Donors Have Changed Lives and Transformed Healthcare for 25 Years of Benefis Foundation
When Catholic Sisters arrived in the young city of Great Falls to open an infirmary that would one day be Columbus Hospital, they knocked on doors to round up the furniture and supplies they needed first. Soon it was the Methodists’ turn, and the Deaconesses put out pleas for fruit, jellies, and delicacies to feed the early patients of Deaconess Hospital, saying “We cannot carry forward the work without your help, and the Master’s business requires haste.”
More than 130 years later, Benefis Health System, which formed through a merger of the two hospitals, still depends on the generosity of supporters and donors.
In 1998, the boards of the Columbus Gift of Life Foundation and the Montana Deaconess Medical Center Foundation merged, pooling $5.9 million in assets. Assets now top $43 million, including endowments for better long-term financial stability of programs.
Today, Benefis Foundation is celebrating 25 years and thousands of lives touched. Through the Foundation, donors support programs such as Angel Fund and 221 Children’s Fund, which help families when children have a medical crisis.
At Hospice, donors fund comforts like the Angel Bar, which has snacks for families with a dying loved one, and big projects like the recent bed replacement.
In the NICU, we fund cameras so families can keep an eye on babies even if they can’t be there in person, as well as care technology and comfort. NICU families and nurses tend the tiniest patients in suites instead of wards because of donors.
Lifesaving technology, advanced training, modern facilities, and investments in the next generation of our healthcare workforce through scholarships are all part of the legacy of Benefis Foundation donors.
From our littlest babies to our oldest patients, Benefis Foundation touches everyone’s lives at Benefis.
1998 – Benefis Foundation is formed.
2001 – A $7.1-million gift from an anonymous donor allows Benefis Peace Hospice to begin building a house for patients’ final days.
2005 – Foundation donors contribute more than $6 million to build Sletten Cancer Institute.
2009 – Donors provide $3.5 million for South Tower construction.
2012 – Foundation donors expand Peace Hospice with eight additional rooms.
2014 – Campaign completed to transform the memory care unit at Eastview Senior Care.
2018 – Donors expand the Emergency Department, a critical difference during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 – The Women’s and Children’s Center opens because of donor support.
2023 – Donors at Mayfaire, the major fundraiser for the Foundation, raise more than $2 million in two years of events benefiting Sletten Cancer Institute revisioning.
