T. Denny Sanford dies

[Some Day...Maybe]

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion

The credit card magnate turned mega-donor built one of the country's largest rural health systems.

www.yahoo.com

Thought this was worthy of posting. The U never really got any of the $4 billion, did it? He must not have seen the Athletic Department as worthy of his money. He saw the University of South Dakota worthy though, didn't he?

 

[GophersInIowa]

Wasn't there something that happened that pissed him off with the U?

 

[Whytetale]

Something with naming rights and how to pay for them, I think.

 

[Some guy]

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion

The credit card magnate turned mega-donor built one of the country's largest rural health systems.

www.yahoo.com

Thought this was worthy of posting. The U never really got any of the $4 billion, did it? He must not have seen the Athletic Department as worthy of his money. He saw the University of South Dakota worthy though, didn't he?

He donated enough to have the hall of fame bear his name I think

 

[FredCoxRocks]

A controversial figure... and, for whatever reason, the guy never seemed to care much about his alma mater. There's still a couple billion dollars left in his fortune, and I'd be surprised if Gopher athletics sees much, if any, of it.
Oh well. I hope he's happy in heaven...or wherever billionaires who built their fortunes by taking advantage of the poor and gullible end up.

 

[Lou Brown]

Seems to have done a lot of good for Sioux Falls - everything is Sanford out there. Rest easy King.

 

[#2Gopher]

Something with naming rights and how to pay for them, I think.

His demands for his name to be placed absolutely everywhere drove the officials crazy. They couldn't come to agreement on how to do that.

Sanford was a complicated individual. Too bad as he really could have done great things for the University.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Wasn't there something that happened that pissed him off with the U?

Well supposedly he made a lot of demands that changed a few times and that supposedly worried the U that the demands would continue to evolve.

With a situation like the U where if he gave an enormous gift over decades managing that situation/ changing demands could be impossible and then you realize you got very little.


I thought he also had some legal issues even after all that.

 

[Gopherchase]

The guy gave away literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars mostly in the state of South Dakota. Sanford Health Systems announced a merger with M Health Fairview here in Mn as many would recall which was shot down by the snowflakes in Minnesota because they were worried about the big bad conservatives from little bitty South Dakota coming in and being too mean to everybody. My guess is it was more our issue than his that we couldn’t figure out how to make it work where he would’ve opened up his coffers for U athletics. too. The multitude of organizations he donated to in South Dakota figured it out with no material issues.

 

[upnorthkid]

The guy gave away literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars mostly in the state of South Dakota. Sanford Health Systems announced a merger with M Health Fairview here in Mn as many would recall which was shot down by the snowflakes in Minnesota because they were worried about the big bad conservatives from little bitty South Dakota coming in and being too mean to everybody. My guess is it was more our issue than his that we couldn’t figure out how to make it work where he would’ve opened up his coffers for U athletics. too. The multitude of organizations he donated to in South Dakota figured it out with no material issues.

Trying to equate merging of health systems that aren’t in the same state with donating to athletics is laughable

 

[PMWinSTP]

The guy gave away literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars mostly in the state of South Dakota. Sanford Health Systems announced a merger with M Health Fairview here in Mn as many would recall which was shot down by the snowflakes in Minnesota because they were worried about the big bad conservatives from little bitty South Dakota coming in and being too mean to everybody. My guess is it was more our issue than his that we couldn’t figure out how to make it work where he would’ve opened up his coffers for U athletics. too. The multitude of organizations he donated to in South Dakota figured it out with no material issues.

Good grief.

 

[GooningGopher]

The guy gave away literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars mostly in the state of South Dakota. Sanford Health Systems announced a merger with M Health Fairview here in Mn as many would recall which was shot down by the snowflakes in Minnesota because they were worried about the big bad conservatives from little bitty South Dakota coming in and being too mean to everybody. My guess is it was more our issue than his that we couldn’t figure out how to make it work where he would’ve opened up his coffers for U athletics. too. The multitude of organizations he donated to in South Dakota figured it out with no material issues.

