No one knows when they’ll need a children’s hospital.
But when a child needs treatment or care, nothing matters more.
Your support helps to ensure that children’s hospitals across Canada are
here for kids when it matters most.
Annual Impact Report 2024
Here for Kids When It Matters Most
Jasper, CHEO
A reputable ranking of the world’s top hospitals this year confirmed what many grateful parents and kids across Canada already know: this country’s children’s hospitals are among the best anywhere.
Building extraordinary medical institutions takes constant investment in the talent, technical capabilities, and research that support great care. Donors to Canada’s children’s hospital foundations are vital to this ongoing work.
Many kids and families will never need the full scope of what children’s hospitals provide. But when a child needs significant care, Canada’s children’s hospitals are standing by – with specialists in childhood diseases and development; medical equipment built for small bodies; age-appropriate psychosocial supports; and spaces designed with families in mind.
Children’s hospitals also help the large majority of young people whose needs are less complex. They create and share knowledge widely, helping primary care providers, families, schools, and community organizations do their part to promote kids’ health.
Donor support is critical to hospitals’ continued success. Hospitals benefit in particular from the unrestricted funds that give experts and care teams the flexibility to respond to the realities they see up close every day – from the crisis in youth mental health to the clinical horizons opened up by new technology.
On behalf of our entire network, thank you for helping to ensure that Canada’s children’s hospitals are always here for kids when it matters most.
With gratitude,
Adam Starkman
President and Chief Executive Officer
Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations
Avery, Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation
Kortni and Kolbi, Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation
REMOTE CARE AND INNOVATIONS IN ACCESS
Here for kids wherever they need us
Canada’s children’s hospitals extend care into remote communities and across provincial borders. Donor support helps provide the equipment and technology to surmount geographic barriers: enabling virtual care, partnerships with smaller clinics, and specialized medical transportation.
- Rehabilitation in the north. In 2024, Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation supported the purchase of rehabilitation equipment for pediatric clinics in Northern Saskatchewan that mainly serve Indigenous communities. Clinics that were previously equipped to deliver only physical therapy will now support both occupational therapy and speech language pathology. The Foundation is part of a shared effort to improve access to a broad range of clinical care for the roughly 3 in 10 Saskatchewan residents who live in rural and remote communities.
- A critical journey. When babies born in community hospitals need enhanced care, children’s hospitals are ready. In 2024, Baby Weston was born in Burin, Newfoundland and Labrador (population: 2,200) at 27 weeks. The team at the Burin hospital knew this 900-gram infant needed the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Janeway in St. John’s. With helicopters grounded by a storm, a NICU nurse and respiratory therapist made the four-hour road journey to Burin to collect Weston in an ambulance; he spent two months receiving specialized care in the Janeway NICU before going home. Today, Weston is happy, healthy, and getting ready for his first birthday.
BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
Jules, Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation
ADVANCED EQUIPMENT AND CARE
Here for kids with complex needs
Young people with the most complex medical challenges need the specialized expertise and equipment unique to children’s hospitals. From neonatal intensive care to pediatric organ transplants, donors help hospitals build capabilities specifically tailored to children and youth.
- Monitoring the tiniest patients. Researchers with The Montreal Children’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are studying how well wireless, wearable sensors can monitor the vital signs of the hospital’s smallest patients. Compared to traditional wired electrodes, wireless devices have the potential to alert doctors and nurses more quickly to health changes. They also avoid some drawbacks of wires, such as tangles and skin irritation. If it proves safe and accurate, the wireless system could drive what one researcher calls a “mammoth change” in NICU care.
- Freeing children to move and communicate – despite severe disability. Some children are effectively trapped in their bodies because, although they’re mentally capable, conditions like stroke or cerebral palsy severely limit their ability to walk, talk, and move their hands. New technology called brain-computer interface (BCI), which sends brain signals directly to computers, has shown great potential to help people with severe disabilities communicate and gain independence – but BCI research with younger patients has been limited. At Alberta Children’s Hospital, the BCI4Kids program is exploring applications of BCI for children, helping kids with severe disabilities gain new access to learning and play.
