Ken Haber, second from the right cuts the ribbon on a new wing
Two days ago, I met with the Lakewood Hospital Foundation...
Here is what I walked away with...
I had the pleasure, and I do mean pleasure, of spending some time with Ken Haber, President of the Lakewood Hospital Foundation, Kristin Broadbent, CFRE Executive Director, Lakewood Hospital Foundation and Jill Arslanian, from the Ardent Communications Group.
I have known Ken and Kathy Haber for a long time, and always enjoy running into them at functions, meetings and Lakewood events. Kristin I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with on many things with the Lakewood Hospital Foundation since we started the Lakewood Observer, and the Lakewood Hospital Foundation is one of the many charities we support throughout the year. So it was nice to sit down and talk about the Lakewood Hospital Foundation and what was their future.
Ken made it clear from the very start no questions were off the table, with one exception, that “this was a meeting to discuss the Lakewood Hospital Foundation, not the Hospital Deal, or Hospital Board” which Ken also sits on. Which was fine. Since the story broke I have not seen Ken around. It would be refreshing to hear Ken’s comments, which started with, “Let’s correct some misinformation…”
The Lakewood Hospital Foundation is a non-profit started to raise funds exclusively to support various programs, services and activities of the Lakewood Hospital, and to help address health needs through their association with the Lakewood Hospital and the surrounding areas. That the fund which totals roughly $33,000,000 is made up of various accounts restricted and not restricted. Restricted is money contributed to the Lakewood Hospital Foundation for various reasons. This is usually given as an outright donation or left in a Will, such as XXXX money towards rehabilitation services…, XXXX amount to help with Diabetes management programs, etc. Unrestricted is money raised through a variety of means from Wills and donations without stipulation.
The largest chunk of unrestricted money that they control is $14 million. Another $8 million is permanently restricted by donors for endowment, which means only the interest/income from the fund can support the hospital. There is also another $9 million restricted where the Foundation has a beneficial interest in funds held by outside trustees. This leaves about $2 million in temporarily restricted funds for specific hospital programs and services. $33 million.
I asked Ken what the plans were for this money, and his response was, well we are looking at many options available legally to us. In the State of Ohio, Foundations have a wide variety of latitude that spans from dissolving the Foundation, to repurposing the Foundation. No matter what is decided, donors, executors, and/or trustees of permanently restricted dollars should be found, and given an explanation of what the Foundation is doing, and then those donors have to approve it if they want to continue with LHF or not.
This could take months to get done. As you can imagine, many donors have passed on, as have their executors!
Whatever the outcome, Ken was sure that their focus would be health and wellness connected with Lakewood and the surrounding area. I asked, “Surrounding area?” and Ken mentioned that many of those who supported LHF during its 58 year history were from out of the city, so a wider net will need to be cast.
As for the structure it gets even more confusing, if you let it. The LHF funds are counted with Lakewood Hospital Association funds (LHA, the Hospital Board) because of accounting rules, that state simply, LHF funds were raised exclusively to supplement LHA funds, so LHA must report them.
Another interesting thing to come out of this discussion was, “THE LAKEWOOD HOSPITAL FOUNDATION HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WORK DONE BY THE LAKEWOOD HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION.
All of the negations were done by the LHA, that Ken sits on, but it was not until they got a copy of the LOI on January 8, that Ken informed the staff and the Foundation Trustees, who voted on January 13, to give Ken the ability to sign off on the deal, as while they were not in on the discussion, they certainly are affected by the outcome.
So there you have it, LHF, $33 million, looking for a way to make it all work, and to keep the money within the Foundation while they redefine their purpose and future.
* The facts presented in this have been signed off on by the LHF.
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