The Hospice Foundation of America, begun in 1982, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing leadership in the development of hospice and its philosophy of care for terminally-ill people. The Foundation conducts educational programs related to hospice, sponsors research on ethical questions as well as the economics of health care at the end-of-life, and serves as a philanthropic presence within the national hospice community.

The Foundation provides grants across a broad spectrum of hospice-related programs - including physician education on palliative medicine, AIDS education/prevention, seminary-student internships in hospices, training for nurses to communicate with the hearing impaired through sign language, increasing minority use of hospice, and dealing with grief-in-the-workplace.

This year, in addition to this teleconference, the Hospice Foundation of America began publishing a monthly newsletter, Journeys, written for hospices and others to distribute to the bereaved, began a hospice information and educational outreach program to members of the military through family service centers and chaplains, and produced A Guide for Recalling and Telling Your Life Story, to assist people in writing their autobiographies.