When we began grantmaking in 1992, we were California’s largest health conversion foundation. Why? In part, because activists fought for a fairly valued endowment when Health Net converted from a nonprofit to a for-profit insurance plan. Over the years, we have taken on some of the most contentious issues of our time, all focused on advancing health and wellness for underserved people. Our earliest efforts connected public health and gun violence prevention, and supported teen pregnancy prevention, healthy working conditions and place-based grantmaking that took a broader view of health.
With $1 billion in assets, we are one of California’s largest public health philanthropic institutions. We award approximately $43 million annually in grants and program-related investments that promote health equity, justice and advocacy for communities and individuals whose lives and wellness are too often determined by their race, income, immigration status or where they live. Throughout our 30-year history, we have played a leadership role in promoting violence prevention as a public health issue and are one of the nation’s leading philanthropic voices in funding gun violence prevention efforts. We launched initiatives to advance the health of Black women, particularly those with HIV-AIDS and formerly incarcerated women experiencing challenges to reentry.
In addition, we continue to expand our mission-related investment strategy and invest our endowment with diverse asset managers, particularly people of color and women, who now account for over 45% of our managers.
Here are some of our key moments.
