Healthy Communities Foundation

Address: 19 Riverside Road, Riverside, IL 60546
Web: www.hcfdn.org
Email: communications@hcfdn.org

The Healthy Communities Foundation became a legacy health conversion foundation from the sale of MacNeal Hospital to a private company in 1999 and officially began operations in 2000. In 2016, a new board of directors and professional staff were appointed. The following year, leadership launched a

comprehensive strategic planning process to re-envision the Foundation’s grantmaking approach and better address the health needs of its service region. In 2017, it adopted a new name (Healthy Communities Foundation) and began implementation of its strategic plan, which defined its mission, vision, and commitment to advancing health equity across its service region. The Foundation prioritizes general operating support for organizations driving community-led solutions to address the region’s most significant health inequities.

As a community-informed health conversion foundation, it is dedicated to measurably improving the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities in its service region, located in Chicago and the western suburbs of Cook County, Illinois, by promoting health equity, quality, and access.

The Foundation team uses health equity as its guiding principle and lens, funding organizations and collaborating on community-led solutions that create and expand opportunities for all members of the service region to live full, healthy, and happy lives—no matter who they are or where they live.

The Foundation focuses its support within a five-mile radius of MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Illinois, which is home to over 900,000 people. HCF allocates the majority of funding to organizations and efforts that address local health needs and drive systemic solutions that improve the quality of life for communities most affected by health inequities in the region.

Program Information:

The Foundation has evolved its approach since 2020 to ensure its strategy centered local health leadership in addressing a rapidly shifting public health landscape, given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in its service region. The Foundation employed a responsive recovery strategy rooted in an evaluation framework to understand the impact of flexible, unrestricted dollars on its grantee partners’ efforts. The Foundation’s learnings compelled the launch and expansion of multi-year general operating support, an increased focus on upstream solutions, and strategies to strengthen local health leadership and community resilience.

HCF’s grantmaking strategy is guided by the following strategic frameworks:

Healing & Resilience: A thriving health ecosystem relies on the strength and sustainability of local leaders and organizations. HCF invests in partner-led efforts that advance organizational culture, systems, and power through the lenses of racial equity, racial healing, and racial justice.
Health Equity Policy & Advocacy: HCF aims to strengthen and amplify the civic engagement and power-building of communities across its region. The Foundation also leverages its position as a philanthropic institution to support research, analysis, and innovative, community-driven strategies that advance health equity.

HCF’s Grantmaking Areas:

General Operating Support: The majority of its funding is allocated as unrestricted general operating support, with most of it committed to multi-year partnerships beginning in 2024. This approach allows the Foundation to invest boldly in organizations and community-led efforts that advance health equity and support community well-being.
Bold & Responsive Investments: It also recognizes opportunities outside its core grantmaking that call for a bold response or a sustained, strategic investment to meet the evolving health needs of the region.

Financial Information:

Total Assets: $118,427,652 (FY24)
Amount Dedicated to Health-Related Grant: $8,568,917 (FY24)

Special Initiatives and/or Representative Health and Human Services Grants

Immigrant Health Academy via Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (ICIRR)—The Immigrant Health Academy aims to strengthen community leadership and improve health care access via trainings focused on health rights and resources for uninsured and underinsured individuals. Partner organizations include: ICIRR, Legal Council for Health Justice, Arab American Family Services, and Mujeres Latinas en Acción. ($250,000 over two years)
Multi-Year General Operating Support—These are five-year general operating support commitments to 32 organizations with community-led efforts that advance health equity and community well-being. ($22.25 million over this five-year period)
Community Health Worker Initiative—The Community Health Worker Initiative coordinates and develops a west suburban learning collaborative in Cook County, Illinois, that manages robust training and evaluation to build capacity for Community Health Worker certification and Medicaid reimbursement. ($235,000 in 2025 across four organizations; additional funding partners include Community Memorial Foundation and Coleman Foundation)
“100 Latina Birthdays” with LWC Studios and Mujeres Latinas en Acción—The “100 Latina Birthdays” Podcast series spotlights health equity issues across the lifespan (ages 0-100+) of Latinas in Illinois’ Cook County to illuminate health and well-being outcomes and amplify community health narratives. The series will launch production of Season 4 in 2026. ($330,000 over two years)