National Volunteer Appreciation Month

Get to know a board member: Michael Covarrubias

A Q&A with a CommonSpirit Health Foundation Board Director

 

Michael Covarrubias is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TMG Partners, a full-service real estate development and management company and one of the most active developers in the Bay Area Region. Michael is highly respected for his leadership in the business community and is philanthropically active with Commonspirit Health, American Heart Association, American Red Cross, City of Hope, UCSF and United Way of the Bay Area.

He is the past chairman of the board for the Bay Area Council, a group of over 300 businesses that work together to solve issues like housing, homelessness, traffic and the future of the region’s workforce. He’s also a board trustee at the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, a trustee and governor at the Urban Land Institute (ULI), director of The Committee on Jobs, active in the Center for Creative Land Recycling and on the executive committee of the Fisher Center Policy Advisors Board.

How did you become involved with CommonSpirit?

Lloyd Dean, the former CEO of CommonSpirit Health and Dignity Health, and I were connected through various organizations in the San Francisco area. He was chairman of the Bay Council at the time, and I was a member. As one would suppose, you meet a lot of different people when joining boards. I became chairman a couple of cycles later, and so we were always fundraising together in one form or another.

Lloyd recruited me to join the board of Dignity Health. With other board members, including Janet Reilly, and the Honorable Willie L. Brown, Jr., we worked together at the galas. Everybody was in a room together on their cell phone soliciting people they knew. That was so much fun.

I have great respect for Lloyd and for his work, not just as a leader at Dignity Health and CommonSpirit, but in the healthcare landscape nationally. He built the board and really made it what it is today.

So, that's how it all started, and it was complementary to a lot of things I was doing in the city.

What inspires you to be philanthropic?

I was born and raised in Oakland, CA. After graduating from the University of South Florida, I started working for a bank. From there, I got interested in real estate and then ended up owning my own real estate company. The Bay area neighborhood seemed to be important to the success of my business.

I do remember when I would go to the Union Bank as a child, we would give to the United Way. I came to realize that the organization was genius. If you donated to them, you were supporting the 25 agencies that were under their umbrella. You could give to the United Way and they dispersed the funds. 

Being on a board is part of my personality. You have to want to make a difference for those in the community. Joining a board to just sit back and take notes in the corner of a room is not what it’s all about for me. Our board aims to do things differently, and we all think strategically about how to really make the difference.

Why do you think the Commonspirit Health board is successful in fundraising?

It took a little time to figure out how our system worked. Along with the national foundation, there were lots of smaller hospital foundations. Nancy Bussani, Executive Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer, and President of CommonSpirit Health Foundation, acted as an interpreter for what this was all about. As time evolved, we brought on more board members, including Kristy Yamaguchi, former Olympic figure skater, who lives in my community.

We always talk about rotation and cycles, and at the end of the day, you do need to try different ways to fundraise. I think fresh ideas are really critical to the success of the board, and if you just sit there and do the same thing with the same people, you won’t be as effective, and you are not going to move the ball very far. It is the metrics that people want to know about, the tangible numbers of how we are making a difference.

How did you select organizations to support? What are the important factors that go into your selection?

I often joke that I like to affiliate myself with organizations that are health-related, because you never know when you might need to be in their care or if they will save my life someday. Early in my career, I supported the American Heart Association, the Red Cross, and the Boys and Girls Clubs. My office is in the Bay area, so I am very involved with supporting activities there, building healthier communities and investing in our poor and vulnerable.

CommonSpirit Health Foundation's gala is approaching in May — what makes the annual gala so successful?

Everyone has an idea about what the Red Cross does or what the American Heart Association is all about. But, not everyone understands a large healthcare system. So, each year, we try to focus on someone that has been helped by the organization — whether it's domestic abuse or certain childhood diseases as examples. That way, we can actually say, okay, here's where a certain percentage of the money raised goes. People react to things that are tangible, so we like to include numbers, like how many patients were helped through specific care or how many lives were saved. Metrics work.

I also determine if a gala is effective if it has brought attendees to tears. We like to get emotional by featuring individuals or families we have helped and hear about their experiences first- hand. It's the Kleenex moment, but it does work and it is important.

Learn more about CommonSpirit Health Foundation's annual gala.

What is something interesting we do not know about you?

My wife and I were affected by the Saint Helena wildfires in 2020. We lived on top of the hill and witnessed the biggest fires we have ever seen.

Our house went up in smoke, melted actually. It comes with a happy ending, thanks to our wonderful insurance company. We were able to quickly find another home that was fully furnished, not in the hills and no trees around.

We have also gotten quite involved with Festival Napa Valley and have gotten involved in some fundraising efforts for them. In the summer, you go to different wineries, all for the benefit of children and the arts. It is so different from the kind of fundraising I'm used to.

About CommonSpirit Health

CommonSpirit Health, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the U.S. With more than 175,000 employees, 35,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians, and 45,000 nurses, CommonSpirit operates 150 hospitals and 2,400 care sites in 24 states serving 22 million patients each year. CommonSpirit is committed to creating healthier communities, delivering exceptional patient care, and ensuring every person has access to quality health care. Learn more at CommonSpirit.org.

CommonSpirit has 80 fundraising entities located across the U.S. Over the past five years, these foundations have raised a combined $1.4 billion to ensure that it can continue to serve the vulnerable and build healthy communities. The organization does this nationally through CommonSpirit Health Foundation, and locally through its network of regional and community-based fundraising entities.

About CommonSpirit Health Foundation

As the philanthropic arm of one of the nation's largest health systems, CommonSpirit Health Foundation is committed to advancing health equity. The foundation inspires investments and donations from individuals, private foundations, corporate foundations and other entities — to support programs and initiatives that address the root causes of poor health and enable all people to be healthy and safe. Learn more at CommonSpiritHealthPhilanthropy.org/Foundation.

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