Minutes of the Board of Directors, The Special Hope Foundation

After receiving proper notice via e-mail on Sept 6, 2011, a quorum of the Directors named either by the Incorporator or listed in the Articles of Incorporation, constituting the Board of Directors of this Corporation, held their meeting at this time, on the day, and at the place set forth as follows:

TIME: 7:00 pm
DATE: Sept 20, 2011
PLACE: Special Hope Foundation Office,
2225 E. Bayshore Road, Suite 200,
Menlo Park, CA 94303

The following Directors, constituting a quorum of the full Board, were present at the meeting:

Lynne O’Hara, President
John O’Hara, Vice-President
Tracie Sloat
Margaret Motamed, Secretary
Jackie Donaho, Treasurer
Carrie Jones (Via Skype)
Lucy Crain, MD (via phone)

Minutes Approved

The first order of business involved the review of the minutes from the previous Board Meeting on May 17, 2011. All reviewed and accepted the minutes.

Review of Existing Business

Old Business

  • Harder + Co Report presentation – Clare Nolan – The research did not find any one private foundation organization (versus one that funds in this area specifically (the intersection of DD and healthcare). We will however use the report as part of our funder communication and outreach to other foundations.
  • Board Orientation update- Orientation was held in August for all of our new Board Members. Welcome new members!
  • Note: just prior to the meeting, Lynne presented her TPW West program final project

Updates from Previous Grantees:

  • No update presented at this meeting in the interest of time and as a recognition of the new focus of the foundation going forward.

Committee Reports

Discussion on web-based grantmaking program

Some workflow challenges (usability issues) with using Foundant, though overall it was quite helpful to have all of the documents electronically posted in one place. Lynne will take our specific comments to Foundant:

  1. Back arrow support needed – needs to go back to the previous page
  2. Print packet buttons did not work on all platforms and browsers (for example FireFox on Windows)
  3. Print packet ideally will combine the LOI, Staff comments, and Application into one pdf file, and then we can choose to print the pdf (or as many pages as needed)

Report from Finance Committee – Jackie Donaho

  • Quarterly Financial Report – The financial report was presented from verbally to Jun 30, 2011. Variances to budget were explained. Lynne will post the correct Financial Report up to the internal site and notify the Board.
  • Investment Report – Lynne will check with the investment advisors and post the updated correct version up to the internal site
  • Update on Grant Budget to date
    $100,000 Hope Technology School is in the middle of a 3 year grant cycle and will receive 100,000 in Jan 2012.
    $20,000 was already paid to the Developmental Disabilities Health Conference in July 2011
    The full $270,000 that is in the Grant proposals is available for spend this year if the Board were to approval all requests.

Grant Review

  • Compassionate Care for California
    • Would like to see the presentations offered in partnership with the broader groups, the established system so that we will be linking with the current systems for DNR and DNI. Established systems include the “Front of the refrigerator system” and the “card in the wallet” system that are already in place. That is where emergency response teams look today when approaching a patient. Even a small change like “look inside the cabinet” would be a significant change. We would like to see inclusion with the current system. For example integration with the medical alert bracelet, American Medical Association and other listed above.
    • Decision – fully fund and ask them to report back on their progress against our feedback.
    • Side conversation: what are our options for giving feedback to the grantees:
      • Conditional funding (less common)
      • Partial funding with feedback
      • No funding with feedback
  • Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
    • Concern that the education may stigmatize the population – we want this education to be positive
    • Decision – fully fund
  • East Bay Innovations
    • Concern about scalability and upkeep/staleness of the information
    • How will they teach others or scale this if successful? Is there a way to replicate? To disseminate and share?
    • They are open to sharing this with other organizations and to train other organizations.
    • This is the development of an innovative model – rather than one off grant that would just serve 15 clients. This is using story telling to communicate and to teach healthcare providers.
    • Note: how can we learn from their success?
    • Decision – fully fund
  • The Achievable Foundation
    • Given their plans for expansion we anticipate that they will be pulling in adults and also pulling in USC
    • They also received a grant for $80,000 to start their clinic from another organization
    • Decision – fully fund
  • The Arc of San Francisco
    • Esperanza Clinic is still looking for a doctor. Management is getting creative and looking at rotating through residents to provide the care
    • Arc is now focusing on medical, and the want to make this one of their flagships
    • The program manager and leveraging other funders would be the bulk of the use of our grant
    • They already have Health Advocates and they are sending them on client visits. The Health Advocacy program is really one of a kind and we would like to encourage them to go further with this.
    • Decision – fully fund

New Business

Strategic Planning Consultant

  • Recommendation from Lynne is to go with Arabella because the TPI strength is building a collaborative (and there are not enough funders in this space to build a collaborative)
  • Decision – we will hire Arabella who will facilitate our strategic planning at our retreat
  • Lynne, Tracie, and Margaret are the Retreat planning sub-committee

ASF Trustee Seminar – December 5, 2011, San Francisco – recommended by Tracie and Carrie, board members are invited to attend.

The Board Retreat – January 20-21, 2012. The Inn at Oyster Point in South San Francisco. Additional Details will be posted on the website and on the board Facebook page. Friday night board meeting 8-9:30pm dinner on your own. And all day Saturday strategic planning.

Next regularly scheduled Meeting – May 15, 2012 at 5pm at The Special Hope Foundation boardroom.

Adjournment

There being no further business to come before the meeting, upon motion duly made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 8:52 p.m. PST.

________________________________________

Lynne O’Hara, President

________________________________________

Margaret Motamed, Secretary