The Health Foundation Inc

What it reported doing in 2025

Prevention - many of the most complex health care issues in our rural, underserved community can't possibly be solved by any one person, program, or organization. We have found that by bringing together others who share our vision of a community where everyone is healthy, safe, and able to thrive that we can accomplish deeper, meaningful change. That is why we lead local collaborative efforts that engage a broad cross sector of service providers, local governments, businesses, and concerned citizens. These groups identify barriers people face and then test and develop strategies to solve them. For example, the resiliency collaborative recognizes that children who experience abuse, neglect, or family separation often carry those traumas into adulthood. Likewise, if their parents or caregivers have mental illness or substance use disorders, children don't learn healthy coping skills. This can lead to very unhealthy behaviors -- so-called generational trauma -- that can reduce life expectancy by as much as twenty years. Thankfully, even just one healthy and caring adult can be a lifeline for a child living with these adverse childhood experiences. Therefore, the collaborative offers programming that teaches parents, educators, social workers, youth leaders, and children themselves how to thrive. And, because people who work in these fields can experience "secondary trauma" from continually witnessing unimaginable hardships, the collaborative presents its annual "address the stress" conference. The conference brings in national experts and presenters while also providing creative and fun recreational activities to help caregivers reset their own nervous systems, preventing burnout. By bringing people together from many disciplines, relationships are strengthened and new pathways to better serving people are created. The collaborative also developed and annually updates a wilkes community resource guide to help connect community members and families to needed resources. A more connected community leads to better support for those in need. In 2025, the health foundation launched a new program called "the situation table" so that service providers may present cases where an immediate intervention can prevent an individual or family from falling into crisis. An "ounce of "prevention" is proving to be worth more than a "pound of cure" as people are getting the medical care, mental health treatment, or services needed without having to jump through hoops in a complex system they don't know how to navigate on their own. The community opioid prevention and education team (cope) likewise identifies and prioritizes community-based strategies to help prevent substance use disorder and strengthen pathways to recovery for people who use drugs. Each organization brings their own strengths to the table, be it peer support, law enforcement, mental health counseling, housing, or medication assisted treatment, among others. The team has identified ten population-level measures that collectively represent community improvement, and nine of the ten measures are currently trending positively.cope also supports system-level planning to improve how people with substance use and mental health needs interact with the criminal justice and behavioral health systems. Through a sequential intercept mapping process, community partners examined the pathways people may encounter from crisis response and law enforcement contact through courts, detention, reentry, and community-based services. The process identified existing resources, service gaps, and opportunities to improve coordination, connect people with appropriate care, and reduce repeated involvement with the justice system.in addition to convening cope, the health foundation formally administers the application process for opioid settlement funds awarded to wilkes county. The foundation works with a steering committee to review applications and make funding recommendations to county government. Its gran

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 89.9%; rating input score 90
• Program expense ratio: 81.1%; rating input score 81
• Fundraising efficiency: $12.28 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 89.5%; rating input score 90; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -10.8%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.71; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.49; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 12.3%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 5.2% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 0.9% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings