August 22, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
Health Philanthropy in California: the Changing Landscape, by James M. Ferris and Elizabeth A. Graddy, assesses changes in grant making to health groups in California that have taken place over the past two decades. For this report, the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy, at the University of Southern California, collected information on 50 foundations that make significant numbers of grants to health projects. The driving force of change, the report says, was the creation of 20 foundations in California endowed through the conversion of nonprofit health-care institutions to for-profit status. These foundations had combined assets of more than $7-billion at the time of the report’s publication — approximately half of the assets of all health-conversion foundations nationwide. The report concludes that most of these health-conversion foundations have geographic restrictions that could create considerable variation in the reach of health grant making, with some areas of California potentially getting little coverage and others a surplus. It also asserts that since these foundations are relatively new — more than half were created after 1995 — now is an ideal time for them to take stock and consider how they want to change and develop.
Publisher: Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy, School of Policy, Planning, and Development, U. of Southern California, Lewis Hall, Room 210, Los Angeles, Calif. 90089-0626; (213) 740-6842; sppd@usc.edu; http://www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/philanthropy/index.html; 26 pages; free for download on the Web site.
