$300 million latest gift from Denny Sanford, to build a major medical center
Sanford Health announced that it will use a new $300 million gift from its namesake benefactor, Denny Sanford, to build a major medical center in Rapid City. This move sets up a new level of competition with Monument Health. This longtime regional provider already operates a hospital and multiple facilities across western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming.
The forthcoming Sanford Black Hills Medical Center will be located in southwest Rapid City, adjacent to the Black Hills Orthopedic and Spine Center, with construction scheduled to begin in 2027 and completion expected in 2030.
Envisioned as a comprehensive, full-service campus, it will house an emergency department, intensive care unit, oncology center, women’s health services, including labor and delivery, and a broad range of children’s services.
The gift reflects yet another milestone in Denny Sanford’s remarkable philanthropic journey. A self-made billionaire who grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, Sanford built his fortune through First Premier Bank and Premier Bankcard, rising from modest beginnings shaped by the loss of his mother to breast cancer when he was just four years old.
That early tragedy became a defining force in his life, giving him a philosophy that prompted him to repeatedly say he wanted to “give it all away” during his lifetime to improve health and education.
Over the past two decades, he has lived out that commitment with exceptional scale. Since 2004, he has contributed nearly $2 billion to Sioux Falls–based Sanford Health, helping transform a regional provider into the most extensive rural health system in the United States.
His philanthropy has funded innovations in children’s care, major expansions in research, world-class specialty programs, and sweeping growth across the Upper Midwest.
Today, Sanford Health employs 55,000 people, serves more than 2 million patients and 425,000 health plan members, and encompasses 56 hospitals, 288 clinic locations, 147 senior care communities, 4,000 physicians and advanced practice providers, and nearly 1,500 active clinical trials and studies.
The new Rapid City medical center—made possible by the latest chapter of Sanford’s lifetime of giving—underscores not only the magnitude of his personal generosity but also his ongoing determination to reshape access to high-quality healthcare across the region.