The Henry W. Grady Health System Foundation is an entirely separate entity from the Grady Health System. All donated funds are accounted for separately from the health system, and these monies are never mixed. The foundation prides itself in utilizing private donations to leverage and invest funds in groundbreaking programs and services that provide a high return of investment to the health system.

The foundation has a strong and close working relationship with The Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, which governs the health system, as well as with the hospital president and chief executive officer and its operations leadership. Officials of the authority and hospital set the health care priorities and make funding recommendations to the foundation, whose board reviews these priorities and determines its own fund-raising goals.

The foundation’s practice of philanthropy is an integral part of the organization and honors the public trust the foundation was created to uphold. The foundation is legally, financially and morally obligated to practice:

• Aggressive public accountability, sharing with its constituencies honest, candid and regular reports on its performance

• Institutional integrity, exercising the right and moral fit between mission and institutional practices; building community support; and linking its core values with day-to-day business and management practices.

These tenets of the Henry W. Grady Health System Foundation provide a solid base from which to pursue its more specific goals, as determined by its board.