Our administration fees cover overhead such as our office space & equipment, staff salaries & benefits, finance management & evaluation, marketing & advertising, and fundraising expenses such as event costs. Investing in these resources ensures the KGH Foundation remains committed to excellence and integrity in all aspects of our work. While we aim to keep our administrative costs low, we also recognize the importance of investing in our people & culture, having robust accountability through solid policies & procedures, and building relationships with a variety of partners in the community to increase the capacity for collaboration and collective impact.
Foundation funding comes in when government funding stops, bringing local health care from the standard to excellence. We don’t receive any grants or funds directly from government bodies. The Foundation does however work to enhance government investment and expedite projects. For example, the government is funding the replacement of the 1.5T MRI at KGH ($25M) but the KGH Foundation is supplementing their support to be able to include the addition of a 3T MRI ($5M) into the project as well. The government tends to focus their support on urgent and acute needs, where the Foundation has the ability to have impact on more mid- or up-stream solutions, innovation, and collaboration – all with a local impact.
Traditionally the KGH Foundation has focused its funding on equipment and infrastructure needs. However, the needs and priorities of health care are shifting and the KGH Foundation has provided funding for staff wages or operational costs (e.g. subscriptions fees, consumables) for projects where funding is needed in order to pilot a program and demonstrate the impact it will have on patient care. The KGH Foundation will not cover ongoing costs however and holds the expectation that a program or project will become self-sustainable.
The health care needs within acute care and community settings are vast and complex and far outweigh the support the KGH Foundation can provide. The KGH Foundation staff work very closely with front line health care workers & service providers as well as the administration & leadership at Interior Health to determine which needs are most urgent and also to plan ahead for future projects in order to properly allocate resources.
The KGH Foundation and Interior Health (IH) have a close working relationship but are two separate entities. Interior Health generously provides many resources to the Foundation free of charge (e.g. HR administration, IT support, physical space) and has even donated the land that is now home to JoeAnna’s House. A couple IH staff sit the organization’s Board of Directors and many additional staff are engaged on funding decision-making, through grant applications, and to aid in reporting impact back to our supporters.
