The Foundation at West River Health Services has been busy laying the groundwork for securing matching funds for their Giving Hearts Day Fundraiser. It all began this past summer when the WRHS Foundation joined the Impact Foundation, the leader of Giving Hearts Day (GHD), the largest one-day online giving day in North Dakota. Last year, GHD raised $13.1 million! Over their eleven year history, they have raised $54.8 million. Now, this coming year, for the first time, West River Health Services Foundation will be an option for people throughout the world to participate with us on Giving Hearts Day.
After completing a New Member Orientation, Rev-Up Session, High impact Session and the initial GHD workshop, the WRHS Foundation began diligently planning for this event. A local meeting was called for any community volunteers or West River employees to learn about GHD on August 14th. Twelve volunteers attended and meaningful discussion was had regarding the possibility of raising funds via GHD for a Physician Recruitment Endowment Fund. After all, we need physicians on the front lines to meet with patients every day. And recently, some of our physicians have retired or moved closer to family. Plus, let’s face it, our physicians order the necessary patient tests with our equipment. Without a full stable of top-notch physicians, our equipment rests. Further discussion at this initial Giving Hearts Day meeting included involving the entire service area, possible awards for superb performance on GHD, and future sub-committee development.
In the meantime, Slope Electric Cooperative’s Board of Directors stepped up and got the ball rolling, by agreeing to provide matching funds up to $5,000 -- if the WRHS Physicians Group would do the same. Within a week, six members of the WRHS Physicians Group had pooled together $7,500! And there just might be more coming! Plus, Dakota Western Bank, one of the leaders of the banking industry in southwestern North Dakota, stepped up with matching funds of $5,000. Another long-time Foundation supporter, the Community Clothes Closet in Hettinger, gave $2,500 in matching funds at their annual meeting this past week. The grand total of matching funds raised for Giving Hearts Day is now $20,000! What a dynamic and giving area community we live in! Thank you WRHS Physicians and area business leaders.
Of course, now the challenge for the WRHS Foundation is to raise another $20,000+ leading up to and online during Giving Hearts Day on February 14, 2019. Then, combined with the $20,000 in matching funds, we’ll have $40,000+ to start our Physician Recruitment Endowment Fund. Our ultimate goal is to raise $400,000 over the next ten years or less – so, at 5% interest, we’ll have $20,000 in interest each year after 2028 and on to infinity, to use for Physician Recruitment. This is a long-term goal that we can all get behind.
Moving forward, a second Giving Hearts Day Meeting of community volunteers has been scheduled for Tuesday, October 2nd, 6:30pm at the WRHS Board Room. We are hoping for an even larger crowd of local concerned citizens, who want to learn more about Giving Hearts Day. We will continue our discussion with development of sub committees like strategic planning, marketing, community involvement, follow up and celebration. To register for this meeting, please contact Ted Uecker at 701-567-3666 or just come see us.
Historically, Giving Hearts Day and the Impact Foundation grew out of the Dakota Medical Foundation’s vision to provide matching funds for local healthcare nonprofit’s fundraising efforts in the Greater Fargo Area. Eventually, the Dakota Medical Foundation and the Alex Stern Family Foundation teamed up to form the Impact Foundation, which carries out the Giving Hearts Day training, workshops, and coaching for over 450 nonprofits (medical and non-medical) throughout North Dakota and western Minnesota. Now, West River Health Services is a member of this organization and can be found at impactgiveback.com or wrhs.com.
West River Health Services Foundation looks forward to gearing up our area communities for Giving Hearts Day on February 14, 2019. On that day, people can give to nonprofit organizations at givingheartsday.org. In addition, everyone is welcome to write checks ahead of time, dated Feb 14, 2019, and written out to the nonprofit they’d like to support. Along with West River EHalth Services Foundation, we have twelve other area nonprofits involved in a Southwestern North Dakota Giving Hearts Day Consortium. They include the Sunrise Foundation in Bowman; Sacred Heart Benedictine Foundation, Assumption Abbey, and Camp ReCreation in Richardton; Badlands Ministries in Medora; Home on the Range in Sentinel Butte; ABLE, Best Friends Mentoring Program, CHI Health at Home, Connect Medical Clinic, Dickinson BackPack Program and St. Benedict’s Health Center in Dickinson.
By Ted Uecker, WRHS Foundation