$10 million latest gift from Fred Kaiser and Grace Borsari advances a new, unified emergency department at medical center

Fred Kaiser and Grace Borsari’s latest $10 million leadership gift to PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center is the newest expression of a philanthropy that has quietly, steadily reshaped both healthcare and education across the Pacific Northwest.

Their donation to the Stronger Together campaign in Bellingham helped drive the initiative past the $100 million mark, ensuring that families in Whatcom County will have access to expanded, modernized care close to home for generations to come.

For the couple, it is another chapter in a long-standing belief that communities flourish when those who have done well step forward to help others breathe a little easier.

Their support of PeaceHealth directly advances a new, unified emergency department, the Peter Paulsen Pavilion, and a rooftop helipad that will speed critically ill patients to care, particularly those coming from more remote parts of Northwest Washington.

The gift also strengthens childbirth, gynecological and pediatric services at PeaceHealth St. Joseph, aligning seamlessly with the system’s long-standing mission of compassion and healing that dates back to its founding Sisters in 1890. Fred and Grace were moved to act after seeing caregivers working in spaces strained by a growing population.

For Fred, who has led successful and expanding organizations, the answer was obvious: when you create more room, people can breathe, work, and heal more effectively. Grace, reflecting on a childhood in Switzerland that instilled the value of hard work and self-reliance, has often said that health is everyone’s most important possession, and that every community deserves a hospital that is good, clean and spacious enough for all who need care.

That sense of responsibility has long extended beyond healthcare. Years before their most recent gift, Fred and Grace made another transformational $10 million commitment, this time to Western Washington University, supporting the “Building Washington’s Future” campaign to accelerate STEM education and expand facilities for electrical engineering, computer science and energy studies.

It was the largest single private gift in the university’s history and a capstone on more than two decades of support that has helped shape the lives of countless students and the future of engineering education at Western. Their names are now associated with a state-of-the-art, solar-powered academic building in Bellingham, further cementing their role in building the region’s innovation pipeline and high-tech workforce.

Through the Kaiser Borsari Educational Foundation, formed in the late 1990s, the couple has formalized much of this work. The foundation focuses on education and related causes, with multi-million-dollar grants that have supported institutions in Washington and beyond, including major commitments to Western Washington University and PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center.

Recent filings show the foundation has made grants totaling more than $16 million, with individual awards reaching as high as $4 million and a particular emphasis on strengthening institutions that educate engineers, advance science and technology, and expand access to high-quality healthcare.

Even an overseas gift to an Italian university underscores their interest in rigorous education and global learning, reflecting a worldview shaped by Grace’s European upbringing and Fred’s international business career.

Their public recognition has followed naturally from their impact. The University of British Columbia has honored Fred for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic leadership and his contributions to the growth of British Columbia’s high-tech economy, citing his role as a global innovator in power supply and as a longtime champion of education.

Yet both he and Grace remain clear that philanthropy, for them, is not about the accolades. They are known in the region as business partners, innovators and civic leaders who prefer to let their actions speak: create meaningful jobs, open doors for young people in STEM, and ensure that when a family faces a medical crisis, the right care is available close to home.

In Bellingham and across Whatcom County, their story comes full circle. Alpha Technologies, the company they built together, helped transform the local economy into a center for high-tech innovation, serving cable, broadband and telecommunications customers around the world.

Their philanthropy now ensures that the prosperity and growth they helped spark are matched by investments in human well-being, from classrooms and labs to hospital corridors and emergency bays. “If you help the community, you help yourself. Everyone wins,” Fred likes to say, a simple line that sums up decades of giving. Grace, thinking back on the place that welcomed them, frames it in equally direct terms: this community gave them a chance; helping the hospital means helping every person who calls it home.

Taken together, their gifts to PeaceHealth, Western Washington University and other educational institutions through their foundation reveal a coherent, deeply held philosophy: strong communities take care of one another by educating the next generation, supporting innovation and guaranteeing compassionate care when people are most vulnerable.

In Northwest Washington, the Kaiser and Borsari name now signifies not just entrepreneurial success, but a legacy of stewardship. Their latest $10 million commitment to PeaceHealth St. Joseph is more than a single act of generosity; it is part of an enduring pattern of leadership that continues to shape the region’s health, opportunity and hope for years to come.