Heiress gives $12 million

Margaret F. Galbraith moved to Spokane in 1965, but her hometown of Wallace, stayed close to her heart. Her father made a fortune there as a lawyer and mining pioneer, and she wanted to give back to the area.

So before she died last year, the woman arranged to donate $12 million to a foundation that will support children’s programs, conservation efforts, economic development, parks and other causes in North Idaho.

It’s the largest gift the Inland Northwest Community Foundation, formerly Foundation Northwest, has received in its 32-year history.

“This can put a community at a level we probably can’t even imagine at a time when these communities need help,” said Mark Hurtubise, president and chief executive officer of the foundation. The foundation handles 200 funds valued at about $57 million and gives grants to organizations in 20 counties in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. The gift bolster’s the foundation’s assets by 20 percent. Galbraith requested that the $12 million benefit communities in six North Idaho counties: Kootenai, Bonner, Boundary, Shoshone, Benewah and Latah.

“We can engage in the communities at a level we’ve never been able to do before,” Hurtubise said.

The endowed fund, called the Margaret F. Galbraith Fund, will give about $1 million in grants to projects and charities over the next two years, with future annual distributions made based on investment earnings.

“Every year, year after year. That’s the beauty of it,” said PJ Watters, director of gift planning for the foundation. “The benefit she’s left here is a permanent benefit.”

In keeping with Galbraith’s wishes, the money will be given for educational and economic opportunities for high school seniors and adults; youth programs; conservation of natural resources; development of parks and other recreation areas; and the upkeep of buildings that serve the public.

The foundation will start awarding the grants in September 2007. Galbraith also gave an undisclosed sum to the foundation for specific charities and school scholarships. Those gifts will be announced later.

The $12 million donation was announced at the Wallace Elks Lodge. A graduate of Wallace High School and the University of Washington, Galbraith worked as an assistant at an accounting firm in Wallace before marrying geologist F. McIntosh Galbraith, who died in 1985, and moving to Spokane.

Galbraith inherited her fortune from her father, Albert H. Featherstone, who made a name for himself as a lawyer in Wallace after moving to the Silver Valley from Minnesota in 1892. He served as deputy sheriff and a district judge, established light and water companies throughout North Idaho, served in the Legislature and was a pioneer in the North Idaho mining industry.

“The money came from that valley, so she was just giving it back to the valley,” Watters said. “… She had no children, so she adopted the Wallace community.”

Galbraith first dabbled in philanthropy in the late 1990s, when she gave $2 million to the foundation anonymously, establishing the North Idaho Fund. In 1999, she and her sister, Harriet Davies, gave the largest individual donation ever to help restore the Wallace library. Davies was a librarian at the library in the 1930s and ‘40s.

“Wallace is in our hearts, even if we’re not there,” Galbraith said at the time.

Galbraith’s nephew, Robert Featherstone, of Spokane, said his aunt was a humble woman who simply wanted to give back to the North Idaho community.

“My aunt really wanted to remain, to some degree, anonymous,” he said. “They were more interested in the help they could provide than the publicity.”