Burnaby Hospital Foundation

Burnaby Hospital Foundation, the crucial fundraising arm of Burnaby Hospital

Burnaby Hospital has a lot to celebrate as it turns 60 this year. The hospital was founded in 1943 by locals who wanted their own health-care facility instead of relying on hospitals in Vancouver and New Westminster. They raised $196,000 in nine years, and that, combined with provincial and federal grants, turned a dream into a reality.

Today, Burnaby Hospital Foundation (the philanthropic arm of Burnaby Hospital), works closely with the hospital board to determine the facility’s highest-priority needs. The foundation then uses a donor-centred approach to raise money for state-of-the-art health-care equipment, technology, capital projects and educational outreach.

Fundraising techniques have become more sophisticated over the foundation’s 60-year history. Although particularly active on social media sites as well as in print and other traditional venues, face-to-face interaction is still the driving force behind all fundraising activities. “Our job is to inspire people to support us, and the best way to do that is to get into the community and meet people,” says foundation president and CEO Cheryl Carline. “But as tenacious as we are in our outreach efforts, overwhelmingly, people come to us to lend support.”

The relationships Burnaby Hospital Foundation has forged over the decades go a long way in making up for the limitations of government health-care funding. “Locals are proud of their hospital,” says Carline. “It sees over 200,000 patient visits yearly, has the third busiest emergency department in B.C., performs over 10,000 surgeries annually and delivers over 1,600 babies a year. In short, it’s a genuine success story, and despite the economic challenges they face, Burnaby residents are eager to close the gap between what we need and what the government can provide.”

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