Annual Gratitude Report

This year’s Gratitude Report celebrates you and the countless remarkable moments you create! On behalf of those we serve, thank you from all of us at the Avera Foundation.

Our 2025 Gratitude Report features stories of inspiration — stories of impact, hope and healing — made possible by the generosity of donors.

Key Topics

Your Impact

Building What's Next

Stories of Gratitude

Record-Breaking Avera Race

To Our Donors: Thank You

Dzenan Berberovic It’s time again to share our annual Gratitude Report — this one with an exciting announcement to kick things off. Thanks to supporters like you, we are celebrating a record-breaking year for Avera Foundation!

The statistics below paint a picture of the magnitude of your impact. These gifts fund technology, facilities, caregiver training, patient support programs and much more.

This Gratitude Report serves as a time capsule — a chronicle of the extraordinary moments made possible through philanthropy. Inside, you’ll meet:

Marla Dziedzic, who honored her baby sister Molly through a gift to pediatric care
Kristi Tacke, a cancer survivor helping bring treatment closer to home in Yankton
Kelsey Hupp, an Avera caregiver who found strength in her community after unimaginable loss
The DeSchepper and Weiner families, whose legacy gifts continue to shape the future of care

If there’s one thing I hope you take away from this report and the stories you’ll read, it’s that your generosity fills us with hope. You remind us of what’s possible when we come together, sharing a bold vision for a healthier future.

Please enjoy our 2025 Gratitude Report, friend. It’s all because of you!

Most sincerely,

Dzenan Berberovic
Chief Philanthropy Officer

The Magnitude of Your Impact

21,038

Total benefactors

4,296

Supporters gave for the first time

3,691

Consecutive-year donors (5+ years)

$59.7 Million

Funds raised in 2025 to support patients, residents and caregivers

Data reflects funds raised from 7/1/2024 to 6/30/2025.

Together, We’re Building What’s Next

Avera is here to support our patients and our community’s medical needs by building to accommodate current and future population growth.

Fulfilling Tomorrow’s Promise

Thanks to community support, we’re making great progress on our $50-million Tomorrow’s Promise: The Campaign for Women and Children. Together, we will construct a six-story tower addition at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center, while also expanding family lodging and patient and family support across every corner of Avera.

Marla Dziedzic and her siblings are among the generous benefactors inspired to support the campaign. When Marla was 11, her baby sister Molly passed away shortly after birth. In Molly’s memory, the Jerry & Norma Schmitz Foundation directed their gift to a pediatric care room in the new tower — ensuring Molly’s life is never forgotten.

The gift carries even deeper meaning for the family: Marla’s daughter, also named Molly, spent many nights in Avera’s pediatric unit, and her father underwent several brain surgeries at Avera. The health system has long been part of their story, making this tribute especially meaningful.

Explore the Promise

Stacked image with a rendering of the new womens and children building in the background. A woman holding a baby is in the forground.

Building Hope Here

Through our $7 million Building Hope Here campaign, we will expand comprehensive cancer care into the Yankton community, with a new Avera Cancer Institute location. The stand-alone facility will offer medical oncology, radiation oncology, chemotherapy infusion, clinical research, genetic counseling and other support services — all under a single roof.

Kristi Tacke, cancer survivor and Campaign Co-Chair, remembers her long commutes to and from her treatments in Sioux Falls. “Cancer and treatment can take a lot from a person,” she says. “Giving them back even a few hours, so they can live their lives as they want and need, is invaluable.”

Watch this video to learn more about the project and its impact on the community.

Expanding Cancer Care in Yankton

Transforming the Future of Behavioral Health

To meet a critical need for adolescent behavioral health care in our community, Avera St. Luke’s Hospital expanded its services this year. For the first time in the Avera St. Luke’s region, three dedicated inpatient spaces for adolescents, along with a flexible unit expansion, will allow us to welcome more young patients in a safe, specialized environment.

Dacotah Bank has generously stepped up to match all gifts in support of the expansion, dollar-for-dollar, up to $500,000 — stretching our community’s collective impact further than ever.

“Mental health challenges and addiction have profound and deleterious impacts,” says Robert J. Fouberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dacotah Bank. “Dacotah Bank is honored, on behalf of our employees and their families, to invest with Avera and to support this effort.”

Meeting a Growing Need

Learn how Avera makes an impact in caring for children with behavioral health needs. Watch Malcolm’s Story

New Avera Behavioral Health Expansion in Aberdeen, SD

Stories of Gratitude

Kelsey Hupp, her husband and son bosing after her son rang the bell after his last chemo treatment.

Avera Cares: Kelsey’s Story When Avera St. Mary’s Hospital employee Kelsey Hupp, CNP, was struck with unthinkable tragedy, her coworkers embraced her with love and support. Kelsey is one of more than 7,600 fellow Avera employees who support Avera, paying it forward for the generosity she experienced.

Leaving a Legacy of Care Over the past year, Avera benefactors have collectively established 40 new legacy gifts, totaling more than $14 million, to advance Avera's health ministry. The long-established DeSchepper Rehabilitation Education Scholarship Endowment helps train the next generation of caregivers.

Celebrating 75 Years of Care In 1950, a generous gift from Ben and Julius Weiner, in memory of their father Louis, helped establish what is now Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center. Today, 75 years later, their legacy lives on through a renamed family scholarship and a continued commitment to care in the region.

A family running toward the finish line of the Avera Race.

A Record-Breaking 2025 Avera Race

Raised: $765,000

Participants: 7,745

We set an ambitious goal for the 2025 Avera Race Against Cancer: to raise $750,000 and welcome more participants than ever before. We’re thrilled — though not surprised — to share that our Avera community pulled through, once again! This year’s race broke all records, with more than 7,745 participants and more than $765,000 raised in support of world-class, local cancer care for our neighbors.

Supporting Noel and Other Survivors

Crossing the finish line this year were Avera employees, community members, families of loved ones facing cancer, and cancer survivors like Noel, who couldn’t imagine receiving her care anywhere else.

“For anyone who is involved, I don’t think they realize how much of an impact those services make for not only me as a patient, but also for my family,” Noel shares. “We’re just grateful for anyone who can help make that happen.”

Mark your calendar for the next Avera Race, taking place May 9, 2026, and join us as we run together toward a future without cancer!

For More Stories

Subscribe to the quarterly Together newsletter for inspiring stories of people impacted by Avera and Avera Foundation. Sign Up

Avera Foundation Earns Sixth Consecutive High Performer Distinction

The Avera Foundation continues to be recognized by the Association of Health Philanthropy with the High Performer distinction for the sixth consecutive year. This distinction represents the top 75th percentile in net returns from fundraising efforts.

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