Sanford has essentially no research infrastructure. Same reason the U didn’t want to merge with Essentia. M health flirts with others to negotiate a better deal with Fairview.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

He made his money in banking heavy into subprime credit and later moved into legacy preservation mode via big money philanthropy. I don’t know how you balance preying on the desperate and dumb with 79% credit cards (no wonder he gave back to South Dakotans for their friendly usury laws) with the gifts/naming rights deals or whatever you want to call them in his later years. Nobody’s perfect.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Sanford has essentially no research infrastructure. Same reason the U didn’t want to merge with Essentia. M health flirts with others to negotiate a better deal with Fairview.

Yeah I never understood Stanford health thinking the u hospital was something they could cut a deal on.

“We want to acquire your hospital and possibly gut the things you like about it….. how about it? No??? I’m shocked you would say that!!!”

It was a bad match.

 

[swede2]

Sanford has essentially no research infrastructure. Same reason the U didn’t want to merge with Essentia. M health flirts with others to negotiate a better deal with Fairview.

They do, actually. A lot of what T Denny donated was to establish Sanford as a premier research institution. I don't know that they've achieved "premier" status but they've definitely jumped big into the research game.

 

[swede2]

The guy gave away literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars mostly in the state of South Dakota. Sanford Health Systems announced a merger with M Health Fairview here in Mn as many would recall which was shot down by the snowflakes in Minnesota because they were worried about the big bad conservatives from little bitty South Dakota coming in and being too mean to everybody. My guess is it was more our issue than his that we couldn’t figure out how to make it work where he would’ve opened up his coffers for U athletics. too. The multitude of organizations he donated to in South Dakota figured it out with no material issues.

Sanford Health is not T Denny Sanford.

 

[upnorthkid]

They do, actually. A lot of what T Denny donated was to establish Sanford as a premier research institution. I don't know that they've achieved "premier" status but they've definitely jumped big into the research game.

Obviously this isn’t everything but Sanford got about 8 million in nih granting (per nih site) in 2025. Minnesota is about 370 million. It’s not even remotely in the same stratosphere as the national research institutes and is more along the lines of like HealthPartners in town (about 10 million). Sanford is no longer nonexistent like it used to be however and that is a good thing as there are things that can be best studied there in the populations that live there

 

[swede2]

Obviously this isn’t everything but Sanford got about 8 million in nih granting (per nih site) in 2025. Minnesota is about 370 million. It’s not even remotely in the same stratosphere as the national research institutes and is more along the lines of like HealthPartners in town (about 10 million). Sanford is no longer nonexistent like it used to be however and that is a good thing as there are things that can be best studied there in the populations that live there

Right. It's my no means "premier" but it isn't non-existent. It also doesn't have the same infrastructure as a University. It is a health system. Granted, health systems can and do bring in huge sums of research money (see Mayo Clinic) but the mission of a health system are not the same. The original point, though, was that in fact Sanford has research infrastructure. Of the $2 billion Sanford has given the health system, half of that was for research. That's not nothing.

 

[GooningGopher]

They do, actually. A lot of what T Denny donated was to establish Sanford as a premier research institution. I don't know that they've achieved "premier" status but they've definitely jumped big into the research game.

I am not sure how the non-profit structure works but I suspect it’s a similar dynamic to what all the smaller rural serving population do where they apply for grants and get a modest amount to do some interesting things with that targeted population.

If I recall, they only had a modest relationship with USD (I think 3 co-training PhD programs). This makes it tough to become a decent research institute because the velocity of papers will be much lower and the probability of getting grants will be lower with the lack of research productivity.

 

[1983]

Wasn't there something that happened that pissed him off with the U?

