Hospice Niagara

Communities across Ontario and Canada are seeking holistic and humane end-of-life options for their terminally ill citizens. Families sometimes need a break from dealing with loved ones that have exhausted all their medical treatment options and are facing death. To that point Niagara Region has been underserved, because there are currently only ten Hospice beds to serve a population of well over 400,000 citizens (next to much more costly to operate palliative beds in local hospitals.)

In the winter of 2019, Interkom was engaged by Hospice Niagara to conduct a Fundraising Feasibility Study to learn if a planned expansion into Fort Erie (East Niagara) and Welland (South Niagara) could be underwritten by philanthropic gifts in the form of a capital campaign. 

The primary goal in conducting this feasibility study were to uncover whether a $14 million fundraising goal was achievable. Key findings from the study indicated that:

Palliative Care services were considered vital to the future success of the region and the future of community development in the area. It was suggested that details of statistical evidence of improvements and changes in palliative care in the Niagara Region and other measured accomplishments would be important to indicate the urgency and develop a relationship with the Fort Erie and Welland philanthropic communities. When the Board learned of the findings it provided confidence to embark on a capital fundraising campaign. Two years later, staff reported that nearly eighty percent of the goal had been pledged and provided the opening date for a brand-new first new site in Fort Erie in 2024, with the Welland campus to follow closely after.