PND (10/24/2000) -- Horizon Foundation Focuses on Community Health

Maryland's two-year-old Horizon Foundation has become one of the state's wealthiest charities and is helping to remake the status of community health on a nationwide level, the Washington Post reports.

The Horizon Foundation grew out of a deal made by the leaders of nonprofit Howard County General Hospital in 1998 after they realized their organization would need millions of dollars to remain competitive. The hospital merged with Johns Hopkins Medicine, and nearly $40 million of the transaction was earmarked for a new foundation. Later, reserves held in escrow to handle outstanding debt and the hospital's cash were transferred to the foundation, bringing its endowment to $74 million.

The foundation is one of the nearly 134 "health conversion" foundations created in the U.S. between 1973 and 1999. (Federal law requires that assets from the sale of a nonprofit hospital, health plan, or system to a for- profit entity must go to charity.) According to Washington, D.C.-based Grantmakers in Health, health conversion foundations, most less than a decade old, already control assets of more than $15 billion and distribute roughly $664 million annually — a sizable percentage of all philanthropic dollars devoted to health care.

For its part, the Horizon Foundation, while a middleweight among its peers, has already had a significant impact on health care at the county level. This week, it announced a new round of grants totaling $725,000 — most of it to Howard County organizations working on issues of substance abuse and health issues involving adolescents and the elderly — and it expects to award approximately $3 million to $4 million annually. "I don't believe any of us truly understand the impact Horizon will have on our community," commented Howard County General board chair Al Scavo.

DeFord, Susan. "Health Charity Called 'Gift to the Community;' " $70 Million Agency Builds on Foundation of Giving." Washington Post 10/19/2000.

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