He really liked Jerry Kill. Somebody stepped in and offended TD which cooled him off. A blunder by the AD of that time.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

He really liked Jerry Kill. Somebody stepped in and offended TD which cooled him off. A blunder by the AD of that time.

Jerry quit….

I don’t get how that’s on the AD.

 

[2nd Degree Gopher]

Wasn't there something that happened that pissed him off with the U?

Something with naming rights and how to pay for them, I think.

His demands for his name to be placed absolutely everywhere drove the officials crazy. They couldn't come to agreement on how to do that.

Sanford was a complicated individual. Too bad as he really could have done great things for the University.

Well supposedly he made a lot of demands that changed a few times and that supposedly worried the U that the demands would continue to evolve.

With a situation like the U where if he gave an enormous gift over decades managing that situation/ changing demands could be impossible and then you realize you got very little.

He really liked Jerry Kill. Somebody stepped in and offended TD which cooled him off. A blunder by the AD of that time.

I recall that there were issues related to naming rights and the timing of Sanford's gifts. The U wanted a sizeable donation to "get the ball rolling" and he wanted to parse out the money over time. There were concerns that he wanted to maintain a level of control over the project that was untenable to the U.

Sanford also envisioned a far less grand project that would have yielded a far less substantial end product. The stadium we have now is a gem. The stadium tied to Sanford's money would not have been.

 

[2nd Degree Gopher]

He really liked Jerry Kill. Somebody stepped in and offended TD which cooled him off. A blunder by the AD of that time.

Jerry quit….

I don’t get how that’s on the AD.

Jerry quit in 2016. Sanford's decision not to donate any more money to the U was reported back as far as 2013. It had nothing to do with Jerry Kill.

 

[proudgopher]

Yeah I never understood Stanford health thinking the u hospital was something they could cut a deal on.

“We want to acquire your hospital and possibly gut the things you like about it….. how about it? No??? I’m shocked you would say that!!!”

It was a bad match.

The U is poorly managed in many areas.

 

[swede2]

I recall that there were issues related to naming rights and the timing of Sanford's gifts. The U wanted a sizeable donation to "get the ball rolling" and he wanted to parse out the money over time. There were concerns that he wanted to maintain a level of control over the project that was untenable to the U.

Sanford also envisioned a far less grand project that would have yielded a far less substantial end product. The stadium we have now is a gem. The stadium tied to Sanford's money would not have been.

This is how I remember it. He seemed to think $35 million was going to build a Big 10 Stadium, wanted his name on it in perpetuity, and obnoxious control over the project.

 

[swede2]

I am not sure how the non-profit structure works but I suspect it’s a similar dynamic to what all the smaller rural serving population do where they apply for grants and get a modest amount to do some interesting things with that targeted population.

If I recall, they only had a modest relationship with USD (I think 3 co-training PhD programs). This makes it tough to become a decent research institute because the velocity of papers will be much lower and the probability of getting grants will be lower with the lack of research productivity.

USD is a pretty small university and the med school is very small. There are certainly ties between the med school and the medical center (along with the Avera Health System), but it is not an integrated resource like the U and the University hospital.

 

[Jack jones]

If we were playing our games in Sanford stadium instead of the Bank, our NIL fund would be overflowing. Maturi said “no”.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

The U is poorly managed in many areas.

I don’t know what that opinion has to do with my post.

 

[GopherTheJugular]

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion

The credit card magnate turned mega-donor built one of the country's largest rural health systems.

www.yahoo.com

Thought this was worthy of posting. The U never really got any of the $4 billion, did it? He must not have seen the Athletic Department as worthy of his money. He saw the University of South Dakota worthy though, didn't he?

Man his obit is anything but "humble". Geez, it's nice that he gave but talk about carrying on.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Jerry quit in 2016. Sanford's decision not to donate any more money to the U was reported back as far as 2013. It had nothing to do with Jerry Kill.

Yeah I think there is a lot of misremembering going on and honestly…. Not sure Jerry got along with many other outside strong personalities much too.