How philanthropy impacts growth at Kootenai Health

Donations big and small have had a significant impact on the services and quality care at Kootenai Health. Through the Kootenai Health Foundation, the not-for-profit hospital has used charitable contributions to expand programs, acquire technology and expertise, and support patients in need.

Since 1983, more than $15.5 million in donor gifts have been invested to improve facilities and services, including funds committed to the development of an expanded Family Birth Center, which includes a state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Before he was a member and past chair of the Kootenai Health Foundation board of directors, Mike Chapman was a donor. He and his wife, Brandie, contributed to help local families get the best care at their community hospital.

“We were both born at Kootenai, born and raised here, and love Coeur d’Alene,” Chapman said. “My wife was pregnant with twins and they were born two months premature… we had to go directly over to Spokane because (the hospital) couldn’t handle that here. The twins spent 17 days in the intensive care in Spokane.”

The new Family Birth Center and NICU has the capacity to handle more premature babies with a wider variety of complications, reducing the need to send families to other facilities.

Chapman said the expanded facility was needed to support and enhance what already made Kootenai Health an award-garnering facility – its staff. The expansion is necessary given how the North Idaho population continues to surge, he said.

“It’s vitally important to expand lines of services in order to provide for members of the community,” Chapman said.

The Kootenai Health Foundation is engaged in a $12.5 million capital campaign that has contributed to the medical center’s ongoing east expansion. The campaign has reached about $8.4 million.

Donors can contribute to the general fund, designate money to areas of most need or fund specific programs. Administrative costs do not come out of donations - 100 percent of the money goes to support the program or service most meaningful to the donor. For example, if a donor’s life has been touched by cancer, Foundation staff can guide them to programming or special funds to help patients with treatment or outside costs.

A major player in the Foundation’s capital campaign and outreach to the community is Julie Holt, the Foundation president who began at Kootenai Health in January after more than 20 years of experience in fundraising and leadership for numerous hospital foundations, including multi-million-dollar capital campaigns for St. Joseph Health in Orange, Calif.

In addition to cultivating new relationships with individual donors, businesses and organizations, Holt serves as a community advocate for quality health care and how Kootenai Health can meet those needs long-term.

“That’s what I love about the work I’m doing – I’m meeting all sorts of people in the community and I find out what’s important to them in health care,” Holt said.

Though businesses and large organizations often make the biggest contributions, Holt believes most donations stem from personal experiences or to support the Foundation’s push for high-quality community health care.

“People have come to us because they are grateful for the care they received or their family received at Kootenai Health,” Holt said.

Donors especially appreciate seeing contributions make a direct, local impact, she said.

“It’s wonderful to work with people in the process of giving and to watch them see the reward personally,” Holt said. “When people give money to charity, they aren’t getting a service or product, but they are getting this great feeling.”

“Every gift is important,” Holt continued. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 10 dollars or $10 million, every donation is valuable.”

Holt said the Foundation can also help people with less traditional means of donations.

“Sometimes people don’t necessarily have cash today to give – they might have assets, appreciated stock or real estate they’d like to contribute,” Holt said. “We can work with them, and we have professionals who can help them with those assets.”

Programs that have benefited from Foundation contributions have included:

- Cancer Patient Support Program – providing food, supplements, prescriptions and basic living assistance for patients in need. Walden House/outpatient lodging for families receiving treatment at Kootenai Health

- Behavioral Health Center – specializing in psychiatric and chemical dependency treatments for adults and youth.

- Emergency Department – staffing and equipment support for an ER that receives more than 50,000 visits annually.

- Rehabilitation Services/McGrane Center – supporting rehab services for injuries, illnesses and numerous other conditions.

- Injury Prevention – Educational services for Inland Northwest families on unintentional injuries

- Pierce Family Scholarship – Assisting Kootenai Health employees with continuing education costs

The Foundation has even seen situations where young children have even used their birthday money or saved their allowance to help kids in the hospital.

Holt said her time at the Kootenai Foundation so far has shown her the strong sense of generosity in the area.

“The community wants to have the best health care right here, where they live, and they want to support it,” she said. “What I’m seeing so far in this community is people really care.”

For more information, or to make a donation, call (208) 625-4438 or visit www.KootenaiHealthFoundation.org