The Health Trust

The Health Trust

The Health Trust was established in 1996 when the nonprofit Health Dimensions sold its San Jose Medical Center to Columbia/HCA, using the roughly $50M in proceeds to create a health-improvement grantmaker for Santa Clara County. Anchored in its Healthy Living, Healthy Aging, and Healthy Communities initiatives, the foundation channels its annual grantmaking toward food security, chronic-disease prevention, and housing stability for the region's low-income and unhoused populations. Unlike the region's technology philanthropies, The Health Trust operates as a public-health conversion foundation — a structure created when a nonprofit hospital or plan is sold, locking its charitable assets into community benefit. The trust manages a portfolio that mixes traditional public-markets exposure with alternative assets. Institutional commitments include positions in SEI Global Private Assets IV and V, signaling a fund-of-funds approach to private-equity access. The foundation also holds direct commercial real estate: its headquarters at 3180 Newberry Drive in San Jose and the Juan Hernandez Drive mixed-use property in Morgan Hill. The real-estate portfolio generates a steady income stream, reinforcing an investment posture that prizes predictable, yield-producing assets to underwrite multi-year grantmaking cycles across Santa Clara County. The board reflects a blend of public-health and bioscience leadership. Chair Rhonda McClinton-Brown serves as a deputy director at Santa Clara County Public Health, while Vice Chair David O'Reilly is managing director of Bayview Biosciences. The Health Trust partners with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which houses donor-advised funds like The Staple Family Fund. The foundation also maintains memberships in regional philanthropic networks — the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits, Northern California Grantmakers, and Grantmakers In Health — and holds an indirect connection to NAIOP Silicon Valley through board member Lucy Lofrumento. Most conversion foundations eventually spend down or merge; The Health Trust has instead built a durable asset base and a generational leadership pipeline. The 2025 appointment of Dr. Anthony Iton — a former senior vice president at The California Endowment and a national voice on the social determinants of health — signals an intent to widen the foundation's policy footprint while preserving its Santa Clara County mandate. That combination of a locked charitable base, yield-focused real assets, and a nationally recognized public-health leader separates it from the typical local health funder.