Grant and Funding Programs Offered by St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation (SJHF)

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation is the charitable foundation dedicated to supporting St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, an academic health sciences centre serving Hamilton and the surrounding region. The Foundation works with individual donors, corporations and community partners to raise philanthropic dollars and then grant those funds back to the hospital to enhance patient care, research and education. Each year, significant amounts are granted to the hospital to address priority needs that are not fully covered by provincial operating funding.

The Foundation structures its work around several fundraising priorities. These include essential equipment such as IV poles, vital sign monitors and diagnostic imaging technologies like CT scanners, MRI machines and cancer screening equipment. It also supports renovations and patient spaces, helping to renew aging clinical areas so they better support healing, family comfort and modern models of care.

Beyond equipment and infrastructure, the Foundation directs funding to clinical and research areas that are central to St. Joe’s mission. This includes mental health and addictions services, where donations help meet growing demand for emergency care, inpatient programs and community support. Research and innovation is another core focus, backing work carried out by hundreds of researchers across domains such as lung and chest health, kidney and urinary disease, robotic surgery and evaluation of medicines.

As an academic hospital partner of McMaster University and Mohawk College, the Foundation also invests in education and training. It supports the Centre for Education, Learning and Simulation (CELS), a facility that uses high-fidelity mannequins, simulation labs and emerging technologies such as virtual reality and 3D printing to train current and future healthcare professionals in a safe, realistic environment.

The Foundation’s funding ultimately benefits patients and families across Hamilton and nearby counties, including Brant, Norfolk and Haldimand, as well as a wider region of more than a million residents who rely on St. Joe’s specialized programs. Examples include support for large capital projects like the renewal of kidney care and transplant clinic space, as well as ongoing equipment replacement and program enhancements across the hospital’s campuses.

Through events such as the Around the Bay Road Race, lotteries and community-led initiatives, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation mobilizes philanthropy and channels it into strategic grants that improve facilities, accelerate research discoveries and strengthen the training of healthcare teams. Its role is to bridge the gap between public funding and the level of care, innovation and patient experience the community expects from its hospital.