At work…
What inspired you to align your endowment with your mission?
HealthSpark Foundation’s mission and philanthropic strategy has focused on systems transformation since our founding in 2002. That orientation has pushed us to ask tough questions, learn from peers, and challenge ourselves to understand the root causes of the public health issues we are addressing through our grantmaking. As well, it has spurred our board to be more comfortable with questions like, “What’s the risk of not making this change?” and having honest conversations around the breadth of our impact.
What have been the biggest obstacles at your foundation for mission alignment? Focus and finding the right steps forward. Our foundation has been having discussions on mission alignment for years, but has struggled to find ways to implement that vision. That said, we had a strong level of agreement on the value of mission alignment, and were ready to take action. This past spring, the stars aligned for us -- a longstanding nonprofit partner asked if we would consider making a below-market rate loan to support their growth. This partner and project are integral to our history, and the project allowed us to take a small step towards our vision for mission alignment.
How far along is your foundation in this journey? We are in the early stages. While there has been substantial discussion and our board and staff are in agreement about the benefit of mission alignment, we have some work to do to understand our options, hone our strategy, and build the internal mechanisms to truly carry out our goals.
What’s next in your mission alignment? We’re excited to build a strategic plan for mission aligned investing as part of our work through Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia’s mission aligned investing cohort. We believe there are some clear next steps for us to take that will allow us to build on the success of our first mission aligned loan.
What about perpetuity or spending down? Spending down hasn’t been a part of our conversations to date.
What’s a favorite mission aligned investment of yours? Our foundation’s first program-related investment with Manna on Main Street was to support the expansion of their online market hub in our foundation’s original catchment area of Lansdale, PA. Everything about this process was infused with our beliefs around trust-based philanthropy. We listened to what our community needed, in that the idea came from our partner of 20 years. The investment aligned with historic grants our foundation has made to the organization and in food security more broadly. There’s added impact to the project because the loan is supporting revitalization efforts in our local borough. Finally, we kept the process simple and streamlined. Our orientation throughout the process was to ask our partner what would work best for them, and our final loan structure was complimentary to the other financing they received for the project. We kept the paperwork simple, and our reporting is minimal, too.
And, not only was this PRI a first for the foundation, but this was accomplished in my first year as President. So, this loan in particular will always have a very special place in my heart!
Have you ventured into shareholder advocacy? How so?! We’re very interested in this, but haven’t taken steps on this yet.
What’s the most convincing thing to get others on board? Asking what you’re risking by not aligning your investments with your values. And, do the math -- once you see how much you can grow your impact through mission aligned investing, small and midsize foundations can really see how much greater their reach can become.
