Dear Friends:
The year 2007 presented us with some exciting opportunities to launch our Foundation to a higher level of service, standards, and visibility in Pennsylvania’s nonprofit community. The faces you will see throughout this report belong to the people who helped us make that leap upward to test our abilities and prove our strengths.
With the decision to meet the challenges of our new objectives came the task of deeply examining our role as a nonprofit organization at the local, state, and national levels. How do we compare to other nonprofit organizations in the areas of values, policies, and programs? Are we ready to take our programs to a higher plane? Can we sustain that level of commitment to our participants?
In April, we received confirmation that we are on the right track. The Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO) presented us with its Seal of Excellence. It was an acknowledgement that we had successfully passed PANO’sAn Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector, an honor bestowed upon organizations that display values such as honesty, integrity, fairness, respect, trust, responsibility, transparency, and accountability. We are pleased to say that we have met those criteria and can be proud of our achievement—and we couldn’t have accomplished it without our donors.
To express gratitude for the support our dedicated contributors give to the Foundation year-round, we honored them at our first donor recognition luncheon. Traditionally, we have held an annual donor evening gala to recognize Foundation Fellows and premier level donors, but we decided an afternoon celebration would create convenience for traveling and extended time to socialize. The effort was well-received and 46 people traveled from across several states to attend the event on the last Saturday in March.
For our Physicians’ Health Programs (PHP), the year was exceptionally busy. Before the year ended, staff had received 169 referrals for impaired physicians and other medical professionals. This represented the second highest number of referrals the PHP has had in a one-year period since the program’s conception. To establish a closer connection with participants, in September the PHP brought back its popular PHP Family Weekend. The event gathered past and present PHP participants to share in the recovery process through sessions on addiction and networking with recovering physicians from throughout the state. In addition to this effort to stay connected with past and present participants, the PHP reissued its PHP Update newsletter, which mailed in August.
Student Financial Services (SFS) had a positive year and was eager to award its new medical student scholarship in November: (ACMS) Medical Student Scholarship. This became the sixth scholarship that the SFS has administered for generous donors who choose to establish a fund within the Foundation. The scholarship committee selected two students to receive $2,000 each to help with tuition. Also, SFS received word that a seventh scholarship, Montgomery County Medical Society Scholarship, will be coming aboard and housed within the Foundation for presentation in the future.
Aside from our program activities, by the close of September, we unveiled our revamped Web site. The fresh look features a video testimonial area where student loan borrowers and donors can share their personal Foundation experiences with site visitors. In addition, the colors and photos complement our other collateral material to give the Foundation a consistent and recognizable identity.
Finally, for the third year in a row, we engaged in a partnership with Alvernia College in Reading to offer the to physicians and other medical professionals. Courses spanned 22 months and addressed topics pertinent to today’s health care marketplace. They helped scholars develop business tactics to apply to real-world solutions, and, in March, the recent cohort had an opportunity to use those skills during a humanitarian service project in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The class, which graduated in December, put a great deal of heart into the program, and we were pleased to have met such a fine group of compassionate, dedicated individuals who want to make a difference in the medical field.
Making a difference is also what the Foundation strives to do. For 54 years, we have literally seen thousands of faces pass through our doors—faces of those who come to us in need and faces of those who give to us to ensure we have the means to fulfill that need. We take great pride in serving each one of them to the best of our ability. These faces—these people—that we encounter are the lifeblood of our organization, and we are honored that they made the Foundation part of their lives in 2007. We extend a warm thank you to all who believed in our programs and services in the past and throughout the year.
Regards,
Raymond C. Truex Jr., MD, FACS
2007 Board Chairman
Virginia B. Henning, CPA
Executive Director
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