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The Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region is thrilled to announce that we are the recipient of an initial $7.25 million gift from the Hortense and Louis Rubin Dialysis Center, which will create the Hortense and Louis Rubin Community Health Fund. This Fund will support nonprofit organizations and programs dedicated to the prevention, management, and treatment of kidney disease and the associated co-morbidities of kidney disease for residents of New York’s greater Capital Region.
The net assets of the Hortense and Louis Rubin Dialysis Center, accumulated during its years of operations (1986-2014) and subsequent sale of their three dialysis centers and related real estate in September 2014, are expected to be in the $15-20 million range, after all outstanding financial obligations have been met by the Rubin Dialysis Center. These remaining funds will be added to the Community Foundation’s Rubin Community Health Fund over the next several years, potentially doubling the amount of annual grants made from the fund.
The announcement was made in conjunction with #GivingTuesday, a five-year-old effort to drive charitable donations during the holiday season.
“The Foundation is honored to have been recognized by the Rubin Dialysis Center for our philanthropic expertise and unsurpassed community knowledge,” said John Eberle, President and CEO of the Community Foundation. “It will be a privilege to work with the Rubin Community Health Fund to award grants to effective, innovative programs benefiting Capital Region residents. The Foundation looks forward to stewarding this generous gift so that the Rubin Community Health Fund can benefit local residents for generations to come.”
“This is the start of an exciting new era for the Community Foundation,” said Jackie Mahoney, Vice President of Programs for the Community Foundation. “Thanks to the Rubin Community Health Fund, we will be able to do even more to help local people and families affected by kidney disease and related issues, which is a major health challenge in the Capital Region and throughout the United States. This Fund will allow us to make bigger, more impactful grants, with the potential to turn the tide on kidney disease and its causes right here in our community.”
“It was important to the Board of Directors of the Rubin Dialysis Center that the proceeds from the sale of the Center maintained the spirit of Louis and Hortense Rubin’s original gift,” said Neil Roberts, President of the Board of Directors of the Rubin Dialysis Center and a member of the Community Foundation Board. “The Community Foundation has a triad of protections to ensure the continuation of the innovative approaches of the Rubin Dialysis Center in treating, working to prevent the conditions that lead to kidney disease and helping those suffering from the effects of poor renal function. We’re pleased that the Rubin Community Health Fund will strengthen the region’s continuum of care for people currently affected by kidney disease and related issues, and work to aggressively address the causes of renal failure.”
“We are glad to acknowledge the creation of this new Fund,” said Betsey Rubin-Rosenbaum, Ellen Briskman (nee Rubin), and Robert Rubin, Hortense and Louis’s three children. “Our parents, Horty and Lou Rubin, loved this community and showed this love by their deeds and actions. Many families have been served by the Rubin Dialysis Center and many more will benefit from the Fund in the future. We are pleased that Emily Briskman [daughter of Ellen and granddaughter of Hortense and Louis] will serve on the newly-created Advisory Committee. The Troy Center began because the Rubins saw the enormous challenges patients and families of patients needing dialysis experienced. We are appreciative of the efforts of the staff, administrators and Board who nurtured the growth of the three centers and created and expanded the innovative home-based program, thereby allowing them to flourish.”
Additional information about the creation of the Hortense and Louis Rubin Community Health Fund:
- The Rubin Dialysis Center was created in 1986 with a charitable gift from Hortense and Louis Rubin, generous Capital Region residents looking to help those with kidney disease and co-related illnesses.
- In September 2014, the Rubin Dialysis Center, a provider of dialysis services throughout the Capital Region since 1986, sold their three dialysis centers and related real estate to Dialysis Clinic, Inc., a Tennessee-based nonprofit provider of dialysis services. Federal tax regulations require that net assets of a nonprofit organization must be devoted to activities and programs related to the nonprofit organization’s mission in order to avoid taxation on the sale;
- The charitable assets accumulated by the Hortense and Louis Rubin Dialysis Center will be invested by the Community Foundation and its Finance Committee in order to maintain the Fund’s principal balance and award grant funds in perpetuity (as opposed to allocating grant funds until they have been exhausted);
- The grant funds generated by the Rubin Community Health Fund will be awarded through a competitive grantmaking process to nonprofit organizations which provide services to individuals and families affected by kidney disease and related co-morbidities throughout the greater Capital Region;
- The Rubin Community Health Fund will maintain a committee composed of board members, grantmaking experts from the Community Foundation and other stakeholders. This committee will be responsible for evaluating grant applications and awarding grant funds;
- Formal grantmaking is anticipated to begin in 2018. The Community Foundation will issue a call for applications in late 2017;
- Grant awards will be approved by the Community Foundation Board of Directors, and the grantmaking process will be assisted by the Community Foundation’s grantmaking experts;
- Grants can only be made to IRS-registered nonprofit organizations, not individuals or for-profit groups.