More than $14M from Defunct Hospitals’ Foundations Returns to Chippewa Valley
funds from HSHS go to two community foundations, CVTC
V1 Staff, photos by Andrea Paulseth |
Three Chippewa Valley institutions announced this week that they will be receiving more than $14 million in charitable funds originally raised for the now-defunct HSHS Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s hospitals.
The two hospitals were closed abruptly earlier this year by Illinois-based Hospital Sisters Health System, leaving numerous questions, among them what would happen to funds donated to charities associated with the hospitals. Those questions were answered in June, when HSHS told donors that funds held by the two hospitals’ foundations would be distributed locally.
Funds will be divided among the Eau Claire Community Foundation, the Community Foundation of Chippewa County, and the CVTC Foundation, the three groups announced on Sept. 16.
The Eau Claire Community Foundation said it will receive $9.3 million from the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis Foundation. Of that, $4.5 million was from the two hospitals’ endowments, while $4.8 million is from the Healing Place Endowment, the Healing Place Fund, and the Monsignor Klimek Healing Presence Endowment. (These latter funds will be used for grief and holistic healing programs locally. Learn more about that in a related story.)
“With the transfer of funds, ECCF anticipates that over $370,000 in additional funding will be made available each year to programs that support health and health disparity,” the foundation said in a media release.
Meanwhile, $4.6 million from the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation has been transferred to the Community Foundation of Chippewa County. “The HSHS Foundation supported the health and well-being of the greater Chippewa Valley for years as the charitable arm of the hospital,” a media release said. “With this transfer of funds, the Community Foundation of Chippewa County is responsible for ensuring these donors’ charitable intent will remain a legacy forever.”
In addition, $330,000 from the hospitals’ foundations was transferred to the CVTC Foundation, the charitable arm of Chippewa Valley Technical College. The college says the funds are “expected to support education in nursing, rehabilitation, neurology, and neurosurgery, and healthcare seminars and academic programming.”
Learn more about the Eau Claire Community Foundation at eccfwi.org and the Community Foundation of Chippewa County at yourlegacyforever.org.
