Spokane-based Empire Health Foundation now operates out of the recently remodeled former Civic Building, although staffers as of last week were still unpacking boxes after moving from temporary quarters across Riverside Avenue.

Empire Health Foundation has invested about $2 million in purchasing and remodeling the 22,000-square-foot, four-level building at 1020 W. Riverside, which it has renamed the Philanthropy Center.

As the largest private nonprofit health foundation in the Inland Northwest, Empire Health Foundation primarily serves Spokane, Pend Oreille, Stevens, Ferry, Lincoln, Adams, and Whitman counties, although some of its initiatives and programs serve a larger area of Eastern Washington.

Empire Health Foundation and a subsidiary, Better Health Together, are based on the 2,200-square-foot mezzanine level of the Philanthropy Center.

Other subsidiaries, affiliates, and co-location partners are located on the main floor and on the first of two basement levels, says Kristen West, Empire Health Foundation’s vice president for grant programs.

“Having partners in the same location creates a water-cooler effect that facilitates collaboration,” West says.

Some construction work still is ongoing in the 8,000-square-foot second basement level, where an event center will open next month and will be available to community nonprofits and agencies for meetings and events, she says.

The event center will feature advanced communications and audio-video equipment.

When fully operational, the Philanthropy Center will have two full kitchens.

“We’ll be able to cater events here,” West says.

Yost, Mooney & Pugh Contractors LLC, of Spokane, is the contractor on the overall remodel project, and Madsen Mitchell Evenson & Conrad PLLC, also of Spokane, designed it.

Empire Health Foundation had been located in the Chancery Building, at 1023 W. Riverside, for about 18 months during the Civic Building acquisition and subsequent remodel project, West says.

Prior to buying the building from the Spokane Club in 2013, and moving to the Chancery Building during the remodel project, the Empire Health Foundation had been located in 2,100 square feet of leased space in the Banner Bank building, at 111 N. Post downtown.

Empire Health Foundation has a core staff of 15 full-time-equivalent employees, up from fewer than 10 a few years ago, West says.

Including its subsidiaries, affiliates, and co-location partners, about 45 people are based in the Philanthropy Center, she says.

Empire Health Foundation manages assets approaching $180 million, including an endowment fund of nearly $84 million.

The foundation granted a total of $4 million from the endowment in 2014, up from $1.8 million in 2013.

Empire Health Foundation also distributed an additional $14 million from other private and public funding sources last year, largely because of its emphasis on programs with the ability to measure their success, West says.

“We’ve been selected as a ‘regrantor’ for larger foundations in other parts of the country,” she says.

In all, the foundation has helped attract $200 million from funding partners in addition to distributing $11 million directly from the endowment since 2008.

“We don’t just write a check,” West says. “We do whatever it takes to make our partners successful, including making office space available.”

Tenants at the Philanthropy Center get discounted rent and “backbone” services, which include accounting, information technology, and reception services, she says.

Empire Health Foundation formed Better Health Together in 2013 to provide in-person assisters to enroll uninsured residents in Spokane County and 13 other Eastern Washington counties who otherwise likely wouldn’t use a website or call center to get information on health plans and subsidies.

The federal grant-funded program has outperformed its goals, helping 70,000 people access health-care insurance, far exceeding its contracted target of 10,000 enrollees, West says. 

Better Health Together has helped lower the uninsured rate in Spokane to 3 percent from 13 percent, she asserts.

A new subsidiary, Family Impact Network, will act as Washington state’s first network administrator to im-plement performance-based contracting, West says. The program is designed to improve outcomes and enhance services for children and families in the Child Protective Services system.

It currently has four employees, and West says it could grow to 15 employees within six months.

“Family Impact Network will contract child welfare services directly, rather than through the state,” West says.

Family Impact Network likely will manage more than $7 million in service dollars this year, she says.

Spokane Teaching Health Center, a consortium comprised of Empire Health Foundation, Providence Health Care, and Washington State University Spokane, has one staff member at the Philanthropy Center, West says.

The Spokane Teaching Health Center, which has a core goal to increase the availability of medical provider education here, includes two Providence clinics in the medical district on the lower South Hill, and plans to break ground this month on the $15 million University District Health Clinic.

That clinic, which will be located at the former site of the Peirone Produce Co. warehouse on the southeast edge of the Riverpoint campus, aims to create more physician residency and medical staff positions here.

Bouten Construction Co., of Spokane, is the contractor on the 42,000-square-foot facility, which is expected to open next year, and NAC|Architecture, also of Spokane, designed it.

The Empire Health Foundation has a majority representation on Spokane Teaching Health Center’s nine-member board.

The Philanthropy Center also provides what West calls co-location space for satellite offices of Seattle-based Washington Bikes, Wellpinit-based Spokane Tribal Network, and Seattle-based Potlatch Fund.

Washington Bikes, a nonprofit bicycle advocacy group, also is active here in promoting healthy eating and active lifestyle programs at elementary schools.

Spokane Tribal Network promotes healthier lifestyle choices for the Inland Northwest tribal community, providing programs and activities that place an emphasis on youth.

The Potlatch Fund is a community foundation and leadership-development organization dedicated to expanding philanthropy within American Indian communities.

Other programs for which Empire Health Foundation is striving to achieve measurable success include reducing childhood obesity, preventing adverse childhood experiences, improving access to mental health services, providing rural aging services, and other health education.

The foundation was created as an independent foundation in 2008 after nonprofit hospital operator Empire Health Services sold its assets to Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems Inc., a for-profit operator. 

Empire Health Foundation is governed by a 14-member volunteer board.