COACHELLA VALLEY VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE
Coachella Valley's only no-charge healthcare clinic.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine provides a local solution to a national problem: We offer medical services at no cost to low-income adults residing in the Coachella Valley who are uninsured or underinsured. We believe that everyone has a right to healthcare. As a community safety net, our clinic treats the whole person by addressing chronic diseases and conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis and hypertension. In addition to direct patient care, we provide homeless medical outreach services, health education and wellness programs, case management services, and community referrals.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Primary Medical Care; Homeless Medical Outreach; Disease Education and Wellness
All services are provided by CA Licensed professionals at no charge to eligible patients.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Volunteers in Medicine America 2020
National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics 2021
California Association of Free and Charitable Clinics 2021
National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics 2022
California Association of Free & Charitable Clinics 2022
Street Medicine Insititute 2023
External reviews

Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of volunteer health care providers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, People with diseases and illnesses, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants
Related Program
Primary Medical Care; Homeless Medical Outreach; Disease Education and Wellness
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
2022 - 10,286 volunteer hours contributed 2021 - 9,075 volunteer hours contributed 2020 - 8,091 volunteer hours contributed 2019 - 9,083 volunteer hours contributed
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
CVVIM aims to provide accessible and affordable healthcare services to adult residents of the Coachella Valley who are uninsured and have incomes at no more than 200% of Federal Poverty Guidelines. Patients are never charged for the care they receive at our clinic or through our homeless medical outreach, including referrals for laboratory testing, x-rays or imaging services.
Through these services, we know we are contributing to the health of the community and respecting everyone's right to affordable healthcare!
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our Strategic Plan (2020 - 2022) identifies four goals our Board of Directors directs staff and key volunteers to work towards:
1) Provide quality, professional healthcare services to qualified persons in a culturally competent manner;
2) Promote CVVIM programs and services in the community;
3) Ensure a revenue stream to meet current and future needs; and,
4) Ensure paid and volunteer staffing needs are adequate to meet current and planned program needs.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
CVVIM has built and maintains a strong foundation of more than 250 volunteers who are involved in all aspects of the organization, from the Board of Directors to patient care and front line volunteers. We work closely with numerous educational institutions to offer internships and supplement our traditional volunteers corps because we believe that community health requires all components of the community. These opportunities include high school students who plan to pursue a career in healthcare as well as medical residents from a local hospital graduate medicine residency program and local universities and colleges.
We maintain board-designated funds solely to support the organization for a period of no less than six months in the event of a downturn in the economy that could affect individual and community support. Additional reserve funding for facility repair and maintenance is now being set aside from unrestricted support to ensure our physical facility, leased for $1 per year, is kept in optimal condition to support a safe environment for patients, the community, volunteers and staff.
Numerous activities are undertaken to support our current donor base, whether individuals, community organizations or granting foundations, and to continually grow and develop it for the continued operations of the organization. Whenever possible, discounted services or in-kind donations are sought after to encourage community support and reduce our cash needs. As such, in addition to $1 annual lease payments, several local businesses support our mission by donating landscaping services, trash removal and IT support. A local managed care organization provides free x-rays and radiology reports, and we have discounted pricing for laboratory testing and imaging services.
We involve ourselves in the community through marketing and outreach services, participation in local advisory groups, and individual volunteer involvement by staff in projects and organizations that also benefit the community through their missions. All of these activities, and others, ensure we are connected to the community and aware of trends and issues affecting the community, particularly relating to community health.
Lastly, paid staffing is kept to a minimum, ensuring donated and grant dollars go to patient care, however we believe in providing a fair living wage and work to reduce costly turnover by ensuring staff are compensated fairly and have access to ongoing educational and training opportunities, employer-paid healthcare options and a retirement savings match.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
More than 35,000 face-to-face medical and dental visits have been provided since 2010. Annually, an average of 3,000 medical and dental visits are provided to 1,000 distinct patients, and additional contacts of more than 1,500 are provided for health education, homeless medical outreach, case management, health navigator services, and social service/community referrals.
An average of 230 volunteers each year give in excess of 12,000 hours to support our mission. These volunteers included physicians, dentists and other healthcare professionals, nurses, medical and dental assistants, medical translators, social workers, reception and clerical support volunteers. Each year, the value of these hours is greater than $350,000 (using Dept of Labor information for our service delivery area).
CVVIM will continue to provide no-charge medical and dental care services, including no-charge referrals for all laboratory testing, x-rays and imaging services, necessary for a patient's diagnosis and treatment. Services will always be provided in a professional environment by qualified professionals, and in culturally competent ways, to any qualified resident of the Coachella Valley.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
Adults who are residents of the Coachella Valley, have no health insurance and are at no more than 200% of Federal Poverty Guidelines
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
Outreach to indigenous populations not reached through bilingual services.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
COACHELLA VALLEY VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE
Board of directorsas of 01/19/2023
Ms Charlene Montgomery
Ronald Hare
Founder, Retired MD and Businessperson
Ross Hollenkamp
Attorney
Sandy Powell
Retired Businessperson
Chauncey Thompson
Firm Director, Barton CPA & Associates
Lori Boucher
Regional Manager, Bank of Southern California
Linda Evans
Chief Strategy Officer, Desert Care Network and Mayor, City of La Quinta
Stewart Fleishman
Physician
Linda Hodsdon
Retired Educator and Businessperson
Barbara Limardo
Finance Officer, Desert Orthopedics
Charlene Montgomery
Retired HR Director and RN
Esfandiar Nasr
Physician and Assistant Area Director, Kaiser Permanente
Naomi Soto-Steidle
Health Policy Professional
Pat Riley
PR & Marketing Consultant
Kuldanek Greg
Physician
Dave Gandolfo
Business Owner
Gregory Kuldanek
Physician
Stephan Skoggins
PHD, MPH, RN
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? No -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/03/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.