The donor wall at the Medicine Hat Health Foundation. (Photo Courtesy Chris Brown)

By Chris Brown

National Philanthropy Day

Health foundation saying thanks to donors, supporters

Nov 15, 2022 | 12:23 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Every little bit helps when it comes to improving health care and few know that as well as the Medicine Hat Health Foundation.

Executive director Heather Bach says she could talk all day about the support the foundation gets from donors.

“We can talk about all kinds of things,” she says. “We’re impacting the OR suites we bought new wheelchairs that’s almost getting old. We’ve done some things in diagnostic imaging that people probably don’t recognize. If you spend some time in the hospital there isn’t an area or a room that our donors haven’t made an impact.”

So Nov. 15, National Philanthropy Day, is a big day for the foundation, and one she calls a really fun one for her and the rest of the team.

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“We do a thank-a-thon today, so we’re spending the whole day calling our donors and supporters to say thank you and it’s a really great way to kick off the giving season because it’s sort of a feel-good day,” Bach explains. “We get the benefit of calling to say thanks and put a smile on someone’s face and that makes us feel good as well.”

She adds she likes the word philanthropy over fundraising because she sees fundraising as a transactional term, but philanthropy is different.

“Philanthropy is a journey, and it’s a relationship that we build with donors. They empower us to make an impact on health care every day when they support health care.”

Bach says she believes 75 per cent of our community members are philanthropists and encourages everyone to be a philanthropist in some way, whether that’s helping the heath foundation or whatever cause you deem worthy.

She says it’s not about dollar amounts.

“It’s about giving to a cause that matters to you from the heart and really expecting nothing in return.”

Bach thanks the foundation’s donors and supporters and all those working in the philanthropy industry.

If you want to support the Medicine Hat Health Foundation, visit ourhealthfoundation.ca.