# Tara Health Foundation

Tara Health Foundation is an Endowment / Foundation based in San Francisco, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** San Francisco, CA, United States
- **Founded:** 2014
- **Assets under management:** $30M–$50M (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** tarahealthfoundation.org
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/tara-health-foundation

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Ruth Shaber, MD, established Tara Health Foundation in 2014 after a career as an OB/GYN and healthcare executive. The San Francisco-based foundation was designed as a 100% mission-aligned vehicle structured to spend out its entire corpus, directing its roughly $34.5 million pool exclusively toward gender, economic, and racial justice (Altss estimate). Shaber leads the foundation alongside Board Chair Michael Penn, aligning clinical and corporate discipline with philanthropic capital. Tara Health deploys its capital predominantly through direct venture capital strategies, making investments in companies that align with its justice mission. The foundation concentrates on healthcare services and related sectors, leveraging Shaber's clinical background. Its investment posture is reinforced through active participation in impact-investing networks including Confluence Philanthropy, Mission Investors Exchange, and The ImPact, which expand its co-investor and deal-sourcing pipelines. The foundation maintains a compact governance footprint, with Rachel Robasciotti — founder of Adasina Social Capital — serving on the board and Stasia Obremskey acting as Managing Director of RH Capital. While total assets remain undisclosed, the roughly $34.5 million corpus places the foundation in the small-to-mid-sized institutional category. Tara Health has incubated field-building efforts such as Rhia Ventures and the Orchid Capital Collective, translating philanthropic capital into specialized investment and advocacy platforms. Recent years have positioned the foundation as a regular participant at Confluence Philanthropy forums. Tara Health's architecture diverges from perpetual foundations by mandating a full spend-out of its corpus. This finite-horizon structure creates urgency in deployment and forces a concentrated, high-conviction portfolio rather than a perpetual endowment's approach to intergenerational capital preservation. The foundation's integration with impact-investor networks also blurs the line between family-office style direct investing and traditional grant-making, operating more like a mission-driven venture platform than a standard charitable trust.

## Sectors

- Healthcare Services
- Venture Capital

## People

- Ruth Shaber — Founder and President
- Michael Penn — Board Chair
- Rachel Robasciotti — Board Member
- Stasia Obremskey — Managing Director of RH Capital and former Fellow

## Questions

### Who leads investment decisions at Tara Health Foundation?

Ruth Shaber, the founder and president, drives the foundation's investment strategy. She works alongside the board, which includes Michael Penn and Rachel Robasciotti, to align capital deployment with the foundation's gender and racial justice mission. Stasia Obremskey, through RH Capital, also influences the foundation's venture-aligned focus.

### Is Tara Health structured as a perpetual foundation or a spend-out vehicle?

Tara Health is a 100% mission-aligned spend-out foundation. It plans to deploy its entire corpus during a limited lifespan rather than existing in perpetuity. This structure forces a concentrated, high-conviction deployment strategy aligned with immediate justice outcomes.

### How does Tara Health source its venture capital and advocacy investments?

The foundation sources investments through deep partnerships in the impact investing ecosystem. It is an active member of Confluence Philanthropy, Mission Investors Exchange, and The ImPact. These networks provide proprietary co-investment opportunities and connect the foundation with aligned entrepreneurs and fund managers.

### What is Tara Health's relationship with Rhia Ventures and the Orchid Capital Collective?

Tara Health has incubated Rhia Ventures and the Orchid Capital Collective as distinct platforms to advance reproductive and economic justice. These entities function as field-building extensions of the foundation's mission, translating philanthropic seed capital into specialized investment and advocacy vehicles.

## Related profiles

- [Penates Foundation](https://altss.com/profile/penates-foundation)
- [INDAPREV](https://altss.com/profile/indaprev)

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/tara-health-foundation

Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology