Hammonnd-Henry Foundation fund reaches $1M milestone

Fiscal year 2016 ended on a positive note for the Hammond-Henry Hospital Foundation, in Geneseo.

In May, the Foundation Endowment Fund climbed to more than $1 million.

Darcy Hepner, foundation manager, said, “When the foundation established an endowment fund in 1998, the hope was to provide funds to the hospital when the endowment fund reached $1 million. That time has come, and the board can now implement the plan as intended.”

The plan is to use the greater of the annual income or 5 percent of the interest earned each year, not to go below the original principal amount, to benefit the hospital.

“The foundation will make that amount payable annually to future hospital projects, such as purchasing new hospital equipment, scholarships or funding hospital renovations,” she said.

Those needs will be presented to the foundation board of directors on an annual basis with discussion and necessary motions to fund the selected needs.

“Growing the endowment fund took a lot of effort,” Hepner said. “In its inception, the annual Celebrity Dinner raised funds for the endowment. Currently, that event has a different goal each year; although 10 percent of the funds raised at the dinner are invested in the endowment fund. The Foundation Golf Outing operates in a similar way. There also have been individual donations to the endowment fund.”

The success of the endowment fund falls in line with the rest of the work accomplished by the foundation. In the last 19 years, the foundation has raised more than $5.4 million with $2.5 million of that amount used for the hospital expansion project.

More recently, new stretchers were purchased for the emergency department and new defibrillators were purchased for crash carts in various hospital departments.

“The foundation supports all hospital departments,” Hepner said. “With the employee campaign, various needs have been met – all through employee donations.”

The employee campaign focuses on items that will improve the work environment so as to better serve the community, she said. “Whether it is new furniture for the courtyard, new equipment for the lab, or even a sidewalk to the employee parking lot, the foundation tries to help every department.”