WI and Denver, CO. This week, we’re taking a closer look at the growth of our network – community organizations, customers, and partners. Learn how these distinct groups come together via the findhelp platform to form a nationwide community of caring, to serve people in need.

By The Numbers

Users

The number of annual users (seekers, navigators, and community organization staff) on findhelp platforms has grown 18,000% since 2015, from approximately 70,500 users in 2015 to more than 13 million annual users in 2022. This is the first and often the most difficult step for people experiencing hardship; admitting that they need help and seeking community resources.

Distinct annual users on findhelp since 2015.

 

Searches

The next step on the social care journey is to find relevant programs that may be able to help; over the past 8 years, the number of annual searches on findhelp platforms has grown 9,075%. During this same time period, the overall top three search categories were:

• Housing (31%)
• Food (19%)
• Health (15%)

Within these categories, the most common search terms were:

• Food pantry
• Help pay for housing
• Help pay for utilities

Heat map showing the concentration of searches on findhelp platforms from 2015 through 2022.

 

Referrals

The largest growth we’ve witnessed, by far, is for referrals – both self-referrals and referrals made by navigators on behalf of seekers. From 2015 to 2022, the count of annual referrals made increased by 786,613%. While we wish that no one was in the position of needing help, we’re heartened by the growing involvement of schools, hospitals, health plans, local government, and others to track outcomes and ensure that seekers are actually receiving the services they need. 

Some of our country’s brightest minds are focused on improving the social safety net in increasingly strategic and innovative ways, and we’re proud to be part of it.

Referral growth on findhelp since 2015.

 

Our Growing Customer Network

Many of these bright minds work for our customers, spanning every industry and serving folks in every state and U.S. territory. While our public search site, findhelp.org, is and will always be available for free to anybody in the United States, we offer a premium version of our product that is used by organizations that employ large groups of care coordinators and social workers. 

Our customer base includes 13 Fortune 500 companies, including UnitedHealth Group, McKesson, Cigna, Elevance Health (Anthem), Centene, Humana, HCA Healthcare, Tyson Foods, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Molina, and Eli Lilly. Our 166  health plan customers insure more than 200 million Americans in all 50 states, and our 204 hospital system, health center, and medical group customers serve patients nationwide. This expansive and diverse customer network continues to grow by 30 to 50 organizations every single quarter.

Join our network to start connecting your patients, students, members, and clients to social care services – request a free demo with a findhelp team member.

 

By Industry

This timeline shows when the first entity representing the designated industry signed on to the findhelp network.

Timeline of our first customers per industry.

 

By Geography

This map shows the geographic growth of our customer network and highlights the states (all 50!) where our customers are actively supporting patients, students, clients, and seekers via their branded findhelp platforms. 

A map showing the coverage of our existing customers (as of August 1, 2023).

 

Our Expanding CBO Network 

None of this would be possible without the backbone of the social care system, the community-based organizations (CBOs) and nonprofits who provide services directly to seekers. Any organization listed on our site can create an account and ‘claim’ their program to manage its information, respond to incoming referrals, add eligibility screeners, and more. 

From 2015 to 2022, the count of annual programs that were claimed on the findhelp network increased by 1,768%. Our suite of tools for CBOs is (and will continue to be) completely free, with a focus on interoperability so that just like our customers, our nonprofit partners can choose their preferred system of record and connect it directly to the findhelp platform.

Cumulative count of claimed programs from 2015 to 2022.

 

The chart above shows the distinct count of programs claimed, representing more than 108,000 program locations across the United States. When an organization claims their listing on our platform that means that they accept our terms and have access to a suite of free tools to update their program listings, receive electronic referrals, respond to referrals, and conduct case management with their team. 

All types of community organizations participate in our network, from neighborhood food pantries that are open one day a week to national disaster relief organizations like the Red Cross. The vast majority of these claimed programs are at the local level – neighbors helping neighbors. Here is the breakdown of claimed community partners by geographic coverage:

• Local: 94%
• Statewide: 5%
• Nationwide: 1%

Join our network today to start connecting with people who need your services – claim your organization’s programs!

 

Investing in Our CBO Partners

To more fully engage with these CBO partners, we launched a certification program in early 2022 to recognize community navigators for their achievements within the findhelp platform. Eligible community organization staff complete a findhelp-led training and pass a quiz to earn certification; their programs are designated with a checkmark icon and receive a small boost in search results. Certified navigators also have the option to add an official findhelp badge to their LinkedIn profile or website. Over the past year and a half, over 1,200 navigators have been certified (and the number keeps growing!).

Growth in findhelp-certified navigators from March 2022 through July 2023.

 

Beyond the Facts & Figures

While compelling, we understand that numbers, facts, and figures don’t tell the whole story of the complex and life-changing work happening in social care today. That’s why in 2019 we launched findhelp films, our storytelling team who travel around the country, meeting with nonprofits and CBOs to amplify the great achievements of the folks on the frontlines of our community of caring.

These short documentary films highlight both the folks experiencing a need and the community leaders providing a solution, whether it’s the struggles of families whose children have severe food allergies, barriers to getting a higher education, or challenges faced by recent immigrants and refugees to the United States. Findhelp films focus on stories with the following themes:

• Kindness
• Radical acceptance
• Informed by lived experience
• Creative problem solving
• Grit
• Humility

Watch a preview of some of these beautiful films (make sure you have tissues handy).

 

Better Together

Like many things in life, social care takes a village. Family helping each other, neighbors helping neighbors, staff helping clients, friends helping friends, even strangers helping strangers. When everyone comes together to lift up their communities, we all win.