Group Health Cooperative incorporates Group Health Foundation on September 28, 1983.

See Additional Media
On September 28, 1983, the Group Health Board of Trustees incorporates the Foundation of Group Health Cooperative. The foundation is established to generate funds for research and special programs and to engage the community's larger circle of civic and philanthropic leaders in the work of Group Health, thus raising raise the cooperative's public profile. For the first decade, this mission will be carried out by the foundation's first president, Barbara Lardy.

The foundation kicked off its first major fundraising effort on December 11, 1985, by hosting the world premier of Dune, a science fiction film based on a popular novel by Frank Herbert, who was a Group Health member. Another event sponsored a few years later was a mile-long fun-run through Seattle's new bus tunnel.

In 2005 the mission of Group Health Community Foundation was to improve the health of children and adolescents, and to promote diversity within healthcare. Services include:

  • Awarding grants to address current health issues as well as emergent community needs in the Pacific Northwest;
  • Operate health promotion programs throughout the region;
  • Evaluate community-based health programs locally and nationally, and publish the results for the benefit of all health care professionals;
  • Fundraise for these programs and for Group Health.

Sources: Walt Crowley, To Serve the Greatest Number: A History of Group Health Cooperative of Seattle (Seattle: GHC/University of Washington Press, 1995), 182, 190; "About Us," Group Health Community Foundation website accessed on September 5, 2005 (http://www.ghcfoundation.org/fabout.html).

Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You