T. Denny Sanford

Thomas Denny Sanford (born December 23, 1935 in Saint Paul) is a South Dakota businessman and philanthropist. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of United National Corp.

Sanford made his fortune as the owner of First PREMIER Bank and PREMIER Bankcard, both among the nation's leading credit card providers. Premier Bankcard issues low-limit Mastercards and Visas to credit-impaired customers, charging higher-than-average interest rates and fees. The typical customer stays only 18 months before graduating to a better rate. "We provide a lifeline for credit-impaired people," Sanford told Forbes magazine.

The Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is named for him.

BusinessWeek magazine listed him as one of the top-50 most generous philanthropists in November 2006.

On February 3, 2007, Sanford announced a $400 million gift to Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System, which renamed itself Sanford Health. Sanford's total philanthropic gifts have exceeded $500 million, and are generally geared toward improving the quality of life for children.

Others receiving significant gifts include:

• Children's Home Society of South Dakota, which cares for abused and neglected children.
• Roundup River Ranch, an affiliate of Paul Newman's Association of Hole in the Wall Camps, located in Gypsum, Colorado, received $4 million –$1 million in cash and $3 million as a matching gift.
• The State of South Dakota's Science and Technology Authority, to help secure a deep underground science and engineering laboratory at the former site of the Homestake Gold Mine.
• The University of South Dakota School of Medicine, which was renamed the Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota.
• The William Sanford Welcome Center at Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota.
• The T. Denny Sanford Pediatric Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
• A 2008 gift created the Sanford Harmony Program in Arizona State University's T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics to help children better understand the opposite gender and to create respect, trust and understanding between boys and girls before adolescence.
• The Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, and Orlando, Florida, received $50 million in January 2010, which was followed by a name change to Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. This gift came only two years after Sanford donated $20 million to a Sanford Center for Childhood Disease research at Burnham in La Jolla.
• In 2010, Sanford's gift to Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University created the Sanford Inspire Program, redefining teacher preparation by integrating best practices of the teachers college and Teach For America.
• Florida Hospital for Children in Orlando, Florida, which received $10 million.
• On May 21, 2009, Sanford made a $6 million donation to help fund the TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota's campus.
• In January 2009, Sanford gave $100 million to create a breast cancer foundation in memory of his mother, Edith Sanford, who died of breast cancer when he was only four years old.
• Sanford was named Philanthropist of the Year in 2011 by the Arizona State University Alumni Association.
• In February 2013, Physics Today reported that Sanford gave $70 million to a physics lab in the defunct Homestake Mine in South Dakota, renamed the Sanford Underground Research Facility site of the discovery of the solar neutrino problem which won the Nobel Prize in Physics for Raymond Davis, Jr. in 2002.
• In November 2013, University of California, San Diego announced a $100 million gift from Sanford for the creation of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UCSD, the second-largest donation in the university's history.
• December 2013, Sanford pledged $10 million to the Crazy Horse Memorial, in South Dakota. The donation follows a $10 million matching pledge made by Sanford in 2007, along with a donation made by Huron couple, Paul and Donna Christen.
• August 2016, Sanford donated $100,000 to a group trying to defeat marijuana legalization in Arizona.

• "The 50 Most Generous Philanthropists". BusinessWeek. Retrieved March 7, 2007. 
• Hamilton, Lindsay (February 3, 2007). "Man Gives Away $400 Million to Hospitals". ABC News. Retrieved March 7, 2007. 
• Post, Tim. "T. Denny Sanford gives $6 million for Gopher football stadium". MPR News. Retrieved August 12, 2014. 
• http://sanfordlab.org
• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2002/
• Leader, Argus (November 13, 2013). "Philanthropist's gift a big bang for stem cell research". USA Today. Retrieved November 13, 2013. 
• Naylor, Jennifer. "Philanthropist pledges $10 million for Crazy Horse Memorial". Rapid City Journal. Retrieved December 17, 2013. 

Sanford graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1958 with a degree in psychology. In 2003, Sanford and the University of Minnesota announced that Sanford would donate $35 million towards a proposed new football stadium for the Minnesota Gophers football team; a deal which would have given him full naming rights. However, that deal fell through in late 2003 when the two parties were unable to reach an agreement on terms of the funding. Later in 2005, TCF Bank won the bid to receive naming rights for the new stadium.

On May 21, 2009, the University of Minnesota accepted a $6 million donation to name the athletic hall of fame within TCF Bank Stadium in his honor. This donation was the final amount to close out the $86 million in private fundraising for the stadium.