As the president of the Kalispell Regional Healthcare Foundation, Tagen Vine has been at the helm of a philanthropic endeavor that has brought in $21.5 million over the past decade.

During the last four years he has overseen a capital campaign that has secured pledges for $12 million of the $14 million needed to complete the hospital’s emergency services expansion. What he’s found during his time with the foundation is that whether it’s a hospital housekeeper pledging one hour of pay each paycheck or the generosity of a financially endowed philanthropist, every donation has value.

“They are all rewarding in their different ways,” he said.

Managing 10 endowment funds and 120 other funds makes for busy days, but Vine, 45, thrives on productivity.

“It’s a great culture and an easy place to get excited and passionate about,” he said about his work with the foundation.

In 2005 Vine spent the year helping the Billings Clinic Foundation with a capital campaign for a cancer center. He had taken the job to dip his toes into the health-care industry.

“We were hoping to get back to the Flathead, so I thought it can’t hurt to throw my hat into the ring” for the foundation job here, he said. “They took a chance on a young guy without a lot of health-care experience. I’ve had a lot of support from the CEO and the foundation board.”

Vine chipped away at his master’s degree in business administration with a health-care emphasis, earning his degree through Colorado Tech in 2009. The end goal was to better understand the health-care industry and how the foundation can help convert donors’ generosity into improved equipment and facilities for Kalispell Regional. He also has attended many conferences and seminars for topics such as estate planning.

These days he pays forward his knowledge by helping other charities and small hospital foundations with strategic planning and comprehensive fundraising.

Leadership was one of the life skills Vine absorbed as a child when he got involved with the Boys’ and Girls’ Brigade in his hometown of Neenah, Wisconsin, a paper-mill town on the banks of Lake Winnebago. The Brigade, still a part of the Wisconsin community since it was formed there in 1900, is a cross between Boys and Girls Scouts and Boys and Girls Clubs, Vine said.

The Brigade’s youth leadership program had an impact on his life and gave him an opportunity to learn leadership by working with younger kids.

Vine’s parents were both teachers.

“My dad was the choir director, but I was a jock,” Vine said with a smile. “Actually I did both.”

He sang in his father’s choir, played the trumpet and also excelled in football, basketball and track.

Music was always part of the family. One of his grandfathers was a music professor at the University of Hawaii, and other grandparents were music teachers, too.

When he headed to the University of Wisconsin in Madison after high school, Vine’s focus reflected the things he’d loved as a child — the outdoors and leadership. He earned his degree in natural resources and outdoor education.

An internship in which he handled the whitewater rafting program at a Boy Scout camp became the steppingstone for his first big job out of college. As one observer had told him: “You should become a professional Boy Scout.”

Vine taught outdoor leadership with the Boy Scouts in 1994 in the Chicago suburbs, then veered to Boulder, Colorado, for a 9-month stint selling climbing and camping gear.

When a district director position and team leader position with the Boy Scouts of America came open in Northwest Montana, he and his wife, Carrie, moved to the Flathead Valley sight unseen. The job allowed him to use both his leadership and outdoor education skills.

He also got some insight into fundraising and managing volunteers with that job — more skill-building for his future career as a foundation director.

The key to successful philanthropy, Vine said, is building relationships and helping people understand how they can reciprocate their gratitude by steering their donations to what they’re passionate about.

The federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which dramatically reduced payments to health-service providers, was the tipping point at which hospitals across the country began setting up foundations to financially cover the gap. Kalispell Regional started its foundation in 2000.

“Philanthropy became critical,” Vine said.

Kalispell Regional Healthcare Foundation has 2,000 to 2,700 annual donors. Philanthropic giving helps support a wide variety of programs, from the ALERT air ambulance program to diabetes education and the Save a Sister breast cancer prevention program.

Vine’s leadership ability is put to work in his volunteer arena, too. He’s currently the president of the Kalispell Noon Rotary Club and serves on the Montana West Economic Development and Eagle Transit boards. He also is past president of Montana Ambassadors and continues to serve on the board and is chapter vice president.

His home life is busy, too. He and Carrie are raising three daughters ages 7, 9, and 12, who are into all kinds of activities ranging from piano and dance lessons to sports and children’s theater.

Vine volunteers as a youth coach and referee. He golfs, skis, plays soccer and still enjoys a sport he learned to love in his native Wisconsin — fishing.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.