Healthcare Foundation reflects on successful year at annual general meeting
The largest single donation in the history of the organization was among many highlights for the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation during the past year.
Details about the non-profit organization’s activities during the past year were provided during the annual general meeting, April 16.
The bequest of $4,021,634.05 from the estate of Rodney and Dorothy Elmgren had a significant positive impact on the financial statements presented at the meeting.
“The estate we got from Rodney and Dorothy Elmgren really made such a humongous difference for us,” Healthcare Foundation Executive Director Chris Martens said. “It turned what was a good year into an unbelievable year. The estate
for us is going to do a world of good in the short term and in the long term.”
The bequest resulted in a jump in restricted cash from $803,165 in 2022 to over $5.1 million at the end of 2023.
Total revenue for 2023 was $5,176,238 compared to $343,205 in 2022. Total expenses increased from $783,249 in 2022 to $1,699,124 at the end of 2023. The financial statements show an excess of revenue over expenses of $3,477,114 in 2023 compared to a deficit of $440,044 in 2022.
The Healthcare Foundation benefitted from better performing financial investments in 2023 compared to the previous year. Grant revenue was also higher, but income from events was lower.
Martens noted that the Healthcare Foundation purchased over $900,000 of medical and diagnostic equipment in 2023.
“That’s a significant amount of money that we put forth to ensuring that we could get various pieces of medical equipment in Swift Current and the surrounding southwest,” he said. “Some of those come from fundraising efforts that we’ve done in 2021. We don’t always get pieces of medical equipment the second we order them. Sometimes they take a year, two years, or three years to come.”
He felt the Healthcare Foundation was successful in achieving its mission to
raise, administer and disburse funds to improve the quality and availability of health care for all residents in southwest Saskatchewan.
“We’re very grateful to our supporters and our donors, because they recognize our cause,” he said. “I think that’s one big thing that we’re lucky with. When we talk to people about what we need, you might not need to go to the hospital today. You might not need to go to the hospital in five years, but sometime in your lifetime, you will need health care and if we’re able to provide a piece of equipment that you can get locally and not have to travel far and wide in order to do so, that’s what we’re here for.”
The Foundation also supports health care through the Lee/irwin Skills Enrichment Scholarship Program (SESP), which was established in 2001 with the support of the Lee and Irwin families.
The program offers financial support to health care workers in southwest Saskatchewan who want to expand their training and education. The Foundation’s scholarship committee had two meetings and approved a total of $29,000 to support 44 applicants.
The funds approved in 2023 brought the total amount distributed through the SESP to over $689,000 since 2001.
Another highlight for the Healthcare Foundation during the past year was the hosting of a variety of successful fundraising events. Martens felt it was able to do this due to the effort of staff during the year.
“One of my highlights from the last year is our staff,” he said. “There were periods where we were short staffed for close to seven months and even in that timeframe, we still managed to pull off every one of our events. We had sold out events. We had incredible support and we did everything with a positive attitude and looking forward to moving on to the next one.”
The activities of the Healthcare Foundation are administered by a volunteer board of directors. An additional board member was nominated and elected during the annual general meeting.
Beth Vachon, who worked in health care for 40 years, will join the existing 10 board members. She has worked as a psychiatric nurse and served in various leadership positions, including as CEO of the former Cypress Health Region from 2010 to 2018 and thereafter as a member of the executive leadership team for the Saskatchewan Health Authority until her retirement in 2022.
“We’re very pleased to have Beth join the board of directors,” Board Secretary Ashley Peterson said. “She came very highly recommended, of course, given her extensive background in health care and we felt that she would be a great fit for our organization and the business that we look to do.”
Peterson mentioned that the board has full confidence in the Foundation’s staff under the leadership of Martens, who was appointed as executive director in August 2023 after initially joining the organization at the start of the year in a different role.
“He brings forward a lot of very creative and innovative ideas,” Peterson said. “So we’re very excited moving into the future. From a financial standpoint, this past year set that bar high for us to achieve for the future years. As a board, we have full confidence in the staff of the Foundation to continue to meet and achieve our goals and we’re very excited moving into our 25th year and beyond.”