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At the Board meeting on March 19, 2007, the Trustees took the first step in shaping the future of the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation. It turned out that the most important place to begin was to look at our history.

In 1956, Julius A. Rippel, the first President and nephew of the Founder, J.S. Rippel, described foundation money as "a precious and limited and very special national asset." He advocated the important role of foundations as "pioneers" who must "have the courage to take initiative" in response to "changes in modern life." Over his 30 years as President, he came to understand the limited capacity of our health care system to take care of those who are sick and the overwhelming importance of prevention and maintaining well-being. His insights led him to become an early advocate of system change, stressing the importance of leadership, medical education and new or alternative approaches to care. Perhaps most significant was Julius A. charged that "we must have substantially new manners of thinking to enable mankind to bridge the gap between the things that have been and the things which will be."

In adopting our new motto, "Seeding Innovations in Health" the Trustees embraced the Foundation’s history while recognizing the need to take the risks that can lead to changes in the future. Acknowledging that our limited resources are not sufficient to have significant and meaningful impact on fixing a system that is broken or to make breakthrough advances in science, the Foundation has sought to identify how it might be a catalyst for designing, shaping and rebuilding a system that can work in a rapidly changing and increasingly integrated, global and technological world.

The Trustees of the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation are committed to identifying and seeding true innovations that can lead to lasting improvements in people’s health and the health care system.