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Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago
The Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago began in 1889 when Jane Addams and a cohort of civic-minded women organized a visiting nurse service for the city's...
Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago
The Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago began in 1889 when Jane Addams and a cohort of civic-minded women organized a visiting nurse service for the city's poor. The operating entity provided maternity care, chronic disease management, and school nursing for 106 years. It dissolved in 1995 amid mounting competition, but its endowment and mission transferred to the VNA Foundation, which now grants exclusively to nonprofit health providers in the Chicago metropolitan area. The Foundation deploys roughly $3 million per year (per the Foundation, 2023). Its grant portfolio targets direct-service health organizations: free clinics, mobile health units, home-nursing programs, and behavioral-health safety nets. Assets are held in a diversified institutional portfolio spanning U.S. equities, corporate bonds, government obligations, and mortgage loans — managed with oversight from an investment committee chaired by Laura N. Stern, a CFA charterholder and founder of Doyenne Wealth Advisors. The Foundation operates from a single office at 200 W. Madison Street in Chicago. Executive Director Robert DiLeonardi co-founded Exponent Philanthropy and served two terms as its Chair, embedding the Foundation in a network of smaller, high-engagement grantmakers. Board members are active in the CFA Society of Chicago and Women Investment Professionals. The Foundation does not manage any own-and-operate healthcare services; the direct nursing lineage continued through a separate successor, VNA Health Care. The Foundation's architecture is distinct: a conversion foundation born from an operating nonprofit's dissolution, holding a perpetual endowment to fund other providers rather than deliver care itself. This structural distance between grantmaking corpus and grantee operations creates a durable, countercyclical funding posture — the portfolio continues to generate grant dollars regardless of any individual grantee's viability.
General information
Firm type
Endowment / Foundation
Year founded
1889
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Chicago
Corporate office
200 W. Madison St, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60606
Principals
Robert N. DiLeonardi
Executive Director
Laura N. Stern
Chair of the Investment Committee and Board Member
Brigid E. Kenney
Chair of the Board of Directors
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What happened to the original Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago operating entity?
The original VNA-C dissolved in 1995 after 106 years of operations. Competition from commercial home-health agencies and hospital-based nursing programs eroded its patient base. Its assets and mission transferred to the VNA Foundation, which was established to continue supporting community health through grantmaking rather than direct service delivery (public record, 1995).
Who oversees the investment portfolio at the VNA Foundation?
The Investment Committee is chaired by Laura N. Stern, CFA, who also founded Doyenne Wealth Advisors (per the Foundation). Committee members are drawn from the Chicago investment community, including past presidents of the CFA Society of Chicago and Women Investment Professionals. The portfolio is institutionally structured, spanning equities, fixed income, and mortgage loans.
Does the VNA Foundation make grants outside the Chicago area?
No. The Foundation restricts grants to nonprofits serving the Chicago metropolitan area. It prioritizes direct-service health providers, including free and charitable clinics, mobile health units, and home-based nursing programs — continuing the geographic and programmatic focus of the original VNA (per the Foundation).
How is the VNA Foundation different from VNA Health Care?
They are separate entities. VNA Health Care is a federally qualified health center that continues the direct nursing services of the original VNA. The VNA Foundation is a grantmaking institution that holds the endowment and makes grants to multiple health nonprofits. There is no parent-subsidiary relationship between them (per the Foundation).
What is the Foundation's connection to Jane Addams?
Jane Addams, best known as the founder of Hull House, was a charter member of the original Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago in 1889. She helped establish the organization's founding principle: that skilled nursing care should be accessible regardless of a patient's ability to pay. The Foundation continues to reference this lineage, though it is not operationally tied to Hull House or its successor organizations.
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