Program seeking its own health

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — After 14 years of helping to ensure the health of lower-income children, the nonprofit Glendale Healthy Kids is working to ensure its own continued health through the formation of a $1 million endowment that would protect against the financial scrapes and bruises that often come with economic downturns.

Endowment funds form the basis of the long term financial health of an institution by providing a steady, reliable revenue stream through interest and investment earnings, but they more often exist at larger nonprofits or universities due to the amount of work it takes to get them established without a wealthy benefactor.

Glendale Healthy Kids — formed in 1994 to provide healthcare to lower-income children who had been primarily being serviced at local emergency rooms and school nurse programs — may be established, but it has remained lean over the years with an average of just 4.5 employees, which makes the endowment somewhat of a longer term endeavor, Executive Director Camille Levee said.

But for a nonprofit that relies almost entirely on private grants and donations, the alternative of counting on rosy economic landscapes can be unpredictable and dangerous, she said.

Like many smaller organizations, Glendale Healthy Kids has had its share of lean times, said longtime board member Bruce Nelson, who also directs the Community Services Center at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

“We have struggled financially, there’s no questions,” he said. “Organizations like Glendale Healthy Kids cannot live on grants forever.”

In fiscal year 2006-07, the nonprofit took in about $47,600 in individual contributions, $20,000 in federal grant funding and $378,816 from special events, investment income and in-kind donations. But it’s largest single source of income was from 12 private foundations, which provided $217,670, according to the nonprofit’s annual report.

But those foundations are also susceptible to economic downturns in the same way federal grant money becomes scarce during tight budget seasons.

“So the best way to hedge your bets . . . is to develop an endowment,” Levee said.