Richard M. Krieg, founding president and CEO of The Horizon Foundation, retires at the end of February after 13 years as head of Howard County’s largest philanthropy. Here’s some of his thoughts about his journey and what’s ahead.
How long has it been since your first days at The Horizon Foundation?
I began at the tail end of 1998, so it’s been about 13 years. At my going-away party, I said that I was there for the birth, early childhood and adolescence of the organization. Now that we’re getting to the interesting age of puberty and dating, I’m shipping out.
Your retirement party was quite an event — held at the Howard Hughes Corporation Building’s Spear Center.
I was very moved. I had the pleasure of hearing all of my former board chairs comment on the Foundation, and seeing so many of our partners gathered in one place. When I got up on the stage, of all the folks in the audience, there were only a few I didn’t know. There’s a file drawer in my head on how each of us collaborated over the years. The whole meeting was very warm and I was touched.
What kind of organization are you leaving behind?
One that I’m proud of on many levels. In a real sense, the Foundation was a gift to this community. Each successive board, and my staff, have taken that responsibility very seriously — in the investments we’ve made in other organizations and projects we’ve launched. The fact is that we haven’t been gun shy about running programs ourselves. So we’ve tackled some very big issues over the years.
The Foundation’s dollars came from Johns Hopkins Medicine when it bought Howard County General Hospital. Have you favored those organizations in your grantmaking?
The founders wanted to have a completely independent foundation with no favoritism to anyone. The only negative article ever written about us was when we made an early grant to Howard County government to improve programs in the Office on Aging. County council members back then blasted us for funding a government program.
We’ve always tried to be prudent investors. While being dedicated to the community, the board has made independent judgment calls on the efficacy of individual projects: who to fund, when to fund them and when to cut bait.
You’re a trustee of the foundation along with being president?
Yes, and that arrangement has worked well for us. Nonprofit boards have legal, policy-setting and other critical roles. We’ve tried to get the balance right in terms of board oversight and delegating management to the CEO. But we also want staff to be creative and to input into every phase of a project.
The way I personally see it is that it’s an interdependent relationship. We’re complementary pieces of a governance partnership — with the CEO ultimately accountable to the board. As vital as Horizon funding has been to the community, the excellent board and staff picks we’ve made have been extremely important.
Are there specific projects that are special to you?
We had a press conference a few weeks ago to launch a new Horizon initiative. It provides 24/7 real-time language interpretation in health settings. The interpreters sit in a call center in Columbus, Ohio, and can be seen live by the doctor and the patient on a special electronic tablet. More than 100 languages are covered by medically certified interpreters.
My staff searched the country for the best product; we got Howard County General involved as well as two other partners: Chase Brexton and Healthy Howard. There are now nine of those units operating across the three facilities. This will be a huge boost to health access for foreign-born county residents.
I’ll always remember how we supported the Health Alliance free clinic in the early years, but then led the movement for a Federally Qualified Health Center here in the county. And I’m especially proud of the Aging in Place program that we set up back in 2005. The program, which involved multiple partners, was a national model according to the Federal Administration on Aging.
In addition to building hundreds of ramps for incapacitated seniors, we developed new ways to get older adults to the services they needed and set up Stanford University’s evidence-based chronic disease prevention program. The program is still on the ground years after our funding ceased.
When you say “evidence based,” what do you mean?
It’s easy to give money away for something that sounds good. But when you dig down, there may be less there than meets the eye. We’ve always tried to do our homework in verifying that a program can produce impact.
For example, in aging in place, youth asset development, pandemic preparedness, positive lifestyle — many areas — we’ve sought out the experts and weighed the evidence. We’ve been increasingly interested in metrics and evaluation, for ourselves and those we fund.
Will you be leaving Howard County?
Not in this life. This is a remarkable community in so many ways. Staying here and being active in the county are two certainties for me.
