Nonprofit of the Year Winner | Small: Hospice Foundation of the Ozarks Inc.

Since 1997, Hospice Foundation of the Ozarks Inc. has been a vital resource for medical professionals, individuals and their families navigating end-of-life care.

Currently under a rebranding process to Hospice Foundation for Outreach Inc., the nonprofit has expanded beyond the local community in recent years.

“Our heart is to help educate communities all over, not just in the Ozarks, but all through the nation,” says Executive Director Anjanette LaBellarte.

The organization, operating on a 2025 budget of $350,000, is powered by a staff of four and a 95-member volunteer advisory committee to provide several forms of programming.

HFO hosted its first End-of-Life Care Summit in 2024 with more than 300 participants including physicians, nurses, chaplains and social workers from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. It will host a second summit in February 2026.

One of its most important resources is the BucketList +1 program, LaBellarte says, which is an initiative assisting people in creating advance care directives. HFO has distributed more than 4,250 tool kits, and the packet is being translated into Spanish.

“We’ve been able to go and talk to all kinds of organizations,” LaBellarte says. “We get to talk about these things and give examples and stories, and then people are like, ‘Oh, this is not bad,’ and they take the bucket list and they take it home.”

HFO also partners with Washington University to develop the nationwide Learning Institute for Global Hospice Training, providing evidenced-based, virtual education for caregivers.

“Together, we’re wanting to help families achieve and improve quality of life with proven interventions for compassionate care,” LaBellarte says.

HFO anticipates that its reach to expand even further through a partnership with Springfield photographer Randy Bacon to produce a documentary, “The Soft Surrender.” The film, premiering Nov. 1, creates conversations on end-of-life and dying and will be shared with medical schools, at medical conferences and in museums.

“I’m working on the structure of the organization to make it solid,” LaBellarte says, “when this film and exhibition hits, … when it really goes full force, it’s going to take HFO to the next level.”