Leveraging Nonprofit Hospital Community Benefits

Nonprofit hospitals can be powerful allies in helping to create healthier communities. Not only do these hospitals play an important role in treating disease, they also help communities prevent chronic disease through their community benefits investments.

What are hospital community benefits? In order to qualify for nonprofit status and be exempt from paying federal taxes, a hospital must demonstrate that they are providing a benefit to the community either through charitable care or through other services and activities. For example, hospitals can promote access to healthy foods by hosting farmers’ markets and community gardens, or support improvements to the built environment by assisting with the development of trails or bike share programs.

ChangeLab Solutions developed this fact sheet to provide information about what hospital community benefits are and how healthy eating and active living advocates can partner with nonprofit hospitals to create healthier communities.