Beaumont Health in Southfield has completed the merger of three foundations into a separate 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation overseen by a board of directors. When Beaumont Health was formed through a merger of Beaumont Health System, Botsford Hospital, and Oakwood Healthcare in Sept. 2014, each maintained its own foundation and board.
“The merging of the three foundations strengthens fundraising across Beaumont Health,” says Margaret Cooney Casey, newly-named president of Beaumont Health Foundation. “It brings together our fundraising talent, centralizing special events, research, and grant and proposal writing, to support the needs of each of our hospital sites.
“Local community connections are maintained through major gift officers assigned to support each site. Giving always has and always will be local. Our new structure addresses the needs of local communities and respects the desires of donors to give to their local Beaumont hospital.”
John Fox, president and CEO, and Cooney Casey, former chief development officer of Beaumont Health, began working with the leadership of the three founding entities in the fall of 2015 to plan the future of Beaumont Health’s philanthropy.
The organizational structure of the new Beaumont Health Foundation and the appointment of Cooney Casey as foundation president was approved by Beaumont Health’s boards of directors in fall 2016.
“In creating one foundation, our process was to evolve to a new fundraising organization, to involve as many stakeholders as possible and reach a consensus,” says Cooney Casey.
The fundraising organization consists of a central Beaumont Health foundation board of directors, two regional councils, and site committees for each of the eight Beaumont hospitals. The 14 foundation members, appointed on June 22, include Geoffrey Hockman as chair and Dr. Neelam Kumar and Dr. Edward Loniewski as vice-chairs. Cooney Casey and Fox are ex-officio members. Additional board members will be appointed in the future.
The new foundation has a staff of 60 fundraising professionals. Over the past two years, foundation staff collectively raised more than $90 million with a cost to raise a dollar of 21 cents, representing a four to one return on investment.