A southern Indiana facility that provides housing for cancer patients seeking treatment and their family members is looking for new revenue to help it make ends meet amid declining donations and rising costs.
Jill's House director Susan Dabkowski says the facility will launch two fundraising campaigns in hopes of raising $2.5 million.
"That would put us on really solid ground in terms of our long-term sustainability," she told The Herald-Times (http://bit.ly/r9PLTS).
Jill's House is named for Jill Behrman, an IU student who disappeared while riding her bike in 2000.
The facility was founded by Peg and Bud Howard and was incorporated as an independent nonprofit organization in 2001. After seven years of fundraising, the $3.2 million facility opened to guests on July 1, 2008.
Dabkowski said the economy has caused donations to drop even as costs are rising. She said Jill's House has also seen a drop in the amount of lodging fees patients pay, despite an increase in the number of patients.
Jill's House saw 137 patients in fiscal year 2010-11, up from 117 patients in fiscal year 2008-09.
Jill's House asks guests who can afford it to pay $35 per night for a standard room, which is about half the actual cost. Due to the economy, many guests can't afford to pay the suggested lodging fee. The facility has 25 guest rooms, which can accommodate four to five people each.
"When Jill's House opened, it was a realistic expectation that income from charitable contributions, fundraising events, grant revenue and memorial donations would cover the other half of operational costs," Dabkowski said. "But that was before the economic plunge of 2009 and 2010, and the continued financial uncertainties of today."
Jill's House initially served patients undergoing treatment at the IU Health Proton Therapy Center. But it has tried to offset its losses by opening its doors to family members of patients receiving medical treatment for any disease at any area health care facility.
Dabkowski said when the IU Health Proton Therapy Center opened in 2004, it was one of three proton therapy centers in the country.
"Now there are nine proton therapy centers in the U.S., including one just outside Chicago, and a half-dozen more under construction," she said. "That means a lot more competition for patients."
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Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com
Source: http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2011/09/economy-hits-facility-houses-cancer-patients
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