ONEOHIO RECOVERY FOUNDATION CELEBRATES FIRST ANNIVERSARY
Foundation Reviews Major Milestones as it Prepares to Enter New Grantmaking Phase
Today the OneOhio Recovery Foundation celebrated its first anniversary, highlighting its achievements over the past year as it prepares to leave its start-up phase and enter its grant-making phase.
“If you were to tell me a year ago that an organization charged with shepherding more than $500 million could go from zero to where we are today with no staff for most of that time and no blueprint or precedent to guide us, well, I would have had my doubts,” said Board Chair Larry Kidd. “But we did it and it’s given us the confidence we need to go up to the next level and prepare to begin distributing funds to support addiction prevention, treatment and recovery.”
Since its creation one year ago, the Foundation has:
• Established detailed policies for governance; transparency; finances and investment procedures; diversity, equity and inclusion; conflict of interest; records retention; whistleblowers; excess benefit transactions; and gift acceptance.
• Launched a website, social media accounts, and tools to effectively communicate with the public and foster transparency.
• Held monthly public board meetings to ensure that all the Foundation’s business, policy development, allocations and other decision making are conducted transparently and in accordance with established policies.
• Held more than 40 meetings with stakeholder groups representing addiction prevention, treatment and recovery, health, first responders and other related fields across the state.
• Finalized the Foundation’s grant-making policy, hired a director of grants management, and selected grant software to be used for the upcoming grant application, review, and distribution process.
• Hired an Interim Executive Director, an Interim Chief Financial Officer, additional support staff and contract services, and began an open process for selecting a permanent Executive Director.
• Established the Foundation’s expert panel policy and received more than 90 applications from Ohioans seeking to serve on the panel, which will provide guidance to the Board and members of its 19 regional boards as projects are considered for funding.
"I am grateful to the 29 board members who have come together with me and, literally, built this organization from scratch. The progress we have made in just 12 months and the effort they have contributed is what you would expect to see given the importance of the mission. It’s what Ohioans deserve,” said Interim Executive Director Kathryn Whittington. "We will soon enter our grant-making phase and see significant sums of money start going to important efforts across the state that help make a difference in combating addiction to protect and save lives.”
The Foundation has been working with experienced grant-making professionals to design processes and an infrastructure by which organizations will submit grants according to established criteria. These applications will be reviewed for approval at the regional level, and then passed up to the Foundation for final review and funding. More details will be announced soon regarding how organizations can submit applications.
