One of the biggest challenges for a non-profit is putting their dollars to good use quickly, and that’s one of the biggest questions potential donors face when making a choice to donate:
How do I know that my donation is being put to good use?
From the very launch of The Tory Day Fund we wanted to get at least two things right:
- Maximize the dollars that go to actual programs, and not administration.
- Be absolutely transparent about how the dollars are invested.
It was pure serendipity during our first meeting with the Sunnybrook Foundation and Odette Cancer Centre that we identified a wish to fund a program to make visits to the centre less confusing for first-time visitors … They had been studying just such a program for the past several months and needed a funding partner. We were thrilled when the Patient Buddy Service launched just a few months later.
OK, now for transparency: the cost of this program is $28,000, and we have at least the first two years funded from our 2017 campaign.
One of the more challenging programs to fund was the purchase of beds, to provide more comfortable treatment options for chemotherapy patients. First, beds take up a bigger footprint than traditional chemotherapy chairs. For that reason, we’re instead pursuing a “hybrid” — a chair that can lay flat as the patient wishes.
Second, purchasing chairs requires patient testing (to make sure they are in fact more comfortable) and dealing with the purchasing department of the hospital (turns out it’s not as easy as going to our local Sklar Peppler store!).
Despite the hurdles, we’ve identified two chairs — like the one pictured — that are being tested at Odette starting this spring. From there, we’ll order as many as we can.
We’ve committed $50,000 for the purchase of these chairs.
After funding these two programs, we have a total of $22,436.54 remaining from our 2017 campaign. Our 2018 campaign will add to these funds, so we can ensure a long-term commitment to the comfort of cancer patients.