Box Butte Health Foundation (BBHF) Executive Director Brooke (Vogel) Shelmadine has been with the Foundation for a year now, and is pleased to report recent success stories and future initiatives of the BBHF. “The Foundation is here to promote healthy living in Box Butte County, and to make sure that people have access to good health care and have access to modern health care,” Ms. Shelmadine said. “We started the year off by establishing an endowment fund after we received a $10,000 challenge grant in October of 2011from the Dennis Berens Community Health Leadership Program Fund through the Nebraska Community Foundation. It was a challenge to start an endowment, which is essentially a community savings account to help ensure our Foundation has financial viability for years to come in order to support the needs of Box Butte General Hospital (BBGH). It is a two year challenge grant and now we’re going into year two of building the endowment.”
Large anonymous donations have allowed the hospital to purchase new medical equipment, which resulted in BBGH being able to pay it forward to Gordon Memorial Hospital on two occasions. “In previous years, a donation allowed us to get a new digital mammography unit, which allowed us to donate our analog mammography machine to Gordon,” Ms. Shelmadine said. “In 2011, we received another anonymous donation. It was used to purchase a new telemetry station late in the year for the Cardio-Pulmonary Rehab Department at BBGH. That again allowed the hospital to donate the older telemetry unit to Gordon Memorial Hospital. So while it is important that such donations allow us to purchase newer, more modern equipment for our hospital, it is also inspiring that they are gifts that kept on giving, allowing us to help another hospital update their services as well.”
Another rather large anonymous donation this year allowed the hospital to lease a new DXA (bone densitometry) machine so that scans can now be scheduled at the patient’s convenience. The hospital utilized a mobile DXA unit service in previous years.
These success stories wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for people “living and giving with gratitude” to the BBHF. “Reasons for giving range from wanting to invest in the health of the communities BBGH serves to wanting to honor a loved one through a memorial,” Ms. Shelmadine said. “We also receive gifts expressing gratitude for the care a loved one received at the hospital.”
In addition, such charitable gifts to the Foundation can provide special tax benefits. End-of-year gifts can be as easy as donations in cash or through gifts of grain, both of which can be used to reduce tax obligations.
“There is no easier way to garner a charitable deduction and support our Foundation than by simply writing a check,” she said, “and it is fully deductible up to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income. If you mail the check to us at BBHF, PO Box 810, Alliance, NE 69301, make sure your envelope is postmarked by December 31. You can also bring the donation here to our Foundation office in Suite 2107 just north of the hospital. The simplest of all three ways to make a cash gift is online at www.bbgh.org. After clicking on a button you can make a secure donation using a credit or debit card.”
Area residents can designate how the donation is received or used. “For example, people may not know that a donation can be designated for Jane’s Closet,” Ms. Shelmadine said. “Jane’s Closet, as we all know, is very popular in the community since it’s a financial resource for people diagnosed with cancer and their families. Since the money raised by Making a Difference events is put in the Foundation for investment purposes, people can make donations to the Foundation dedicated to Jane’s Closet throughout the year.”
Memorials are another popular way for people to donate. “What a nice way to memorialize a loved one,” she continued. “Maybe it would be for someone you have lost, or someone who is still living but struggling with a serious illness … or even memorializing the joyful event of the birth of a new baby.”
Donations can also be designated for the endowment. “As I said, we are trying to increase this endowment through the $10,000 challenge grant from the Nebraska Community Foundation, creating a specialized account with them to ensure the viability of BBGH in the future,” Ms. Shelmadine stated. “Anyone wanting to contribute to the endowment can contact me and I will make sure it goes to the Community savings account.”
Last, but by no means least, is a way of giving that specifically benefits the agriculture community. “We have a program called Gifts of Grain. This is my favorite way of making a donation because it not only benefits the foundation, it benefits people in agriculture,” Ms. Shelmadine said. “With the farm economy being in the shape it is in, this is a perfect year to gift grain. It’s a win/win situation because you can get a full tax deduction and (what many people don’t realize) you can also write off all of your expenses in producing that gift of grain. It is important to remember that the gift of grain (wheat or corn) has to happen before the grain is sold. The process is easy. I have a very simple form you fill out, which you then take to the grain elevator. We’ll handle it from there.”
She is enthusiastic about upcoming events as well. “We have some exciting opportunities for giving that are coming up this next year,” she concluded. “I’ve planned some fun events for gift giving opportunities and we are also going to begin work on our capital campaign for our campus expansion.”
Ms. Shelmadine can be reached by calling the BBHF office at 308.761.3079.