The Empire Health Foundation is projecting that its investment in health care initiatives next year will grow even faster than the size of its endowment.

    Antony Chiang, president of the nonprofit health foundation, says the organization this year has contributed $1.8 million toward health-related grant requests and a handful of its own initiatives.

    Next year, he says, "We're going to triple that."

    The big jump in funds is projected as Empire Health Foundation prepares to receive later this month a $40 million infusion into its endowment from Providence Health Care. The foundation, Providence, and Inland Northwest Health Services announced the large contribution last month when they also disclosed plans for the foundation to leave INHS, making Providence the only owner in that health services organization.

    While that donation will generate more investment income for the foundation to put toward health initiatives, Empire Health Foundation also is seeing more large, national foundations use the 5-year-old Spokane organization as an intermediary, giving it money to "regrant," Chiang says.

     "We're building relationships with other funders who want to invest with us," he says.

    The organization, which serves seven Eastern Washington counties and has a total of 17 employees, plans to start what it's calling a community engagement process next year to determine how best to spend the larger amount of funds. Chiang says the organization could add another initiative to those it handles currently, but it might look for ways to bolster the strategic programs it has now.

    "We have some thoughts, but we don't want to predetermine this," he says.

    Its current strategic programs involve efforts to curb childhood obesity and to address what mental health experts call adverse childhood experiences, which can range from loss of a parent to homelessness to witnessing a traumatic event. Other programs involve addressing mental health in general, health education, and rural aging.

    Chiang says the foundation's pediatric-obesity reduction program is 2 1/2 years old and has gained some traction. Early on, the organization worked with the Cheney school district to convert its school menus to healthy, scratch cooking, working with staff on developing culinary skills and recipe scaling.

    As part of that effort, the school district tracked the obesity rate in its student body. Chiang says it reported a reduction in the obesity rate within two years.

    "We didn't expect to see a turnaround in just two years," he says. "We're getting some early wins."

    While the strategic programs are designed to address a handful of issues in depth, the organization's grant funding program, which it refers to as its responsive program, is intended to address a greater breadth of subjects. This year, for example, the foundation earmarked $200,000 for grants and set the grant maximum at $15,000 each.

    Empire Health Foundation formed five years ago when nonprofit hospital operator Empire Health Services sold its assets to for-profit Community Health Systems Inc., the big hospital operator based in Franklin, Tenn.

    In addition to functioning as a health foundation, the organization serves as the workout entity that handles all of Empire Health Services' lingering financial obligations, ranging from malpractice lawsuits to an employee pension plan. Consequently, while the foundation will have $86 million in its endowment once it receives the Providence donation, it will have a total of $165 million under its management, Chiang says.

    "By volume, most of the trailing matters have been resolved," he says. However, the foundation likely will be handling parts of that—specifically the pension plan—for decades to come.

    The organization received an ownership interest in INHS similar in nature to what Empire Health Services had before selling its assets, but Chiang says that being part of a health services concern was never really part of the foundation's mission. He says talks of the separation have been ongoing for much of this year and evolved gradually, with no one particular party pushing for the foundation's departure.

    Big move

    As it looks to increase the amount of money it gives next year, Empire Health Foundation also is looking to increase dramatically the amount of space it occupies. Last August, the organization agreed to buy the Civic Building, at 1020 W. Riverside, from the Spokane Club for $775,000.

     The building currently is undergoing a substantial remodel that's expected to be completed in July. Yost, Mooney & Pugh Contractors LLC, of Spokane, is the general contractor on the project, and Madsen Mitchell Evenson & Conrad PLLC, also of Spokane, designed the improvements.

    Once completed, Chiang says, the building will be renamed the Philanthropy Center.

    Chiang says the foundation is reconfiguring some of the space within the building, and once that work is completed, the structure will have four levels with a total of about 25,000 square feet of floor space. The foundation will occupy about a third of the space itself and will lease about a third to other nonprofits or health care organizations. The final third of the building will be meeting rooms on the basement level for training and conferences.

    The foundation has been leasing about 2,100 square feet of space on the third floor of the Banner Bank building, at 111 N. Post.  Its lease there is expiring this month, so it plans to move to temporary offices in the Chancery Building, at 1023 W. Riverside, until the remodel of its new space is completed.