Making a Gift

Memorial donations to Hospice & Palliative Care and the SIEGENTHALER CENTER enable us to provide quality, compassionate care for patients and their families. Because reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance is insufficient to cover the wide range of essential services our patients and their families need, we look to the community for support.

Hospice & Palliative Care gratefully accepts donations in honor or memory of a friend or loved one, and appreciates when our patients' families designate Hospice & Palliative Care as the memorial recipient. When a memorial donation in any denomination is received, a thank you letter is sent to the donor stating the amount of the gift, which the donor may need for tax purposes. A letter is also sent to family members of the person being memorialized, so they will know the names of those who have remembered their loved one. This letter does not include the amount of the donation, simply the name and address of the person making the donation.

Individual (not cumulative) gifts of $250 or more will be recognized on our Memorial Giving Tree located in the lobby of Hospice & Palliative Care.

$5,000+ - Large Acorn
$2,500 to $4,999 - Large Stone
$2,000 to $2,499 - Medium Stone
$1,000 to $1,999 - Small Stone
$750 to $999 - Gold Leaf
$500 to $749 - Silver Leaf
$250 to $499 - Bronze Leaf

You may specify who the gift is in memory of and who it is from. If you have any questions about a donation you would like to make, or to learn more about the gift that is right for you, please contact the Hospice & Palliative Care Community Support Services Office at 315-735-6484 or 1-800-317-5661.

Your generous support of the Hospice & Palliative Care mission makes you an invaluable asset to our organization. If you have been thinking about TAKING YOUR SUPPORT TO THE NEXT LEVEL, we would be pleased to talk to you about any of the following:

• A bequest through a will
• Gifts of appreciated stocks or other securities
• Gifts of life income vehicles (annuities, trusts)
• Gifts of real estate or other property
• Assignment of life insurance or retirement plan assets

Thanks to generous support from our community, Hospice & Palliative Care is the only hospice serving Oneida, Herkimer and eastern Madison counties, and is the area's leading expert in end-of-life care. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated solely to providing hospice care.

While the basic cost of providing hospice care is covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and most other health insurance plans, many of the most valued services we provide-for patients, families and the community-are funded solely by private gifts. Furthermore, as "the community's hospice", we turn no one away due to inability to pay.

Cancer patients who die at home with hospice care experience a better quality of life at the end compared to those who die in a hospital or intensive care unit, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology

1. According to a survey by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 80% of terminally ill patients prefer to live out their last days at home as opposed to a hospital.
2. "Patients who died at home were less likely to die in pain," said Dr. Alex Wright, an oncologist with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "They had less psychological suffering and their loved ones saw that their overall quality of life was better."

• Specialized medical team dedicated solely to end-of-life care
• Excellent staff-to-patient ratios
• Veterans Program
• Hearts at Home Program
• More than 200 highly trained volunteers
• Free bereavement services following the death of a patient
• State-of-the-art hospice residence, the Siegenthaler Center