If you ever come visit us at our offices in downtown Wichita, we hope you can learn a lot about KHF just from looking at our space. The walls tell powerful stories of our initiatives. Visuals that cover our mission, vision and three-part purpose. A place upstairs where our closest partners are displayed.

But, if you want to go beyond the “now” and take a journey through our past, the best place to look is our lobby history wall. We’ve highlighted 14 key moments, events, grants and initiatives that collectively tell the Kansas Health Foundation story. 

As 2025 came to a close, that KHF story is now 40 years old.

From a bold vision involving the sale of a hospital, to decades of serving Kansans, the KHF story spans hundreds of employees, every county of Kansas, numerous major focus areas and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding distributed.

• Created new institutions
• Led cutting-edge media campaigns 
• Helped grow community foundations
• Spread civic leadership
• Decreased tobacco rates

Today, we celebrate it all.

Not to just celebrate what has happened. Also to celebrate what will happen.

At KHF, we look at our first 40 years mostly through the lens of a proof of concept: We’ve done big things in the past. Now, we have to do even bigger things in the future.

The first statement of our three-part purpose is to “empower Kansas to lead the nation in health.” Right now, we’re 27th. We used to be in the top 10.

To get back to the top 10—and even to make it all the way to #1—we now must think bigger and bolder than ever before. We must take all the best lessons learned and activate them in concert with the latest ideas, the newest data and the greatest “moon shots” yet. 

As KHF board member Junetta Everett likes to say, “We don’t just want the best practices… we need to create the next practices.”

It won’t be an easy road to the top. There will be fits and starts. Years where progress isn’t visible. Times where the going is slow.

Those are the times where we’ll dig in the hardest. Where we’ll seek to make sure our organization reflects the grit and determination that has defined our state.

For 40 years we’ve built our organization around overcoming obstacles and committing to long-term, sustainable change.

That won’t change.

Whether it’s this coming year, the next decade, or, the next 40 years, we will still be working to improve the health of all Kansans.

Because after all, we all deserve it.