# Health Spark Foundation Health Spark Foundation is an Endowment / Foundation based in Colmar, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation - **Headquarters:** Colmar, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** Colmar, PA, United States - **Founded:** 2002 - **Assets under management:** $40M (Altss estimate) - **Website:** healthspark.org - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthspark-foundation ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About Health Spark Foundation was created in 2002 to strengthen Montgomery County, Pennsylvania's health and human services ecosystem. Emma Hertz leads a lean operation from Colmar, deploying capital exclusively within a region that sits just north of Philadelphia. The foundation is a private independent entity, not a conversion foundation tied to a hospital system — a structural nuance that gives it unusual freedom to pursue systemic interventions rather than disease-specific grants. The foundation operates a dual-track deployment model. The first track is traditional grantmaking focused on systems change, targeting systemic barriers across housing, healthcare, and food security. The second track is direct balance-sheet investing in community infrastructure. This includes ownership of the Community Partners Center, a commercial hub at 2506 N Broad Street in Colmar that houses local nonprofits, an adjacent affordable-housing residential property, and the Montco Housing Loan Fund. These real assets generate programmatic alignment and financial return, blurring the line between a grantmaking foundation and a community development financial institution. The $40M portfolio (Altss estimate) is managed with input from board member and CIO Nimrit Kang of North Star Asset Management. Health Spark pools capital with other local funders, including the Patricia Kind Family Foundation, on equity-focused grantmaking initiatives. The foundation maintains professional memberships in Grantmakers In Health, Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, and the Bucks-Mont Collaborative, reflecting a strategy built on regional coordination rather than national scale. In recent years, it launched the Dr. Frank E. Boston Black Justice Fund, an explicit racial-equity vehicle operating inside its Montgomery County footprint. Health Spark's structural differentiator is its integrated real-asset platform. It does not merely write grants to housing nonprofits; it owns and operates the physical infrastructure those nonprofits use. This landlord-operator posture gives it a permanent seat at the table in local housing-policy conversations, a capability that exceeds the typical influence of a $40M grantmaker and functions as a moat against larger, less embedded institutional funders. ## Sectors - Healthcare Services - Real Estate ## People - Emma Hertz — President and CEO ## Questions ### How does Health Spark Foundation deploy its capital? Health Spark operates a hybrid model that includes traditional systems-change grantmaking and direct investments in community infrastructure. The foundation's balance sheet holds real assets such as the Community Partners Center in Colmar, an adjacent affordable-housing property, and the Montco Housing Loan Fund. This allows it to support local nonprofits through both grants and below-market tenancy, creating a reinforcing cycle of place-based investment. ### Is Health Spark Foundation's geographic mandate truly limited to Montgomery County? Yes. All identifiable programmatic activity, including the pooled equity initiative with the Patricia Kind Family Foundation and the Dr. Frank E. Boston Black Justice Fund, operates within Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The foundation's real estate holdings are all in Colmar, PA. This hyper-local focus is foundational to its identity as a safety-net infrastructure funder for a single county. ### Who manages the investment portfolio at Health Spark? The foundation's investment governance benefits from board member Nimrit Kang, who serves as Chief Investment Officer at North Star Asset Management. As President and CEO, Emma Hertz oversees all programmatic and capital deployment decisions. Russell Johnson, the former President and CEO, previously led the organization before Hertz. ### How is the Dr. Frank E. Boston Black Justice Fund structured? The Dr. Frank E. Boston Black Justice Fund is a dedicated grantmaking vehicle housed within Health Spark Foundation. It focuses explicitly on advancing racial equity within Montgomery County, named after a pioneering Black physician and community leader. The fund represents the foundation's most overt effort to address systemic barriers through a race-conscious grantmaking lens. ### Does Health Spark co-invest directly with other local funders? Health Spark engages in pooled capital initiatives for equity-focused grantmaking alongside partners like the Patricia Kind Family Foundation. It is also deeply embedded in regional funder networks including Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia and the Bucks-Mont Collaborative, which facilitate coordinated, multi-funder responses to local health and human service gaps. ## Related profiles - [College of Saint Rose](https://altss.com/profile/college-of-saint-rose) - [The Leo and Peggy Pierce Family Foundation](https://altss.com/profile/the-leo-and-peggy-pierce-family-foundation) --- Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/health-spark-foundation Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology