Pilgrims Hospice Society

The Challenge

As Pilgrims looked to the future, it set out to diversify its fund development by reviewing, expanding, and innovating its approach to corporate giving. While the organization had built deep community trust and a loyal base of individual donors, it recognized that long-term financial sustainability would require structured corporate fund development — along with the messaging, strategy, and board engagement to support it.

Hospice care is a deeply personal cause, and what motivates an individual donor does not always translate into the language of corporate partnership. Pilgrims needed to increase its profile among corporate audiences, articulate a value proposition that resonated in business conversations, and build a structured approach that could guide consistent outreach, cultivation, and stewardship.

The Clarity Gap

Incite’s research surfaced several barriers that could limit corporate growth if left unresolved. While Pilgrims’ care was widely respected, stakeholders were not always aware of the full breadth of its impact beyond the hospice itself — including grief support, caregiver resources, and educational offerings.

Misconceptions about hospice and palliative care created additional friction, making it harder for corporate audiences to immediately understand relevance without careful framing. Corporate donors also consistently expressed a preference for high-touch, relationship-based cultivation — meaning broad or transactional approaches risked misalignment with both donor expectations and the sensitivity of Pilgrims’ work. Internal and external naming complexity, particularly the distinction between Roozen Family Hospice and Pilgrims Hospice Society, added another layer of potential confusion when engaging corporate audiences.

The Strategic Shift Needed

Incite supported Pilgrims in shifting from event-based corporate support to a structured partnership model — one that positioned end-of-life care and grief support as a community issue relevant to every workplace, and invited businesses into long-term relationships rather than transactional sponsorships. Achieving this required Pilgrims to align internally on a differentiated corporate value proposition, adopt consistent language, and develop a repeatable program structure to guide how partnerships are initiated, cultivated, and stewarded.

The Work

Corporate Fund Development Strategy & Implementation Plan

Incite began with current and prospective donor engagement and a scan of comparable organizations to build an evidence-based understanding of Pilgrims’ corporate opportunity. The findings clarified what stakeholders valued most about: Pilgrims’ person-centred care model, exceptional staff, home-like environment, and support for residents and families. It also revealed key constraints to corporate fund development: limited awareness of Pilgrims’ broader impact, corporate expectations for relationship-building, and friction from naming confusion.

From there, Incite developed a Corporate Fund Development Strategy grounded in a clarify, align, connect framework, including recommended messaging, four core value points, an ideal corporate partner profile, and a prioritized implementation plan with activities, timelines, and budgets. Incite also facilitated an internal rollout and training session with the board and led a network mapping exercise to identify and prioritize centres of influence for corporate cultivation.

It became clear that Pilgrims needed more than strategy. They needed a repeatable partnership pathway to support consistent outreach, meetings, and stewardship, which led directly to a second engagement.

Corporate Partnership Program and ELM Network Brand

Incite created the Corporate Partnership Framework, a comprehensive guide covering how Pilgrims defines partnership, identifies and qualifies prospects, leverages centres of influence, structures partnership conversations, and manages ongoing stewardship and recognition touchpoints. The goal was to provide a practical operating framework that supports the full corporate partnership journey without treating Edmonton businesses in a transactional manner.

Alongside this, Incite developed a Corporate Partner Experience Guide, organizing engagement opportunities into four categories: workplace well-being and support, culture and employee engagement, brand awareness, and community leadership.

To support prospect conversations, Incite produced a Corporate Case for Support: a designed document communicating the business case for partnership with Pilgrims, the workplace impact of end-of-life care and grief, and the qualities of an ideal corporate partner.

Finally, to give the program a cohesive identity and give Pilgrims a credible, values-aligned identity for partnership conversations, Incite developed the ELM Network (End-of-Life Matters Network) brand, including naming, logo design, and brand guidelines.