Healthy Communities Foundation

What Healthy Communities Foundation does

Healthy Communities Foundation (HCF) is a private health conversion foundation established in 2017 from the sale of MacNeal Hospital, operating as a place-based philanthropic grantmaker dedicated to advancing health equity across 27 zip codes in Chicago and the western suburbs of Cook County. HCF serves the approximately 900,000 residents in its service region, of whom more than 70% are Black, Indigenous, Latine, and People of Color (BILPOC), and has deployed approximately $65 million in cumulative grants since inception. Its core products are three grantmaking programs — General Operating Support (unrestricted one-year and multi-year grants), Responsive Funding (crisis and event sponsorship), and Bold Investments (proactive seed and long-term funding for innovative initiatives) — supported by three strategic frameworks: Healing & Resilience, Policy & Advocacy, and Learning & Evaluation. The foundation's distribution is run through a WizeHive-based online grants portal and direct outreach to a network that awarded 78 nonprofit organizations $6.98 million in 2024. As a trust-based philanthropy, HCF uses multi-year unrestricted funding, community-led evaluation, and strategic partnerships (including with Community Memorial Foundation on the Community Health Worker pilot, ICIRR on the Immigrant Health Academy, and Fiducient Advisors as outsourced CIO) to drive systems-level change in regional health outcomes.

Name

Healthy Communities Foundation

Legal name

Healthy Communities Foundation

Website

https://hcfdn.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Healthy Communities Foundation is a health conversion foundation established in 2017 that channels unrestricted multi-year grants to community-based nonprofits advancing health equity across 27 zip codes in Chicago and western Cook County.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Philanthropic Grantmaking / Health Equity Foundation

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Community Foundations (BPAGAKAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Health & Medical Research Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAL), Community Health & Prevention Program Funding (HLAJALAF)

Keywords

• Health equity grantmaking
• Community health grants
• Philanthropic foundation funding
• Nonprofit health grants
• Unrestricted operating support

Headquarters

HQ city

Riverside

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Healthy Communities Foundation is a community-informed health conversion foundation that provides unrestricted, multi-year grants to nonprofit health organizations serving Chicago and the western suburbs of Cook County. It distributes grants through three programs—General Operating Support, Responsive Funding, and Bold Investments—supported by strategic frameworks in Healing & Resilience, Policy & Advocacy, and Learning & Evaluation, and processes applications through a WizeHive-based online grants portal. Since 2017, the Foundation has given approximately $65 million in grants across 27 zip codes within a five-mile radius of MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn.

Product overview

Healthy Communities Foundation is a health conversion foundation that operates as a unified grantmaking organization, not a platform-plus-modules architecture. Its core offerings consist of grantmaking programs—General Operating Support Grants (unrestricted one-year or multi-year funding), Responsive Funding (for immediate crises and community events), and Bold Investments (innovative strategic health initiatives)—supported by three strategic frameworks: Learning & Evaluation, Policy & Advocacy, and Healing & Resilience. The foundation also provides an online grants portal built on WizeHive for application processing and offers community space reservations. The organization focuses its funding within a five-mile radius of MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, covering 27 zip codes in Chicago and western Cook County suburbs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• General Operating Support Grants Unrestricted one-year or multi-year grants providing unrestricted funding to help strengthen partner nonprofit organizations' resilience, adaptability, and value-driven work toward advancing racial and health equity.
• Responsive Funding Grants Grants addressing immediate crises, promoting community health and wellness, and providing sponsorship for community events that celebrate and encourage new ideas and practices in the Chicago and western Cook County service region.
• Bold Investments Grants Proactive support for innovative and strategic health initiatives requiring seed funding or long-term investment to address regional health needs and transform the systems communities interact with daily.
• Community Space Physical and virtual community space available for organizations and community members to host events, with an inquiry and reservation system for use.
• Online Grants Portal WizeHive-based digital platform for grant applicants to register accounts and submit grant applications electronically, including personal and organizational information required for grant review.

Quantifiable outcome

• Since 2017, the Foundation has given approximately $65 million in grants
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 October 2021ICIRR and its member organizations launched the Immigrant Health Academy, a first-of-its-kind healthcare rights training school. The Academy educates and empowers immigrant community leaders in suburban Cook, Will, DuPage, and Lake Counties with information about their healthcare rights.
• Community Memorial FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Jointly funded the Community Health Worker (CHW) pilot since 2018, coordinated by Health & Medicine Policy Research Group and evaluated by Sinai Urban Health Institute. The pilot aims to improve access to culturally competent care and advance health equity in western suburbs of Chicago.
• Health & Medicine Policy Research GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCoordinates the Community Health Worker (CHW) pilot. Led the effort for Illinois to adopt the state's first CHW legislation.
• Sinai Urban Health InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLeads the program evaluation for the Community Health Worker (CHW) pilot in western suburban Cook County.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Con Alma Health Foundation: New Mexico-based health conversion foundation with a similar scale, place-based approach, and focus on health equity for underserved communities. Smaller asset base but comparable community-informed grantmaking model.
• Quantum Foundation: Florida-based health conversion foundation funding health equity, mental health, and social determinants of health in Palm Beach County. Comparable health-conversion origin and grantmaking focus on community-led solutions.
• Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis: Indiana-based health conversion foundation focused on community health, mental health, and health equity. Comparable mid-sized health-conversion foundation with place-based grantmaking in an urban service area.

Broad incumbents

• The Chicago Community Trust: One of the largest community foundations in the Chicago region with a broader mandate across health, education, and economic opportunity. Comparable in regional focus and grantmaking scale, but with a much wider thematic remit than HCF.
• The Colorado Health Foundation: Statewide Colorado health conversion foundation funding health equity, mental health, and community-led solutions. Similar health-conversion origin and equity-driven grantmaking philosophy.
• The California Endowment: A leading health conversion foundation in California focused on health equity, place-based grantmaking, and racial justice. Highly comparable model and mission, anchored to a defined geographic service area with multi-year unrestricted funding.

Others

• Sinai Urban Health Institute: Chicago-based research arm of Sinai Chicago that evaluates HCF's CHW pilot in western suburban Cook County. Adjacent evaluation partner with deep overlap in HCF's service geography and health-equity mission.
• Health & Medicine Policy Research Group: Chicago-based health policy nonprofit that coordinates HCF's Community Health Worker (CHW) pilot and led Illinois' first CHW legislation. Functionally a partner rather than competitor, but operates in the same health-equity ecosystem.

Direct peers

• Michael Reese Health Trust: Chicago-based health conversion foundation (also born from a hospital sale) funding health equity in the Chicago region. Closely comparable in origin story, mission, and geographic scope to Healthy Communities Foundation.
• Community Memorial Foundation: Western Cook County-focused health foundation and HCF's joint funder of the Community Health Worker (CHW) pilot since 2018. Operates in the same service geography with overlapping health-equity focus and grantmaking model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/HCFdn
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hcfdn
• Instagraminstagram.com/healthycommunitiesfoundation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Healthy Communities Foundation