PROVIDENCE – Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island today announced that it is about to embark on the public phase of its $20 million capital campaign to support the hospital’s expansion.
The work is to include a new, state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and additional inpatient obstetrics rooms.
“This expansion will will help accommodate the growing number of patients who turn to us for the care, compassion, medical leadership and reliability that have been Women & Infants’ hallmarks since our founding in 1884,” said Constance A. Howes, the hospital’s president and CEO. “We are delighted at the enthusiasm [the campaign has encountered] across the hospital and throughout the community.”
Onward: The Campaign for Women & Infants Hospital has been in its leadership phase since the beginning of 2005, the hospital said.
It has attracted a $2 million challenge grant from The Carter Family Charitable Trust – pledging to provide a dollar-for-dollar match for gifts from individuals, corporations and family foundations – that was the hospital’s largest-ever gift from a family trust.
“We are so fortunate to have a hospital of the caliber of Women & Infants in our region,” said John and Letitia Carter, of their family’s trust. “It’s just one of the fundamental things a community needs; you need a very good hospital, you need good research, and you need advanced therapies.”
The campaign also has attracted a $500,000 challenge grant from The Champlin Foundations, plus an additional grant of $250,000.”
“Women & Infants Hospital is the first not-for-profit organization that The Champlin Foundations have chosen to support with a challenge grant,” noted Keith Lang, the foundations’ executive director. “We did so because the ONWARD Campaign is a worthy endeavor that seeks to enhance the already outstanding patient care for which this hospital is known – and we are delighted that the challenge was so enthusiastically embraced by the Hospital and community alike.”
Those two challenges alone have drawn pledges of $5.6 million, the hospital said, and both topped out in record time: the Champlin challenge in less than 6 months and the Carter challenge in 10.
Additional information on the hospital and the Onward capital campaign is available at www.womenandinfants.org.
