The Greater St. Louis Health Foundation began as Group Health Plan of Greater St. Louis (GHP). GHP was founded in 1980, and was the first Health Maintenance Organization in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. The initial Planning Grant was developed through a cooperative effort among Saint Louis University Hospitals, the then Deaconess Hospital, the former Union Pacific Hospital, and a community group known as The Midwest Health Plan. The Plan, founded as a not-for- profit organization, was seeded by a multi-million dollar grant from the Department of Health and Human Services of the Federal Government. Our goal was to provide quality health care, while at the same time reducing spiraling health care costs in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. The goal was achieved by keeping patients healthy, and by reducing costly hospital stays. In order to accomplish our objectives it became obvious that more financial resources were needed then could be generated through clinical operations alone. To raise funds for expanding facilities, equipment, and skilled medical personal the Board of Directors resolved to convert GHP to a for-profit corporation, and to issue equity shares as a means of raising additional capital. With the proceeds from sale of shares in GHP, the Group Health Plan Foundation was formed. Our purpose became to provide funds to help not-for-profit organizations promote health and prevent illness in the Greater St. Louis area through grant support and financial aid. The new foundation was chartered in 1985 with a corpus of approximately $4 million. In the year 2000, the name of the Foundation was changed to the Greater St. Louis Health Foundation (GHF) in order to avoid confusion with Group Health Plan, which had become one of St. Louis’ largest and most successful Health Maintenance Organizations. We believe that the new name better reflects our focus, and distances us from any other organizations or particular methods of health care delivery.

The Foundation’s Board of Directors meets quarterly and consists of seven, all of whom were original founders of Group Health Plan. Day to day operations are managed by the Executive Committee, grants are reviewed and recommended for funding by the Awards Committee, and the Foundation’s finances are monitored by the Finance Committee. We are proud of our philanthropic record over more than two decades of operation as a Foundation. We have funded approximately 200 grant awards, and have given away over $4 million, while our corpus remains just over $4 million. We believe that this is an admirable accomplishment, reflecting responsible management under any economic conditions, but especially so, given the turbulent economic times of the past several years.

On this site, you will find additional information about GHF, contact information, grant application guidelines and procedures, and examples of some of our grant awards.

Thank you for visiting our web site, and considering GHF for your health care project funding needs. We look forward to visiting with you further, and to working with you in improving the health of the citizens of the St. Louis Metropolitan area.

Ralph Biddy, M.D., Vice President and member of the Executive Committee, Awards Committee
Richard Ellerbrake, President and member of the Executive Committee, Finance Committee
K. R. Guethle, member Finance Committee
Thomas H. Lake, Esq., member Awards Committee Darwin W. Schlag, Jr. C.P.A. member Finance Committee
Taylor C. Scott, C.P.A., Treasurer, member Executive Committee, Finance Committee (chairman)
Robert M. Swanson, Ph.D., Secretary, member Executive Committee, Awards Committee (chairman)

Deceased founding members of the Board
Stephen Ayres, M.D.
Ed Edgerly, Ph.D.
George Gernsey
Martin Greenberg, DDS
Marvin A. Mueller
Kenneth Worley

Other founding members no longer on the Board
Glen Hickey
Ron Lodder
Robert Powers
Richard Stensrud