Annual Report for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019
Mission Statement
Realizing the healthcare crisis in our country, the Board of Washington Square Health Foundation, Inc. recognizes that no one foundation can meet all the challenges of the healthcare environment. However, the Foundation has developed a program of grant making which is designed to be both a catalyst and guide for other foundations and grant making organizations in meeting the various needs of the Chicagoland healthcare community. The Washington Square Health Foundation, Inc. grants funds in order to promote and maintain access to adequate healthcare for all people in the Chicagoland area regardless of race, sex, creed or financial need. The Foundation meets this goal through its grants for medical and nursing education, medical research and direct healthcare services. As a guide to other foundations and other service providers and as a part of the Board’s stewardship of charitable funds, the Washington Square Health Foundation, Inc. has developed a grant evaluation system to ensure that the objectives of various projects are carried out in the manner prescribed by the approved grant. The Foundation wishes to impress on the philanthropic community that the careful evaluation of the outcomes of grant projects is as important as the appropriate selection of grant recipients.
Board Chair’s Message
Spring 2020
“What’s past is prologue” The Tempest
This quotation from William Shakespeare’s play struck me as a way to put the current COVID-19 pandemic in perspective. Growing up in the 1950’s, viral epidemics were common and frequent. Before effective vaccination programs, measles, mumps, chicken pox and seasonal influenza were all part of a “Baby Boomers” childhood. The most dreaded viral epidemic, however, was caused by polio. For several summers in the early 1950’s, we were restricted from large gatherings and swimming pools were drained for fear of spreading the polio virus. We were practicing a form of “social distancing.” One of my earliest childhood memories is of my mother taking three little kids on several city buses to a vaccination clinic set up in the former St. Anne’s Hospital on the West Side of Chicago.
Now, being in my eighth decade, the COVID-19 pandemic seems almost like a bookend to my childhood remembrances. Until safe and effective therapies and vaccines are developed and widely available, I am reminded of the scourge that polio brought to our lives in the pre-Salk era. A lesson that the past has taught us, is when there is a major shock to our system, we do not go back to the ways things used to be. Remember air travel before 9/11?
So what might grant requests to foundations for funding look like in this “new normal?” Will we see more requests from food pantries and food banks as more people lose their jobs and become food insecure? And will there be greater utilization of free clinics as families lose employer subsidized health insurance? Will there be a need to furnish personal protective equipment (PPE) for front line providers and responders? What about replenishing depleted strategic stockpiles of necessary supplies to get through this pandemic – and the next? Clinical trials for new drugs and vaccines will need funding. I’m only scratching the surface on the increased demands for funding.
We can look to the past to provide a window into the probable expectations that will be placed on charitable foundations. This is occurring when the financial markets are depleting non-profit portfolios. What seems to be brewing for foundations is a tempest.
William N. Werner, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
Board Chair
Statement of Activities
Year ended September 30, 2019 | ||
Grants & Program Related Investment | $675,231 | |
Estimated Administrative Expense (non-charitable) | $85,256 | |
Professional Legal and Accounting Fees | $45,959 | |
Provision for Federal Excise Tax | $10,000 | |
Total Assets | $18,677,539 | |
The official and complete audit as certified by Crowe Horwath LLP.![]() |
Fiscal Year 2018-2019 Grant Recipients
Advocate Charitable Foundation
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Cellmates on the Run Foundation
Community Foundation of Sonoma County
Faith Community United Church of Christ
Franciscan Tertiary Province Of The Scared Heart Inc
Health and Medicine Policy Research Group
Lester and Rosalie Anixter Center
Lincoln Park Community Services
Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center
Northern Lights Kollel of Suburban Chicago
Planned Parenthood of Illinois
Primo Center For Women And Children
Project Seed of Suburban Chicago, Inc
Ray Graham Association for People with Disabilities
Rotary International District 6990
Rush University Medical Center
The American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science