The goal of the Daniels Memorial Hospital Foundation is to raise funds, advocate and support the Daniels Memorial Healthcare Center and its employees. This is accomplished by memberships, donations, fundraising events, sponsorships, grants, raffles, and planned-giving.
The Foundation has a board of six Directors and a hospital representative that make up the voting members of the board. There is also an Office manager and a Planned Giving Officer that assist the Foundation in their everyday accomplishments and events.
In the last two years, as Covid-19 issues restricted certain in-person events, the Foundation found itself still able to raise funds and stay active within raising and donating to the Daniels Memorial Healthcare Center.
With the fiscal year starting July 1st, 2020, to June 30th, 2021, the Foundation had a good year with a beginning balance of $2.6 million, growing to just under $3.4 million.
For that same year, expenses were at $131,237 which the largest involvement was contributions to scholarships, student loan assistance, management fees, promotional expenses and ordinary expenses.
As a new financial year began July 1st, 2021, to June 30th, 2022, the Foundation found themselves with a beginning balance of $3.4 million and the ending balance with losses of a total of around $2.9 million.
The foundation donated over $54,000 to the hospital in that year and provided $2,918 for scholarships and continuing education for hospital employees. Close to $20,000 went to management fees, $30,000 to fundraising activities, advertising, office costs and payroll with the total expense of about $115,000.
You can see that over the last two years, expenses went reduced from $131,237 to $115,000 respectively. Donations and funds raised, be it locally or financially, also decreased. The Foundation is hoping that trends turnaround and going forward will have a year of increased funding.
The Foundation holds an annual Golf Classic tournament each year in August which is one of their largest fundraisers. The 2021 Golf Classic had a net profit of around $16,000 with the 2022 Golf Classic raising the most it has ever made with a net total of $20,000. Sponsorships, donations, and golf teams are reason for the event being a success.
In September of 2022 the Foundation had a home donated to them from the Esther Kramer family that was located in Scobey, MT. The house was sold with silent bidding accomplished. The final and approved highest bidder was $35,000 for the home with the Foundation netting approximately $33,000.
At the August 2022 annual meeting, the Foundation said good-bye to longstanding board members Mike McDermott as outgoing Chairman, and Nancy Lund, Vice Chairman, as they had served two consecutive 3-year terms. The Foundation’s nominating committee selected Holly Cole and Shelly Hensel for board replacements and were unanimously elected. The Foundation’s nominating committee selected Holly Cole and Shelly Hensel for board replacements, and they join Mayra Tade and hospital representative Kody Brinton, CEO of the Daniels Memorial Healthcare Center, as board directors.
With the busyness of fall, harvest and other factors, the annual Fall Festival was not held in October 2022. Replacing the fall fundraiser was a new Christmas raffle called “12 Days of Christmas” Raffle. The new holiday raffle has 12 days of 12 individual prizes donated for raffle ticket holders to win. Profit for the 500 tickets at $25 each will be around $12,500 for the Foundation.
Celebration of Lights, another annual event, will be held in December as the event raises money for Patient Whiteboards for hospital rooms. Donations from this annual event are usually in the form of a memorial or in honor of a family loved one or friend. This year the Foundation has Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Montana as a major sponsor to assist with their goal of raising funds needed.
Looking forward to 2023, the Foundation will be exploring new events, sponsorships, grants and planned giving ideas. The Foundation would like to thank everyone that has contributed to them in the past and going forward into the future. The purpose of the Foundation is to build awareness to the medical needs of the community and how we all, working together, can make a difference with our local healthcare.