Story of the charity

Our new name - NHS Highland Charity

In 2025, our Trustees decided the time was right to strengthen and clarify the charity’s identity. Our official name, Highland Health Board Endowment Funds, didn’t clearly reflect who we are or what we do, and was often confusing for members of the public and NHS Highland staff alike. 

Following consultation with staff and stakeholders, Trustees agreed a new working name for the charity in December 2025. We are now known as NHS Highland Charity while our legal name remains unchanged. The charity is still the same and the funds we hold and our purpose is unchanged. 

We believe the new name better reflects our purpose and role and aligns us more closely with other NHS-linked charities across the UK.

Charitable support is never used to replace core NHS funding but to enhance it - improving patient and staff experiences, supporting innovation and helping local healthcare flourish. Today there are 16 NHS-linked charities in Scotland, and around 230 across the UK (as at June 2026).

Our new logo

In March 2026, Trustees approved the design of our first-ever charity logo, marking an important milestone in the charity’s development. Ave Design Studio brought the concept to life through a design inspired by the Scottish primrose, a flower native to the Highlands that reflects the values and character of the charity.

The Scottish primrose was chosen because:

• It is unique to the region and found nowhere else in the world.
• It is small but resilient, adapting and thriving in challenging conditions.
• Its five heart-shaped petals represent care, collaboration and partnership between the charity and NHS Highland.
• It grows in clusters, reflecting the importance of community and connection.
• It brings moments of colour and hope to harsh landscapes, enduring where other plants cannot.

Our story - a tradition of giving

The term endowment refers to gifts and here in the Highlands and Argyll and Bute, that tradition of generosity has deep roots. While we don’t typically refer to endowments much these days, because the charity no longer holds this specific type of donation, the formal, legal name of our charity, along with many other NHS-linked charities in Scotland, makes reference to this historic form of donation.

Long before the creation of the NHS in 1948, local hospitals were sustained by community fundraising and charitable donations. Villages held sales and dances, churches gave offerings, and benefactors funded vital facilities, from entire hospitals, like the Andrew Belford estate in 1864, to specific projects such as John Stirling’s operating theatre at the Ross Memorial Hospital in 1894, or the X-ray machine gifted by William Peterkin to the same hospital in 1938.

Image: fundraising poster A Grand Bazaar by John Hassall, illustrator - view the image in a new window or tab.

Almost a century ago, Alexander Clark MacBean passed away in Melbourne, Australia, and chose to remember the Royal Northern Infirmary in Inverness in his will. His generous bequest, made in 1927, continues to benefit the charity every year, a lasting legacy of kindness that still makes a difference today. 

Image: Will listing, extract from The Sun News-Pictorial - Melbourne, Australia, 24 October 1927 - view the image in a new window or tab.

When the NHS was established in 1948, the Hospital Endowments Commission was set up the following year, creating the foundation for today’s NHS-linked charity system which has evolved over decades alongside our NHS structures. See the article published in the Christmas Day 1953 issue of the Ross-Shire Journal discussing the role of the Commission, kindly provided by Mr Jim Leslie from the British Newspaper Archive.  

For those interested in the history behind some of our hospitals in Highland, including more information on how they were funded prior to the creation of the NHS, please visit History of Highland Hospitals.   

Image: extract from Ross-shire Journal 1953, from the British Newspaper Archive - view the image in a new window or tab.