About Us

What is the impact of your gift to Hospice Foundation in securing high-quality, end-of-life care services in your community?

End-of-life care touches us all at some time. And, every family facing the challenges of life-threatening illness, caregiving or loss has a multitude of needs–emotional, physical, practical, spiritual. No one service can do it all. It takes a community network of caring, compassionate services to help families through their intense ordeal. Hospice Foundation uniquely understands this and, as a donor, you do too.

• You support a range of hospice or palliative care services for children and adults, bereavement counseling for individuals and families, and other end-of-life support. Grant Recipients 2011.
• You foster collaboration among local care providers. Patients and families benefit with increased efficiency and less duplication. See example of the Pediatric Collaborative Grant.
• You improve care and services. Donations fund innovations and solutions, such as the placement in 2009 of audio/visual units in homes in remote locations so that nurses can see and talk with patients and families between regularly scheduled visits.

  

  A nurse sees and talks to a patient and family, who live in a remote region, and electronically gains vital sign information.

• You ensure that the quality of care and access to services remain high. As providers face steep declines in government and insurance payments, they turn to Hospice Foundation for help. You help us, help them.
• You ensure that grant recipients use their Hospice Foundation funding efficiently and effectively for your cause: compassionate, dignified end-of-life care. Grant recipients submit reports twice per year to the Foundation on the use and impact of their funds. See Guidelines.
• You enhance the quality of a dying person’s life, and help families receive the range of support they need as they journey through their loss.

You have several options in making your gift to Hospice Foundation. You can restrict your gift to support just one kind of service, such as hospice care, or a specific provider of care. Or, gain the widest impact when your gift is pooled with others to fund several end-of-life care specialties at once.

Does Hospice Foundation provide hospice care?

No, Hospice Foundation is not a provider of hospice care though, because of our name, we are often confused as one. Rather, the Foundation gives grants that fund services by local non-profit, end-of-life care providers.

Foundation grants help these local providers close the gap between what it costs to provide services and what they receive in reimbursements from government and private insurance sources. As they continue to face steeply declining reimbursements, our funding helps them avoid cutting services so that they remain available for all who need them.

How does Hospice Foundation raise funds?

Throughout the year, Hospice Foundation conducts fundraising appeals or campaigns by mail, and presents fundraising events, such as the Golf Scramble, Southern Comfort and our holiday Trees of Life tree lightings.

We also receive donations in the form of memorial gifts or bequests from wills or trusts, or from other estate planning/planned giving arrangements.

These funds then become the source of the grants Hospice Foundation gives locally each year to help sustain the current level of services, and to help local providers of care innovate and meet emerging needs in the community.

Which are the hospice care providers in Monterey and San Benito counties?

• Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula’s program, Hospice of the Central Coast, was acquired by CHOMP in 1997 and is now incorporated into its hospital system of services. It owns and operates Westland House, a 28-bed inpatient rehabilitation and hospice care facility. See History.
• Central Coast Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice, Inc. added its hospice services in 1998. As the oldest non-profit home health care agency in the region, the addition of its Medicare-certified hospice service now enables the organization to be a full-service provider of care.
• Hospice of Santa Cruz County is based in Aptos but provides most of the hospice care services in the northern Monterey County communities of Aromas, Pajaro, and Los Lomas.
• Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition/Partnership for Children provides care coordination, bereavement and other supportive services for terminally ill children and their families.
• Heartland Hospice is for-profit provider of care in the region, with offices and staffs serving Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties.

All of these hospice organizations (except Children’s Hospice) are Medicare-certified, which means that services are provided under the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Children’s Hospice has a different payment structure. They all have professional staffs and trained volunteers. The first four listed are non-profits and, as such, are eligible to apply for grants from Hospice Foundation. As a for-profit provider, Heartland Hospice is not eligible.

Can I give a donation to support Westland House through Hospice Foundation?

Yes. However, Westland House is also a post-surgical recovery facility so if your intention is to support hospice services there, you can restrict your donation for hospice care only at Westland House. Hospice Foundation will ensure your intentions.

Can I still support the other organizations through Hospice Foundation?

Yes. Let us know that you would like to restrict your gift for that organization or that special program you have in mind. Hospice Foundation will ensure your intentions.

If you have a question for us that we’ve not answered here, please call us at (831) 333-9023, or send us an email.