(Three-story, 27,000-square-foot Wellness Center coming in early 2025 | Rendering provided by Stemach Design / Architecture)
Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated $1.6 million to La Pine Community Health Center (LCHC), which provides accessible and affordable healthcare to residents of southern Deschutes County and parts of Lake and Klamath counties.
The unrestricted grant, provided through Yield Giving, an organization founded by the writer and philanthropist, has been designated by the LCHC board for use in expanding the La Pine campus to include a new Wellness Center building adjacent to its current facility. The Wellness Center will house a new dental clinic, imaging center, behavioral health services, administrative offices, and a large community room for educational events and meetings.
In communications related to this major grant, La Pine Community Health Center’s CEO Erin Trapp learned that Scott and her team rigorously study the organizations that receive unsolicited and unexpected support. “I was impressed with the depth of data they had about our organization and pleased that our Quality scores for patient care stood out to them as significant,” said Trapp. “We are so honored to receive this truly remarkable gift from MacKenzie Scott.”
Trapp recalled the “surreal” moment in mid-September when she learned of Scott’s gift. “We were about to launch the public phase of a $5 million capital campaign to build our new Wellness Center when the call came. It was precisely the kind of boost we needed to kickstart the campaign. We know it will inspire our Central Oregon community and other philanthropic foundations to follow with their own support.”
Scott previously granted $1.4 million to the Central Oregon Chapter of Friends of the Children. This grant, received in August 2022, was also done in secrecy and completely unexpected. It was part of a $44 million gift to the national Friends of the Children organization.
Over 6,000 patients a year receive primary care at LCHC and through its various outreach programs. As a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) serving a largely rural, at-risk, high-poverty population, LCHC relies heavily on reimbursement from the Oregon Health Plan, Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and a few grants to cover their $10 million annual operating budget. Despite working within a lean budget, LCHC has been able to place funds in reserve that enable it to envision this expansive project, which will provide better healthcare access for the area’s growing population.
“The $1.6 million grant is now in the bank, and we’re focused on reaching our next milestone – raising 50 percent of our goal,” said Trapp. “I hope each person in our region will consider supporting our effort to provide high quality, affordable healthcare with kindness, integrity, and respect.”
About MacKenzie Scott:
MacKenzie Scott (formerly Bezos), writer and philanthropist, is the author of the novels The Testing of Luther Albright, which won the American Book Award, and Traps. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she studied creative writing at Princeton with Toni Morrison. Scott has been executive director of Bystander Revolution, an anti-bullying organization, since founding it in 2014.
From an essay written by MacKenzie Scott sourced from the Yield Giving website:
“We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care.”
Yield Giving, an organization founded by MacKenzie Scott to facilitate private gifts to nonprofit organizations, is named after a belief in adding value by giving up control.