James, Janeway Children’s Hospital Foundation
Waylon and Children’s Health Foundation’s medical team
EQUITY AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE
Here for kids and their communities
All healthcare takes place in a social context. But this is especially true for children and teens, who typically need help from their families and social circles to navigate their healthcare journeys. Donor support lets children’s hospitals invest in building strong relationships with families and communities, so everyone can work together to support kids when they need it.
- Indigenous-led support. Children’s hospitals across Canada are investing in people and programs to ensure that Indigenous children and youth have access to culturally appropriate, Indigenous-led support as they navigate health challenges. For example, Children’s Health Foundation (CHF) in London, Ontario supports an Indigenous Youth Wellness Consultant who supports trauma-informed and culturally safe care for Indigenous youth and their families. Last year alone, the consultant made over 500 bedside visits, fielded nearly 400 consultations with hospital staff, and staffed an Indigenous Healing Space.
- Fostering communities of care. Recognizing that the families of children with health challenges are often their biggest champions, SickKids Foundation launched the Community Conference Grants program, which supports events organized by or for the families of kids with specific health challenges. Families can apply for funding to create events that facilitate the exchange of knowledge among families, health professionals, and/or community organizations – helping everyone build their capacity to deliver the best possible support and care to young people.
Eilidh, MacKids
Beau with mom, Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba
CAPACITY-BUILDING
Here for kids – today and tomorrow
Canada’s children’s hospitals are among the world’s best because of past investments in areas ranging from medical research to infrastructure upgrades that improve patient experience. Even as they deliver extraordinary treatment and care to today’s kids, children’s hospitals continue to work urgently to ensure that they’re ready with the tools and resources to meet the health challenges of children and youth in the years to come.
- Improving health systems. Some of the most important healthcare research focuses not on new therapies but on the complex human systems that deliver care. Every year, the IWK Foundation supports the work of Health System Impact Fellows, whose research focuses on urgent issues in healthcare and seeks to guide evidence-informed decision-making in health systems. Supporting ongoing learning and improvement, these fellows help to ensure that high-quality, environmentally sustainable healthcare will be here for kids and families in the years to come.
- Responding to growing need. Across Canada, children’s hospital foundations – powered by donors – are making urgent efforts to ensure that hospitals are ready to meet the needs of growing communities. Over the last two years, MacKids has funded the expansion of McMaster Children’s Hospital’s pediatric intensive care capacity by nearly 50%, going from 14 beds to 20. Meanwhile, in northern Alberta, donors to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation have helped build a different kind of capacity by investing in further education for nurses in Stollery’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Experienced nurses at all three Stollery NICU sites have the opportunity to pursue further education at the University of Alberta to become neonatal nurse practitioners. Since 2018, nine Stollery nurses have benefitted from this program, building their expertise and enhancing their ability to care for fragile NICU patients and their families.
IWK research
2024 Fundraising Total
Our partners and donors contributed more than $59 million to children’s hospital foundations across Canada this year.
$59+
MILLION
Local hospitals were empowered to apply the funds they received to top local priorities. How funds were allocated across our network is briefly summarized below.
40%
Revolutionizing Treatment and Care through innovative research and discovery focused on areas of significant need.
19%
Enable Right Care. Right Place. Right Time — no matter what a child’s injury or illness.
41%
Create Healing Environments that help children get better while helping them and their families feel good, too.
The financial figures presented in this report represent combined fiscal 2024 fundraising received and disbursed by the organization of $42.1M as well as $17.1M by our Member Foundations.
Banque, Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation
Canada’s children’s hospital foundations
We support 13 Canadian children’s hospital foundations.
Thank you
It’s your support that lets hospitals be here for kids when it matters most.
