MAJOR FUNDERS

United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona

As the anchor organization for the Arizona End of Life Care Partnership, United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona leads this collaborative effort through its mission to build a thriving community by uniting people, ideas and resources.

The Anchor Team provides the connective infrastructure by convening Partners and stakeholders, promoting the work of all Partners, and creating a hub for end-of-life resources. The role of the Anchor Team is to coordinate community actions toward shared measurable outcomes and social change, to break down silos, and to create a sense of true collaboration

The David and Lura Lovell Foundation

Established in 1994, The David and Lura Lovell Foundation supports work in areas of mental health, integrative health and wellness, including end-of-life care and planning, youth access to the arts, and gender parity.

The Arizona End of Life Care Partnership is of special interest to the Lovell family because of David’s own end-of-life experience. The initial grant to the Partnership that was made in 2017 funded ten community organizations, thereby launching this important work focusing on end-of-life care in Southern Arizona. Subsequent grants were awarded in 2019 and 2020 to support additional infrastructure and to address gaps identified in the early phases of Partnership development. Through 2020, The Lovell Foundation has awarded $3.5 million for end-of-life care and planning projects.

Community Foundation for Southern Arizona

CFSA connects donors to the causes that they care about by serving as a vital link between philanthropy and the needs of the community. The work of CFSA touches every aspect of daily life, including end of life, animal welfare, arts and culture, community development, education, the environment, and health and human services.

Since 2012, through the legacy of the Shaaron Kent Endowment, the Community Foundation has been supporting programs that help ease the transition from life to death. CFSA has granted a total of $472,550 to this these programs. These programs encourage discussion and subsequent action around end-of-life issues and educate individuals, caregivers, medical personnel, family members, and the general community about the needs of the dying and the choices available to them.

Vitalyst Health Foundation

Thanks to a Systems Change Grant in the amount of $190,000.00 from Vitalyst Health Foundation in 2019, the Arizona End of Life Care Partnership is helping Opportunity Youth in our community, youth ages 16-24 who are not in school or employed. These youth are among the most vulnerable in our community, and throughout their lives have been touched by death, and often have had to deal with the trauma of these experiences without support.

With the support of the Vitalyst Health Foundation, United Way, Tu Nidito, and Goodwill Metro are working together to promote systems change within the Juvenile Justice Courts in Pima County by the formal inclusion of bereavement support services within probation terms, helping youth to develop healthy grieving strategies, which then promote resiliency. This expansion of their work is core to the mission of changing how we talk about death and acknowledging that our youth are an important part of that conversation.