Vermont Health Foundation

Vermont Health Foundation (VHF) was created in 1983 to function as a holding company for the assets of the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont and to be the place where charitable gifts donated to the Hospital would repose.

When MCHV, the Fanny Allen Hospital and the University Health Center merged in 1994, the VHF became one of Fletcher Allen’s “parent” organizations with the responsibility to send members to the Fletcher Allen board and to approve changes to its mission or bylaws. It retained circa $13 million in assets and decided to become a grant-giving organization to community based entities whose work would advance or complement the nearly identical missions of the VHF and Fletcher Allen.

In 2000, the two organizations entered into a Memorandum of Understanding which intended to better align the VHF’s grant-making priorities with Fletcher Allen’s strategic initiatives. Despite some successes in achieving the efficiencies anticipated by the Memorandum of Understanding, both organizations agreed that the Memorandum of Understanding had not enabled the two to fully integrate their community benefit investments.

By the end of 2011, the two organizations entered into a Gift Agreement under which the VHF gifted its corpus to Fletcher Allen and Fletcher Allen created a chartered Community Benefit Committee having half its members be members of the VHF Board. The VHF Board agreed to adhere to the following principles as members of the Community Benefit Committee: to advocate for community needs, to be stewards of the VHF’s history, and to demand accountability in all Community Benefit investments.

Address:
Vermont Health Foundation
Community Health Improvement
199 Main Street - Suite 150
Burlington, VT 05401