HEALTH FOUNDATION INC
Contributing to a healthier community since 1991.
Learn how to support this organization
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Wilkes County is a sprawling, geographically diverse community spread out over 750+ square miles. We're located about an hour's drive by highway away from any major cities. Wilkes is a Tier-1 economically disadvantaged community, and 1 in 3 children live below the poverty line. Our goal is to make it possible for every child and adult in Wilkes County to be safe, healthy, and able to thrive.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
West Park Medical Campus
In 1995 we purchased a declining strip shopping center conveniently located 1/4 mile from Wilkes Regional Medical Center and have converted it into a centralized destination for medical care. Physician recruitment efforts to our rural community are enhanced by the availability of attractive offices. We structure our rents so that non-profits programs and services pay heavily discounted rates, allowing programs such as the Wilkes Public Health Dental Clinic and The Ruby Pardue Blackburn Adult Day Health Care Center to serve more clientele. We are currently working to develop our central green space in the park to create an environment of active living.
Scholarships
The Health Foundation offers scholarships to students entering health care professions who profess a demonstrable interest in working in Western North Carolina. Since its inception in 1998, the scholarship program has provided more than $600,000 to students with a passion for working in health care. Many of our students are "non-traditional," adults with established families who are seeking a new career by following their dreams. The vast majority of these students attend and graduate from our local community college, and remain in Wilkes to strengthen and build our medical community.
Fundraising
The Health Foundation raises money for health care initiatives in the community, absorbing the expenses and returning at least 100% to the program, service or project.
Grant-Making and Capacity Building
The Health Foundation provides both financial support and structural support to organizations seeking the best practices in fundraising, reviews of business plans, and internal control issues. We also help write competitive grant proposals for organizations who do not have internal capacity to do so.
Healthy Eating Active Living
The Health Foundation received seven years of funding from The Duke Endowment to make sure every child in Wilkes County grows up safe, healthy, and able to thrive. We folded a variety of evidence-based interventions into this initiative, include school-based physical activity programs, adverse childhood experiences resiliency training, and workplace wellness.
Community Opioid Prevention and Education
The Community Opioid Prevention and Education Team was formed in 2018 in response to the alarming effects the opioid crisis was having on Wilkes County. The group received funding and technical assistance from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government for its first two years of existence to enact an integrated and innovative policy and practice response to our local crisis. Members of the COPE Team represent our Health Department, hospital, law enforcement, recovery community, mental health professionals, and more. COPE now has a Crisis Intervention Team grant from the Governor's Crime Commission to improve the outcomes of crisis calls.
Outdoor Economy Intiative
Building an outdoor recreation economy in Wilkes has tremendous potential to improve the overall health of its population, which is tied to its economic vitality. With a total area of 757 square miles of land and three square miles of water, Wilkes County's scenic natural beauty and amenities lend themselves perfectly to outdoor recreation. Amenities that support hiking, biking, walking, running, wheeling, swimming, fishing, and more also support active, healthy lifestyles for its residents. Connecting those amenities and lowering or eliminating barriers to their enjoyment are key strategies to promote healthy lifestyles. The Outdoor Economy Initiative represents county and municipal government, the Health Department, Economic Development Corporation, tourism, and more. The 15-year Outdoor Action Plan has been adopted by the County of Wilkes and the Towns of Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro, and all partners are committed to seeing it realized.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Association of Fundraising Professionals - Member 1995
Association of Healthcare Philanthropy 1995
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of coalition meetings held and attendance
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Adults
Related Program
Grant-Making and Capacity Building
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The Steering Committee meets frequently to evaluate potential evidence-based interventions. This number also includes our quarterly board meetings, COPE task force and Outdoor Economy workgroup.
Number of organizational partners
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
People with diseases and illnesses, Substance abusers
Related Program
Healthy Eating Active Living
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Coalitions include our school system, health department, Partnership for Children, medical professionals, community leaders, law enforcement, mental health, developers, professionals, and more.
Total dollar amount of grants awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Grant-Making and Capacity Building
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We make grants to build health care infrastructure and improve the health of the residents of Wilkes. Also includes our scholarship awards to health care students.
Total number of grants awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Grant-Making and Capacity Building
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We offer open grants as well as matching grants and "mini grants," and we have a robust scholarship program.
Number of donations made by board members
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
100% of The Health Foundation's Board of Directors contribute to the financial sustainability of the organization, in addition to their board service.
Number of overall donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Fundraising
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of Facebook followers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Fundraising
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
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?
Our goal is to improve the health and well-being of the people who live in Wilkes County, North Carolina. Our organization is committed to community engagement, health equity, and addressing social determinants of health using a systems approach.
We understand that, as a small, place-based non-profit organization, we can achieve great impact by utilizing a multi-pronged approach to solving our community's challenges. For starters, by focusing on Wilkes County, we are able to target our support to make every dollar count.
A fundamental strategy involves the financial support we provide. Grant-making is a primary strategy that allows us to invest in the community's most promising programs and services. We also provide below-market rents to non-profit service providers at our centrally located medical park. By keeping rents low in a premium location, we ensure that people seeking medical care, regardless of their ability to pay, has access to care.
But money is only one of the many ways in which we make a difference. Over the years, we've adopted a number of creative strategies so that even our relatively small organization can make a big difference.
We choose to be a catalyst for change by joining with others who share our vision. We collaborate with other groups in the community who share our goals, helping them fund raise, fine-tune their business models, and increase their capacity to render services. Donors to The Health Foundation thus help us leverage gifts from others, including larger institutions who otherwise might not consider a grant to our rural community.
We convene different groups around common causes, recognizing that difficult problems require complex solutions. In this way, we can not only identify problems, but begin to come together around ideas and strategies that can capitalize on our community's unique strengths.
We look for new, innovative solutions, but we also recognize the great need to support programs and services that have proven successful over time and who need resources to meet the challenges of serving more people with less. That is why we continue to invest in the operational support of key health and human service providers here.
Some of our current goals include:
1. Ensure each Wilkes County child grows up safe, healthy, and able to thrive.
2. Improve the health of children living in poverty.
3. Reduce stigma for people with substance use disorder and make Wilkes County a recovery-centered community. Identify and eliminate gaps in the judiciary, recovery, and mental health systems.
4. Improve access to outdoor amenities to support healthy lifestyles and build on existing assets to create an outdoor economy through a county-wide asset map. The 15-year Outdoor Action Plan has been formally adopted by the County of Wilkes and the Towns of Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The Health Foundation's long-term strategy is to continue to grow a base of support from individuals and businesses so that we can invest those charitable assets in the most promising health care programs here.
We seek to:
1. Raise awareness of the most pressing health care issues facing our community through a community needs assessment conducted in concert with the Wilkes County Health Department and the Wilkes Medical Center.
2. Participate in ongoing, community-wide asset-mapping in collaboration so that we can understand not only our problems, but the many strengths on which we can build strategies for solving them.
3. Serve as a catalyst for bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders so that we can collectively address the most pressing issues facing our community.
4. Serve not just as a financial resource, but as a trusted adviser where organizations can learn best practices in non-profit governance, understand non-profit finance, and build both internal and external capacity.
5. Certified Program Manager Kirstin Roberts as a Crisis Intervention Team professional. She convenes the CIT group working to address gaps in our legal systems that people struggling with substance use disorder fall through.
6. Address food insecurity in Wilkes. Current strategy includes the production of a Food Asset Map identifying pantries, blessing boxes, farmer's markets, and more in Wilkes, along with an online version.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Health Foundation has convened the Healthy Wilkes Action Team (HWAT), representing the hospital, public health, school system, pre-school programming, and philanthropy demonstrate a continued willingness to mobilize resources by engaging donors, identifying volunteers, and providing in-kind as well as financial support. Multi-year funding from The Duke Endowment in support of this coalition's work has ended, but the work continues.
Wake Forest Baptist Health - Wilkes Medical Center has a robust commitment to the management of chronic disease and access to care. They provide access to care for the underserved, including the provision of lab services, x-rays, surgery, and prescription drugs for the treatment of chronic disease. They wish to enhance social support interventions in community settings to change physical activity levels.
The Wilkes County Health Department serves as a safety net for the uninsured and Medicaid population for primary and preventative care and has been granted two CDC Public Health Associates to implement action plans for prevention of chronic disease and injury prevention. They are also a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and are our county's main source of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Wilkes Community Partnership for Children (Smart Start) is implementing programs to ensure children enter school healthy, such as SPARK and SHAPE NC.
The Wilkes County Schools are a trusted partner in the process of improving the lives of children and their families in Wilkes. School social workers administer the Shelton Helping Hands Fund, which provides emergency support to students in need where no other funding is available.
The Health Foundation is a seasoned fundraising entity and serves as the backbone at the request of the coalition. By utilizing technical assistance, the Foundation will be better able to make a case for support, including economic impact, to philanthropic investors.
In addition to the Healthy Wilkes Action Team, the Foundation serves as the neutral convener for multiple collaboratives in Wilkes County, including the Community Opioid Prevention and Education (COPE) Team and the Outdoor Economy Initiative. COPE aims to reduce stigma and increase services for those dealing with substance use disorder. As an outgrowth of COPE, the Foundation applied for and received a grant from the Governor's Crime Commission to pair law enforcement with mental health professionals and Peer Support Specialists to improve outcomes on mental health and substance use crisis calls.
The Outdoor Economy workgroup engaged Destination by Design to create a county-wide asset map of existing recreational facilities and opportunities for growth, with the aim of improving access to these facilities for everyone in Wilkes County and attracting tourism to our community.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The Healthy Wilkes Action Team, the collective impact initiative for which The Health Foundation serves as the backbone entity, implemented a variety of Evidence-Based Interventions during its seven years of funding through The Duke Endowment. Although the grant has now successfully ended, with Foundation staff serving as mentors to the new cohort, the work of HWAT continues, focused on healthy eating, active living, and chronic disease management. The Foundation continues to provide scholarships to students in allied health care fields, promoting the future of our medical community.
A Kate B. Reynolds “Joint Use-Community Use of School Grounds" grant was secured by team members to upgrade the playground areas of all thirteen elementary schools. The schools developed “community parks" that may be used by the students during the school day and the community after school hours. Wilkes County Schools coordinated the effort with assistance from the Health Department, and further support to upgrade playgrounds was provided by The Health Foundation. The Foundation continues to support more inclusive playgrounds at schools.
In January of 2020, the board of directors of The Health Foundation voted to take on the fiduciary responsibility and personnel management for a fledgling Child Advocacy Center when its parent organization was closing down. The CAC, which provides counseling to survivors of child sexual assault or extreme physical abuse, was under THF management until they received state accreditation and 501(c)3 status in October 2022.
The Health Foundation currently provides below-market rent to the only organization in the county providing domestic violence and sexual assault resources, DANA. THF also provided a start-up grant to support an immediate start date for their client advocate.
Work being done through COPE is reducing the stigma around people who use drugs, including identifying harm-reduction programs, return-to-work programs, and more, with the aim of bringing them to a place of healing and recovery so that they can rejoin their community. COPE administrator Kirstin Roberts recently held a Sequential Intercept Mapping (SIM) Workshop to identify gaps in the system that people experiencing mental health or substance use crises experience.
We know that it will take the combined efforts of many individuals, groups, and institutions to achieve our goals. We remain committed to improving the lives of those we serve.
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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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.
HEALTH FOUNDATION INC
Board of directorsas of 07/27/2023
Mr. David Shelton
R&D Properties
Term: 2013 -
Mr. Richard Marlow
Cam Finley
Venture Properties
Bill Harris
Retired from Lowe's Companies
Cathy Huie
Brame Huie Pharmacy
Richard Marlow
Retired Real Estate Appraiser
Dariel Rathmell
Retired Physician
Lee Bentley
Vannoy & Colvard
John Oliver
Retired Ophthalmologist
Mary Spears
Retired Educator
Diane Swaim
Retired Educator
Jean Melton
Retired from Lowe's Companies
William Clark
Wilkes County Schools
Craig Bennett
Retired Orthopedic Surgeon
Mark Cook
Cooks, Inc.
Glenda Adams
Educational Consultant
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? Yes -
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