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The Ahmanson Foundation
Safeguarding vital care facilities.
The Ahmanson Foundation
Bill Ahmanson is president of The Ahmanson Foundation. A major supporter of Huntington Hospital for many years, The Ahmanson Foundation recently provided significant funding for essential infrastructure improvements to our Wingate and Hahn buildings.
Alongtime supporter of Huntington Hospital, The Ahmanson Foundation recently awarded renewed funding to help us further enhance our healthcare campus. Specifically, the foundation provided a significant grant toward important infrastructure improvements to our Wingate and Hahn buildings, built in 1961 and 1971 respectively.
While the State of California regularly updates seismic requirements for hospitals here, public funds do not cover upgrades to bring existing facilities into compliance — making the involvement of friends like The Ahmanson Foundation essential. The modifications we have now made to our Wingate and Hahn buildings will allow us to continue operation of the inpatient beds housed there and to deliver safe, uninterrupted care when local need is greatest. In light of the ongoing pandemic, we are especially grateful to the foundation for their strategic leadership involvement.
“Our region’s population is expanding and aging,” says Bill Ahmanson, president of The Ahmanson Foundation, “and we felt it was important that the hospital have an appropriate number of beds to continue meeting local care needs.”
The Ahmanson Foundation’s support has ensured that we can continue meeting our community’s needs for inpatient beds, like the one pictured here.
Work supported by the foundation also included upgrades to the Wingate and Hahn buildings’ utility systems, as well as the installation of newer fire safety features. In the past, The Ahmanson Foundation has helped us complete other significant projects in service to our community, including expansion of our Nan and Howard Schow Emergency & Trauma Center.
For everyone’s benefit.
The Ahmanson Foundation was founded in 1952, with initial funding from financier Howard F. Ahmanson and his wife, Dorothy Grannis Ahmanson. Today, it plays a major role in the life and well-being of our region. “Our philanthropy is directed toward organizations serving the greater Los Angeles community,” says Bill, “with support concentrated in the areas of arts and humanities, education, human services, and health and medicine.
“We aim to make grants that will benefit everyone in the community where the grant is made,” Bill continues. With this in mind, the foundation has provided funding to numerous hospitals and community clinics across the county over the years.
Bill notes that longtime foundation trustee Stephen Rountree played a significant role in advocating for our own most
recent grant award. (Steve and his wife, Carol, are San Gabriel Valley residents and have personally experienced care at the hospital.) “The foundation’s nine-member board of trustees is responsible for final funding decisions,” Steve explains. “I helped convey that while behind-thewalls work on the Wingate and Hahn buildings might not seem very glamorous, it was nonetheless essential,” he says. “The community really needs the beds housed there.”
Rigorous and responsive.
Bill notes that The Ahmanson Foundation conducts a very thorough evaluation of every application it receives, and asks probing questions to guide the trustees’ decisions. While the trustees occasionally consider requests for grants toward program services, the foundation primarily supports capital projects.
“This includes providing support to update or renovate existing buildings,” says Bill. In fact, he adds, given the historic lack of available real estate in the region, and the evident environmental benefits of recycling facilities rather than building anew, “We especially like to see existing buildings like Wingate and Hahn being remodeled whenever possible.”
