Your donation will help local families receive vital and compassionate end-of-life care, completely free of charge
Why your local hospice needs your support today
People are often surprised to hear that St Wilfrid’s Hospice is a charity, and that our expert end-of-life and palliative care is offered completely free-of-charge to the local community.
It costs over £10.5m per year to run our vital services, and only 16% of our funding comes from the government. After several years of high inflation and rising costs, we are now dipping into our savings.
While we campaign for a sustainable long-term funding solution from the government, we must do all we can to bring in enough funds to pay for care, which is why we are asking, will you make a donation to St Wilfrid’s today?
“David was at rock bottom before we came to St Wilfrid’s”
His wife, Jan, wanted to share their experience with people who care deeply about local hospice care, just like you.
“David was at rock bottom before we came to St Wilfrid’s. But from the moment they became involved with David’s care, everything changed for the better.
It may sound strange, but David is happy. He believes he would not still be here without St Wilfrid’s, and I agree. Thanks to this wonderful Hospice, we are making the most of every day together. I cannot imagine what our lives would be like without their care.
So from David and myself, I ask you to please support St Wilfrid’s Hospice with a donation if you can”.
Since speaking to Jan and David earlier this year, David has died surrounded by his loving family. We would like to thank Jan and David for sharing their experience of the care they have both received from St Wilfrid’s.
Spring Appeal FAQs
It costs over £10.5m each year to provide all our services, yet we only receive 16% from the government, so for the rest, we rely on the generous support of our local community. Due to rising costs and growing demand, we are now spending more than we are raising. Without additional funding, in the future we will struggle to keep delivering our care to as many people as we do now.
St Wilfrid’s is an independent charity and not part of the NHS, which means we are having to meet increased Employers National Insurance costs. Together with National Minimum wage increases and other rising costs including energy, food, medication, this means we’re now under financial pressure. These rising costs, plus inadequate government funding, alongside a growing demand for our services means we are dipping in to our reserves.
Reserves (or savings) are part of our unrestricted income, excluding fixed assets such as our hospice building. They ensure the continuity of our services in unexpected circumstances (for example, emergencies, short-term cash flow issues, or unexpected income variations) and are essential for the financial stability and sustainability of our charity.
Every year we carefully budget our anticipated income and expenditure, and for 2026/2027, we anticipate a funding gap of £1.8m, which we will need to use our reserves to fill.
We received a total of £143,000 from the government’s hospice fund across 2024/25 and £550,000 was awarded in 2025/26. This funding can only be used for buildings, equipment, and infrastructure – it cannot be used to deliver care or pay the teams who provide it.
While we are in a financially challenging position, we have enough financial reserves to see us through the short-term. Provided we take action to reduce costs and increase income enough to tackle the deficit now, we will remain open and here for our communities in the long-term.
No. St Wilfrid’s Hospice Chichester was deeply saddened by the news about its namesake, St Wilfrid’s Hospice Eastbourne announcing service cuts and redundancies. St Wilfrid’s Hospice Eastbourne has stated that funding pressures have made it necessary for them to cease their Care@Home service, which provides regular visits to patients at home for personal care. This decision has been made to protect the future of the hospice.
We must raise more money to help address our funding shortfall, and we can do that by reaching more people and growing the St Wilfrid’s Hospice supporter base. We are investing in our Spring Appeal so that we can reach every household across our catchment of Emsworth to Arundel and the Coast to the Downs. It’s important that our community know who we are and how they can help us. The Spring appeal will bring in new long-term supporters for the hospice and raise much needed awareness and income.
Hospice UK are the national champion for hospices, and campaign to make sure hospice care is there for everyone, from every background – today and into the future. They represent a community of more than 200 hospices across the UK.
Their campaign for fairer funding aims to secure the future of hospice care. As it stands, nearly 60% of hospices in England have either made or are considering cuts to frontline services. This comes as demand is rising, fast, because of our ageing population. The situation is not sustainable – and time is running out.
You can read more about the campaign here: Fair Funding for Hospices | Hospice UK