AKRON, Ohio — A little more than a year after Summa Health was sold, Greater Akron is learning how much money that sale will put to work for community health, as the Trailhead Community Health Foundation of Greater Akron prepared to announce its initial endowment on Thursday, Nov. 12, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
The endowment comes entirely from funds transferred after the October 2025 purchase of Summa Health by the for-profit Health Assurance Transformation Company, known as HATCo, Trailhead President and CEO Tracy Carter told the Akron Beacon Journal. Trailhead planned to share the figures at a private Report to the Community event Nov. 12 at The Trailhead at Cascade Lofts in Akron, the Beacon Journal reported.
"We are here as a result of the sale," Carter told the Akron Beacon Journal inside Trailhead’s new offices in the Akron Centre building at 50 S. Main St. Carter told the Beacon Journal the foundation wants to grow the endowment with its fundraising team and share its strategic plan with individuals, corporations, foundations and government leaders who might invest alongside it.
Trailhead was created as part of the sale under conditions set by the Ohio Attorney General’s office. A stipulation for HATCo’s purchase, under former Attorney General Dave Yost, required a new community foundation to provide funding for charitable purposes, the Beacon Journal reported. Trailhead Board Chair Marty Hauser told the Beacon Journal the organization carries the same tax identification number as the former Summa Foundation, but was required to be moved, in his words, to the other side of a wall.
The foundation also serves as the independent public monitor of the Summa-HATCo deal. Carter told the Beacon Journal that role means making sure HATCo complies with the covenants and commitments it made in its agreement with the state, and that Trailhead is developing a request for proposals for a firm that specializes in public monitoring to help guide that work.
About 90 percent of the initial endowment is unrestricted money from the sale and funds transferred from the former Summa Foundation, which Trailhead can direct under its own priorities, Carter and Hauser told the Beacon Journal. Restricted donations make up roughly 10 percent, and Carter told the Beacon Journal the team has talked with hundreds of former Summa Foundation donors about how their gifts will be stewarded — and that none have asked for their donations back.
What happens next is the work the endowment was created to fund: health initiatives across Greater Akron, shaped by Trailhead’s strategic plan, while the foundation also builds out its monitoring of the hospital sale. Summa President and CEO Jennifer Eslinger, in an emailed statement reported by the Beacon Journal, wished Trailhead well and said the impact of its investment will be felt for years to come.