Founded | 1918 |
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Founder | Anna Harkness |
Location |
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Key people | Joseph R. Betancourt, President |
Endowment | $700 million |
Website | www |
The Commonwealth Fund is a private American foundation whose stated purpose is to "promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, and people of color." It is active in a number of areas related to health care and health policy. It is led by Joseph R. Betancourt, M.D., M.P.H. [1]
Since 2004 it has produced reports comparing healthcare systems in high income countries using survey and administrative data from the OECD and the World Health Organization which is analyzed under five themes: access to care, the care process, administrative efficiency, equity and health-care outcomes. The United States has been assessed as worst health-care system overall among 11 high-income countries in every report, even though it spends the highest proportion of its gross domestic product on health care. In 2021 Norway, the Netherlands and Australia were the top-performing countries. [2]
The Commonwealth Fund, one of the first foundations to be established by a woman, was founded in 1918 with an endowment of almost $10 million by Anna M. Harkness. The widow of Stephen V. Harkness, a principal investor in Standard Oil, Harkness wanted to "do something for the welfare of mankind." Harkness's son, Edward Stephen Harkness, became the Commonwealth Fund's first president and hired a staff of people to help him build the foundation. Edward and his wife Mary Harkness possessed a "passionate commitment to social reform" and was "determined to improve health and health services for Americans." [3] Through additional gifts and bequests between 1918 and 1959, the Harkness family's total contribution to the fund's endowment amounted to more than $53 million. By the end of 2021 the Commonwealth Fund's endowment stands at almost $840 million. [4]
According to the Rockefeller Archive Center, the Commonwealth Fund's "early grants supported a variety of programs while generally promoting welfare, especially child welfare." [5] Over the years, it has given support to medical schools and to the building of hospitals and clinics. In New York City, the Commonwealth Fund and Edward Harness largely orchestrated the merger of Columbia Medical School and Presbyterian Hospital. The merger culminated in the construction of the world's first academic medical center then-called Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center of the in 1922. The Hospital continues to operate today as NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center which contains the Harkness Pavilion and the Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute [6]
In the mid-1920s, the chief interest of the foundation had become public health, including mental hygiene, community health, rural hospitals, medical research, and medical education. [7] Other grant areas included war relief, educational and legal research, and international medical fellowships. [5]
In 1925, the Commonwealth Fund launched its international program of fellowships called the Commonwealth Fund Fellowships (now the Harkness Fellowships). [8] Until the 1990s, the fellowship was open to scholars of all academic disciplines, and included many who went on to excel in science, the arts and business.
From the late 1920s through the 1940s, the Commonwealth Fund supported the construction of rural hospitals, paving the way for the Hill-Burton Act in 1946. [9] Following World War II, the foundation supported the development of new medical schools in the United States in an effort to address doctor shortages and meet the needs of communities lacking health care services. Other achievements include the Rochester Regional Hospital Council and the development of the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant professions. [10]
In the 1940s, the fund supported research by Dr. Georgios Papanikolaou that pioneered the Pap test [11] as the basic technique for detecting cervical cancer. Refinement of cardiac catheterization into routine treatment resulted in a 1956 Nobel Prize [12] for the Fund-supported researchers.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the organization focused on developing urban health care systems, and in the late 1970s, worked to improve medical school curricula. In the 1980s, the Commonwealth Fund played a prominent role in the development of the patient-centered care movement and helped draw attention to the needs of older Americans.
While the Commonwealth Fund does not typically accept donations, several gifts to the foundation have increased the endowment and expanded the scope of the Commonwealth Fund's projects and programs:
Notable early grantees and years funded [7] |
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Edward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his family's Commonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Northeastern United States were among the largest of the early twentieth century. He was a major benefactor to Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University, Phillips Exeter Academy, St. Paul's School, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1934.
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller ("Senior") and son "Junior", and their primary business advisor, Frederick Taylor Gates, on May 14, 1913, when its charter was granted by New York. It is the second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America and ranks as the 30th largest foundation globally by endowment, with assets of over $6.3 billion in 2022.
The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas, United States. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. As of April 2024, it had an endowment of $763 million.
The Harkness Fellowship is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several countries to spend time studying in the United States.
The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City. It is the primary teaching hospital for Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The hospital includes seven campuses located throughout the New York metropolitan area. The hospital's two flagship medical centers, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical Center, are located on opposite sides of Upper Manhattan.
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvard University, and houses the world's largest hospital-based research program with an annual research budget of more than $1.2 billion in 2021. It is the third-oldest general hospital in the United States with a patient capacity of 999 beds. Along with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mass General is a founding member of Mass General Brigham, formerly known as Partners HealthCare, the largest healthcare provider in Massachusetts.
The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons is the medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.
James Gamble Rogers was an American architect. A proponent of what came to be known as Collegiate Gothic architecture, he is best known for his academic commissions at Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and elsewhere.
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Joseph J. Fins, M.D., D. Hum. Litt., M.A.C.P., F.R.C.P. is an American physician and medical ethicist. He is chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, where he serves as The E. William Davis Jr., M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics, and Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry. Fins is also Director of Medical Ethics and an attending physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center. Fins is also a member of the adjunct faculty of Rockefeller University and has served as Associate for Medicine at The Hastings Center. He is the Solomon Center Distinguished Scholar in Medicine, Bioethics and the Law and a Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to The White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and currently serves on The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law by gubernatorial appointment.
Anna Maria Richardson Harkness was an American philanthropist.
Stephen Vanderburgh Harkness was an American businessman based in Cleveland, Ohio. He invested as a silent partner with John D. Rockefeller, Sr. in the founding of Standard Oil and served as a director of Standard Oil until his death.
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Acumen is a nonprofit impact investment fund based in the U.S. that focuses on investing in social enterprises that serve low-income individuals. Acumen was founded in April 2001 by Jacqueline Novogratz. It aims to demonstrate that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with business acumen, can result in thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Over the years, Acumen has invested $154.4 million in 167 companies and has had a successful track record in sourcing and executing investment opportunities in the clean energy, education, financial inclusion, health care and agriculture sectors.
John P. McGovern was an American allergist, investor and philanthropist. He established the McGovern Allergy Clinic in Houston, Texas, created the Texas Allergy Research Foundation and the John P. McGovern Foundation, and co-founded the American Osler Society.
The Sealy & Smith Foundation is a charitable foundation incorporated in Texas and based in the island city of Galveston. It was established in 1922 by John Sealy, II and his sister Jennie Sealy Smith with a charter stating a mission to:
"support of a charitable undertaking in the City of Galveston, Texas, for the construction, remodeling, enlarging, equipping, and furnishing of the John Sealy Hospital, and other hospital building or buildings in the City of Galveston in connection with the John Sealy Hospital in said city, and endowment thereof, for the use of the people of said City of Galveston and providing them with the necessary medical care and attention therein."
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