Announcement:

The board of the Healthcare Initiative Foundation is is pleased to announce the appointment of Crystal Carr Townsend as the next President of the Foundation. Crystal will begin with the Foundation on September 20, 2011.  For the past 5 years, Carr has served as the City of Gaithersburg's Community Services Director overseeing and coordinating the provision of health and human services for City residents. In this capacity, she has administered $750,000 in nonprofit grants annually, participated on the United Way, Gaithersburg Police Foundation, and Friends of Wells/Robertson House, Inc. Boards, organized and implemented a variety of cultural and educational events, convened community stakeholders to optimize collaboration and service delivery, and managed over $250,000 in federal, state, county, and foundation contracts.

Prior to her service with the City, she worked as the Family Support Services Administrator for Family Services, Inc. (FSI). With FSI, she managed the Healthy Family Montgomery, Baby Steps, Frameworks for Families, Substance Abuse Prevention, Latino Outreach, and Ed Bohrer Parent Resource Center programs annually serving over 9,000 individuals and overseeing a 1.7 million contract/grant portfolio. Earlier in her career, she served as the Legislative Director for the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Romania, and as the Domestic Violence Shelter Manager for Heartly House.

Carr attained her Bachelor of Arts from Hood College and holds a Master of Public Administration from the International Public Service and Development Program at Rutgers University. She also maintains an Event Management Certificate from Montgomery College and an Incident Command System Training Certificate from the FEMA Emergency Management Institute.

About Us

The Healthcare Initiative Foundation is a nonprofit, grant making trust  governed by  an independent, volunteer board of trustees. The Foundation has assets approaching $48 million, gives approximately $1.2 million in grants annually, and employs a staff of one. The Foundation's   charter provides that grants be made solely to improve healthcare in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Our History

The Healthcare Initiative Foundation is a 509(a)(3) grantmaking organization formed in 1973 as the Suburban Hospital Association (Md.) Foundation.   In 1980 the scope of giving broadened and accordingly the name changed -to the Suburban Maryland Health Foundation.   The current name dates from 2002.    

Benefiting from a   generally robust economy and exercising careful stewardship, the board of trustees has progressively grown  the Foundation's initial endowment of $5.6 million to  $48 million today. This has allowed the Foundation to fund an array of organizations and activities each year, while retaining an exclusive focus on   improving helathcare for residents of Montgomery County, Maryland.

Over the years the Foundation has also designated certain  organizations for ongoing, multi-year support. Due to our founding legacy,   Suburban Hospital has always been such a Designated Supported Organization.   Historically   these also included the American Red Cross Blood Services (Washington Region), the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, the Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County and, currently, Montgomery Hospice. The  Designated Supported Organization status  is not something for which an organization   can apply.

Until recently, the Foundation operated anonymously, relying on the effort of   a dedicated, all-volunteer board of trustees. In 2007, the board hired the Foundation's first staff person  to facilitate the grantmaking and begin to build a public presence.

Our Vision

We envision a Montgomery County whose residents are served by a high-quality, comprehensive, cost-effective and sustainable healthcare system.

Our Mission

The Healthcare Initiative Foundation supports organizations that offer solutions to improve the quality and delivery of healthcare for residents of Montgomery County, Maryland.

Our Beliefs

We believe that creativity generates solutions. We support both traditional and innovative solutions to healthcare dilemmas in any form – concepts to test, best practices to implement, efficiencies to execute, equipment to employ and successes to replicate.  

We believe that innovative solutions flourish and are sustained in strong nonprofits. Strong nonprofits need solid leadership and the organizational capacity to plan, implement and assess their programs. We consider grants to build organizational capacity in the county’s healthcare nonprofits.

We believe that strong nonprofits exercise responsible stewardship. Responsible stewards aim for sustainability by raising and managing sufficient funds, operating cost effectively, and leveraging all manner of resources and relationships.  

We believe that responsible stewards are accountable. Accountability is demonstrated through leadership integrity and competence, responsiveness to consumers, transparency, and systematic efforts to track meaningful results.  

We believe that the Healthcare Initiative Foundation and our grantee partners are accountable to the residents of Montgomery County, Maryland for improving healthcare in our community.  

Our Board

                      Robert H. Myers, Jr., Chairman
                      David Kressler, Vice Chair
                      Benjamin Giuliani, Treasurer  
                      Stephen C.   Eastham, Secretary
                      Deborah Fisher

Our Governance

                      Our governing documents, audit, form 990 and conflict of interest policy are all available upon request.    


Our Staff

  Crystal   Carr Townsend,   President     Crystal.Townsend@hifmc.org