The Alexander Eastman Foundation strengthens and gives voice to the Greater Derry Community’s Health and Wellness through leadership, collaboration, and funding opportunities.

Values

WE BELIEVE in the power of nonprofits to create positive, lasting change.  

WE EMBRACE diversity, equity, and inclusion.

WE ARE COMMITTED to excellence and continual learning.

WE CHALLENGE ourselves to be forward thinking, resourceful, and bold.

WE BELIEVE in the power of community.

Our Future

1 – Be a bold champion and advocate for the community.

2 – Support the nonprofit community in a continually changing landscape.

3 – Strengthen the Foundation’s Capacity

4 – Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Vision Statement

The vision of the Alexander Eastman Foundation is a healthy community for all by championing initiatives that positively influence and enhance the well-being of every resident. Through grant allocation, convening, and collaboration, we strive to effect meaningful change by amplifying philanthropic efforts and supporting innovative solutions to the health and well-being gaps in our service area.

Strategic Plan 2023 – 2026

Over the past few years, the nonprofit sector, our community, state, nation, and the world have faced unprecedented health and wellness challenges. Through it all, nonprofits have demonstrated remarkable resilience. However, the isolation the pandemic brought about intensified the insular management of many of our community nonprofits. As we recover, we must implement new ways to deliver services, of connecting, of work, and of looking forward.  

The Alexander Eastman Foundation must be nimble, raise our voice, and leverage funding and resources to respond to the needs of our nonprofit community. To do this, the Foundation must commit to strengthening and investing in the external and internal capacity of the Foundation.

This Strategic Plan 2023-2026 reflects the Foundation’s evolution. We are stretching to use our knowledge and resources in new places and in new ways on behalf of all of our nonprofit partners.

History

Dr. Harrison Alexander, a Derry dentist, died in 1919, leaving money and land to the Town of Derry for the purpose of creating a community hospital. In 1930, a group of public-spirited citizens organized the Alexander Hospital Corporation as a New Hampshire non-profit corporation. The Alexander Hospital Corporation became Trustee of Dr. Alexander’s will, and began the effort toward establishing a community hospital.

In 1933 Mrs. Charles Hood donated her ancestral home (built by her grandfather, Benjamin Eastman) to the community hospital effort. At that time, the Alexander Hospital Corporation began doing business as the Alexander Eastman Hospital.

In 1934 The Hospital began serving the Derry community, and continued its operations for the next 48 years. Funding for hospital equipment was largely supported by the use of funds from the Dr. Alexander trust and by other community donations.

In the 1960s the community identified the need to expand and upgrade the facility. The town of Derry donated Dr. Alexander’s land for a new hospital site, and the Alexander Eastman Hospital’s supporters raised money in the towns of Derry, Londonderry, Windham, Hampstead, Chester and Sandown; eventually constructing a new 37 bed hospital on Birch Street in Derry.

In 1983, The Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), a for-profit health care corporation, sought to acquire the Alexander Eastman Hospital. The Alexander Eastman Hospital Corporation (AEHC) amended and restated its charter to allow the hospital to be sold, renamed and expanded as Parkland Medical Center, the AEHC became the Alexander Eastman Foundation.

The proceeds of the sale of the Alexander Eastman Hospital, in addition to accumulated gifts and bequests of individuals and businesses whose earlier support demonstrated their interest in the health care needs of the community, are now held as charitable assets by the Alexander Eastman Foundation in order to benefit residents in the communities from which patients of the Alexander Eastman Hospital were drawn.

In addition to the charitable assets that resulted from the sale of the Alexander Eastman Hospital, the Foundation continues to benefit from testamentary trusts established by Dr. Harrison Alexander, Leon P. Widger and Charles and Jessie Brooks.

In operating the Foundation, Trustees are guided by the concerns which motivated those donors and the founders of the Alexander Eastman Hospital. Grants are provided to promote good health and well-being for residents of the greater Derry area and to improve the quality and availability of health care in the community.

Board of Trustees

The Foundation is governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees. As the governing body they lend their experience and advice to the organization helping to shape strategic direction and assuring attention to mission. In addition, the organization relies on a robust committee structure that includes other experts from the community. Committee members are appointed by the Chair of the Board of Trustees. Committees are focused in the areas of Executive, Governance, Finance, Investment & Audit, and Community Investment & Grants.