Hospice of the North Coast is the first recipient of a new annual award from the Carlsbad Charitable Foundation honoring the Foundation's founding chairman.
The Knox Williams Philanthropy Award, announced on the Foundation's website, recognizes Williams' 56 years of support for the Carlsbad community. Williams helped launch the Foundation in 2007. He served as its first chairman. Foundation members selected Hospice of the North Coast by vote, a process the Foundation says will repeat each year.
The award recognizes groups that show dedication to investing in Carlsbad.
Williams' legacy
Williams shaped the Foundation's earliest grantmaking. One of his first moves as chairman was backing a grant to a local elementary school where parents had been paying a teacher out of pocket to stay after class and teach fifth-graders financial literacy, according to the Foundation. That program has since expanded to all nine Carlsbad-area elementary schools through a partnership with the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce.
Since 2007, the Foundation has distributed more than $1.6 million in grants to local nonprofits. It operates as an affiliate of the San Diego Foundation.
About the inaugural winner
The Carlsbad-based hospice was founded in 1980 and became an independent nonprofit licensed by the state and certified by Medicare in 1989, according to the Foundation's profile of the organization. It provides end-of-life care, grief counseling and community support services across North County San Diego. Its stated mission is providing personalized care to patients and families during end-of-life transitions.
Hospice of the North Coast also received a $21,000 grant from the Foundation in 2026 for its Music Therapy for Seniors program, part of $86,500 in arts and culture grants the Foundation awarded this year. Those grants were celebrated at the Foundation's Thursday, Sept. 3, event at the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Discovery Center.
"These grants will give older adults opportunities to connect through music and young people new ways to create, perform and share their voices," board chair JR Phillips said in a San Diego Foundation press release announcing the 2026 grant awards.
The Foundation has not announced a date for a formal presentation ceremony for the Knox Williams Award. More information about the Foundation and its grantmaking is available through the San Diego Foundation.
