A program that combined state matching money and private donations helped the Powell Medical Foundation build an endowment account totaling more than $700,000.

The Wyoming Critical Access/Rural Hospital Endowment Program began July 1, 2007, and ended June 30 of this year.

Through the program, all funds donated for the endowment received a match from the state, up to a maximum of $250,000. 

When the program first began, the match rate for the Foundation was 50 cents for every dollar raised.

In 2013, the state Legislature modified the program, and the Foundation began receiving a dollar-for-dollar match, according to a news release from Diane DeLozier, executive director for the Powell Medical Foundation.

In all, the foundation raised $377,802 through individual donations and fundraising events and received matching funds of $250,000, DeLozier said.

That made a big impact to the foundation’s efforts to fund an endowment to benefit Powell Valley Healthcare.

“In 2007 when the program began, the foundation’s endowment principal balance was $49,455,” DeLozier said. “As of June 30, 2015, the principal balance was $731,790. The Wyoming Critical Access/Rural Hospital Endowment Program has been instrumental in helping to build the fund to this level.”

Although the state matching program ended, its benefits will continue into the foreseeable future.

The money invested in the account, along with future donations, is never spent. But, since 2011, the endowment has provided $256,741 in earnings to benefit Powell Valley Healthcare.

Those earnings allowed the foundation to fund 11 projects:

• 10 Lifeline alert units for the PVHC Volunteer Services program ($7,750)

• An ambulance defibrillator unit ($11,363)

• Partial funding for a care center van ($10,000),

• Improving patient rooms in the hospital ($32,800)

• Renovation of the care center hospice room ($4,250),

• A buffet table for the care center dining room ($1,000)

• Partial funding for a central fetal monitoring system for the OB department ($31,587)

• Implementation of the 340B drug program in the pharmacy department ($12,000)

• A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machine in the hospital’s laboratory ($60,991)

• Partial funding for the emergency department waiting area ($20,000);

• A new passenger bus for the care center ($64,176). 

In all, $256,741 of endowment earnings were used to fund the projects.

“We are so very grateful to our donors for supporting our work to raise the necessary dollars to make sure we would receive a full match from the state,” DeLozier said. “By doing so, we created an endowment fund that generates sufficient earnings to truly have an impact on fulfilling needs at Powell Valley Healthcare.”

DeLozier told the Tribune the foundation’s board is thrilled with its increased ability to benefit Powell Valley Healthcare.

She quoted Travis Smith, a board member since 1996, who said, “When I first came on this board, if we were asked to fund something for $65,000, we would have had to say no.”

Yet, that’s what the board was able to do two weeks ago when it purchased a bus for the Powell Valley Care Center, DeLozier said.

“The endowment is really making a difference,” she said.