Iowa is getting more than $9 million to improve its system of care for stroke patients, and to address staffing issues among public-health workers in rural areas.

The money is being donated by the Helmsley Charitable Trust, with $6 million of it going to the American Heart Association's (AHA's) "Mission: Lifeline Stroke" initiative across the state.

Michelle Scharnott, national vice president for business development and strategic initiatives for the American Heart Association, said the program strives to bring more coordination and efficiency to hospitals, first responders, rehabilitation centers and others when delivering this kind of care.

"It's figuring out that destination decision and who has what capabilities within the state," Scharnott outlined. "And assessing that patient immediately to make sure the best decision is made."

The association, which is also contributing funds, noted stroke is among the leading causes of death in Iowa, with more than 1,400 such cases in 2020.

Helmsley is also granting $3 million in Iowa and two other states for AHA to launch its "HeartCorps" program. It involves adding public-health workers in rural settings, especially in counties ranking among the least healthy.

Officials explained the workers can focus on helping people improve their cardiovascular health. As for streamlining stroke care.

Walter Panzirer, trustee for the Helmsley Charitable Trust, said it helps to ensure patients return to their lives and their communities.

"In small towns, if the owner of a lumber mill, for example, or any small-town business, has a life-threatening stroke, that business might not be around anymore," Panzirer emphasized.

Previously, the philanthropic organization donated nearly $5 million for a similar AHA program in Iowa to address heart-attack care. And it recently provided funding for large trucks to travel to smaller Iowa communities, allowing rural health providers more access to training and equipment for general health care needs.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Century 21 had raised more than $30 million. The correct amount is more than $3 million. (5:48 p.m. MDT, July 24, 2024)


More than 60 million Americans identify as disabled and many of them turn to nonprofit agencies such as Easterseals for therapy and other assistance.

The organization that became Easterseals was founded more than 100 years ago and has become the largest nonprofit health care agency in the country.

Kendra Davenport, president and CEO of Easterseals, said seeing to the health and wellness of more than 1.5 million people with disabilities is only possible with its team of national corporate sponsors, who collectively raise millions of dollars each year.

"It's critical because, unlike a for-profit, nonprofits have to raise their budget, whether they're raising it through government grants, foundation grants or corporate funding," Davenport pointed out. "And then, of course, there's the funding that comes in through individual donations. That's what sustains nonprofits."

As an example, Davenport cited Century 21 as a partner, raising more than $3 million in 2023 and $138 million during the life of its affiliation.

Easterseals has more than a dozen other corporate partners, including companies like Comcast-NBCUniversal, Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines.

Davenport explained Easterseals got its name in 1934 from the practice of having donors put a stamp or seal on their donation envelopes. She noted the organization and its dozens of local affiliates work to enhance quality of life and expand local access to health care, education, and employment opportunities for children and adults.

"We provide essential services and on-the-ground support to millions of individuals and their families every year, from early childhood to the critical first five years," Davenport emphasized. "These include autism services, transportation, medical rehab and employment programs that target and assist veterans and senior citizens."

She added it is an ongoing challenge to extend the Easterseals brand because, despite more than a century of service, very few people understand the scope of what the organization does.

"Sixty-one million Americans identify as being disabled," Davenport reported. "That's a quarter of the American population. More people need to understand just how many people are disabled so that we can ensure that our world becomes more inclusive, more equitable and more accessible."


get more stories like this via email

A new report argued many charitable foundations need to examine the origin of their wealth and repair harms done.

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy used publicly available information to examine how historic business fortunes behind some foundations were made. Drawing on historic examples of businesses profiting from systemic racism and discrimination, the report titled "Cracks in the Foundation" stressed the need for philanthropic organizations to do their own research, connect with Black communities, and move charity dollars toward repairs.

Claire Dunning, assistant professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, served on the report's advisory committee and said foundations can seek partnerships including local history centers to help with the process.

"This doesn't have to be a private, or sort of closed-off process," Dunning contended. "It can be one rooted in transparency and inviting people in. And again, that can be uncomfortable. But I would argue that's not an excuse to not begin this important work."

The report presented case studies tracking the economic history of eight foundations in the Washington, D.C., area. The study's authors said they seek to make difficult conversations easier and are presenting the case studies as educational guides for an accountability and healing journey.

In looking at historic harms, the report focused on four sectors: media including anti-Black rhetoric; housing including discrimination, segregation and displacement; employment including stolen labor; and health care including mental and physical harm and neglect. The report assessed harm using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Dunning stressed in looking to the historical record to find evidence of past harm, researchers must take a broad view.

"We need to think about how newspaper accounts or advertisements for a particular neighborhood that talk about restrictive covenants. That's a form of evidence," Dunning pointed out. "We can think about oral histories of people who are displaced from certain neighborhoods or who were denied equal wages in an employment situation, that's a form of evidence."

The Federal government requires private foundations to use their assets to benefit society. Each year they must distribute at least 5% of the market value of their endowment to charitable purposes.


get more stories like this via email

A new report said philanthropic organizations need to reexamine the source of their wealth, which it asserted often came from systemic racism and discrimination, and stressed the need to repair the harm done to Black communities.

Called "Cracks in the Foundation," the report from the National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy examines at the histories of eight grantmakers.

Katherine Ponce, research manager of special projects for the committee, explained how the report was developed.

"There's four categories of harm we focus on," Ponce pointed out. "It's anti-Black media and rhetoric, housing discrimination and segregation, unemployment and hidden opportunity, and then health care, both mental and physical."

The report urged grantmakers to reckon with their past, connect with harmed communities, work to repair the damage, make sure any harm doesn't continue and advocate for funding for reparations. While the report focuses on the Washington, D.C., area, it mentions California's Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans as an encouraging development.

Hanh Le, co-CEO of if: A Foundation for Radical Possibility, which commissioned the report and is one of the institutions examined, said her organization once believed the money to endow the foundation came from a health association jointly created by Black and Jewish workers when in fact, the agency initially excluded Black workers.

"Every foundation has an origin story that we believe ties the wealth that generated the endowment for those foundations to racialized capitalism, to structural racism," Le contended. "We all have an obligation to know that truth, to reckon with the truth and to repair the harm."

Debra Watkins, founder and executive director of San Jose-based ABEN, which stands for A Black Education Network, said to play a role in repair, grantmakers should invest in Black-led organizations, which still only get a fraction of the billions given annually.

"Foundations that have amassed their wealth as a result of harm done to Black people over decades, now have an obligation to fund Black-led work," Watkins urged. "And also to ameliorate conditions under which Black people still live."