In 1918, Anna Harkness founded the Commonwealth Fund with a gift of $10 million ($151 million today) and the mandate to “do something for the welfare of mankind.” To celebrate 100 years of our work to improve health care and make it affordable and accessible for all Americans, we’ve launched a website that tells the Commonwealth Fund’s story. To a large extent, it’s also the story of health care in the United States over the last century.
Visitors familiar only with the Commonwealth Fund of recent years may be surprised to learn of some of the foundation’s earlier efforts: supporting the research that led to widespread adoption of the Pap smear; building the rural hospitals that laid the foundation for the Hill-Burton Act; and helping to bring hospice care to the U.S. We invite you to explore the site.