Hospice of the Valley

Hospice of the Valley

Hospice of the Valley was established in 1977 in Phoenix, Arizona, as a community-rooted non-profit provider of end-of-life and palliative care. Executive Director and CEO Debbie Shumway oversees the organization's clinical operations and investment activities, guiding a model that blends patient care revenue with philanthropic support and an endowed investment portfolio. The organization's financial architecture is built to sustain long-term care infrastructure, not maximize quarterly distributions. The endowment strategy reflects a dual mandate: preserve capital for perpetual care operations while funding physical infrastructure expansion. Asset-class exposure spans commercial real estate, fixed income, and direct property development, with a geographic concentration in Maricopa County, Arizona. The portfolio includes the Hospice of the Valley Headquarters on East Flower Street, a Campus for Dementia Care and Education at 44th Street and Indianola Avenue, inpatient care homes across the county, and the Lund House in Gilbert. The organization also holds undeveloped land in Gilbert for future care-facility expansion, a signal that real assets and direct development form the core of its deployment thesis rather than a traditional diversified pool of fund commitments. Governance and strategic positioning are reinforced through institutional partnerships rather than a large internal investment staff. Hospice of the Valley is a member of the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation, a consortium of over 70 non-profit hospice providers. The organization also participates in Advanced Illness Partners, a strategic vehicle focused on Medicare-related healthcare delivery models, with Debbie Shumway serving on its board. Long-term financial contributor Michael Pollack provides additional community-linked advocacy and funding. Structurally, Hospice of the Valley operates unlike a conventional endowment or foundation. It does not exist solely to grant funds to external causes — it directly owns and operates healthcare facilities, making it a hybrid asset owner and operating company. The investment portfolio functions as a backstop and growth engine for the clinical mission, meaning liquidity and asset-liability matching are driven by patient census cycles and Medicare reimbursement dynamics rather than a fixed annual spending rule. This intertwining of healthcare operations and investment management creates a distinctive governance challenge and a mandate that is fundamentally different from a university endowment or philanthropic foundation.