Established in 1977, Morton Plant Mease Foundation provides philanthropic support to Mease Countryside, Mease Dunedin, Morton Plant, and Morton Plant North Bay hospitals. We live our mission by inspiring donors to participate in programs that reflect their values, meet their need for recognition and promote a feeling of making a difference. Your gift today will help to provide you and all of our patients with the most advanced care to save lives and promote better health right here in our community.

Over the past decade, Morton Plant Mease Foundation has granted more than $100 million to support the hospitals of Morton Plant Mease. To put your gift in perspective, our hospitals would have to earn close to $2 billion at a 5 percent margin to net the amount that the more than 7,000 donors have collectively contributed.

The Foundation is a qualified charitable organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code, FEI#59-1751535 and Florida State Registration #CH321. The Foundation only grants funds to benefit the hospitals of the Morton Plant Mease Health Care system. However, we encourage and provide funding for collaborative projects between these hospitals and local not-for-profit organizations.

MORTON PLANT MEASE FOUNDATION HISTORY

From their inception both Mease and Morton Plant have been blessed with supporters who with their time, talent, energy and material resources have helped the hospitals achieve their goals.  Initially, individual fund-raising campaigns were used to meet specific targeted needs.  In time the two hospitals established formal offices charged with finding sources of continuing private sector support.

At Morton Plant, fund-raising operations were centered in the Community Relations and Development office until 1976.  In that year, the trustees appointed a board to research the idea of a permanent foundation.  A year later the Morton Plant Foundation was established, with Col. Edward Imparato as president.

David J. Rosser, the Foundation's first professional fund-raiser, assumed the post of executive director in 1978.  During the next 15 years, his creativity and drive brought the Foundation national recognition as well as a remarkable growth in total assets.  One of the Foundation's major achievements during his tenure was the establishment of the Planned Giving Department, under the direction of Marty Matula, which has become a model for healthcare foundations around the country.  After Mr. Rosser's retirement, he was followed briefly by Russell Raker III.

At Mease Hospital, although major benefactors were not numerous, the loyalty of patients and other local residents took the form of many small gifts as well as a number of large ones.  In 1977 the Mease Foundation was formed, with R.C. Alexander as executive director and with 25 civic leaders serving as its board.  In 1979 Bob Watson was named executive director, a post he would hold for 14 years until his untimely death in 1993.  He was followed by Robert V. Docherty, who held the post until 1996.

By 1994, when the partnership between Mease and Morton Plant was approved, it seemed inevitable that the two foundations would themselves be joined.  Thanks to the dedication and careful planning shown by both boards of directors, led by Mease chairman David Nelson and Morton Plant chairman Leo Merzweiler, the separate foundations of Morton Plant and Mease Hospitals merged on January 1, 1996.  In June of that year, Holly H. Duncan joined the new Morton Plant Mease Health Care Foundation, Inc., as its first president and chief executive officer, a post that Mrs. Duncan still holds today.