Beyond Programs: Why Sustainability Is the Nonprofit CEO’s Real Challenge, and How LiLoHome™ Shifts the Paradigm

By Blase Wayken, Founder and CEO, LiLo Health

When I sit down with nonprofit CEOs and ask what keeps them up at night, the answer is rarely programs or delivery. Their teams know how to house people, support families, and serve older adults, and they do it well. What they struggle with is keeping the organization funded year after year. Too much of their time goes to chasing grants, renewing short-term contracts, and stretching restricted dollars to cover core costs.

I am the founder of LiLo Health, so I have a stake in this. But we built our partner model around exactly this problem. It lets an organization resell LiLoHome™, our camera-free connected home health platform, directly, which turns the organization’s mission into a source of recurring revenue it controls. For many organizations this is a paradigm shift: they move from depending on funders to owning part of their own sustainability. LiLoHome™ also helps them do more with less. It eases pressure on frontline staff and keeps teams connected to how people are doing at home and how support is being delivered, with no cameras and no wearables.

I have also seen why this matters firsthand. My mom, a volunteer, recently found the senior she supports alone and on the floor after a stroke. I share that story later in this article. It is why this work is personal to me.

The Real Problem Is Sustainability

The sector’s data shows the bottleneck is funding, not know-how. In 2025, 73% of Canadian charities said demand for their services exceeded their capacity, according to the Charity Insights Canada Project at Carleton University. Organizations have the programs and the demand. What they lack is the money to meet it. In 2024, only 11% of charities looking for new funding to expand actually secured it, and 53% of charities with no plan to grow capacity said lack of funding was the reason. The funding they do have is weak. Only 8% of charities report having secure, long-term funding, and the share describing themselves as very financially stable dropped from 21% in 2023 to 12% in 2024 (CICP Briefing Document 2).

The structure of funding makes this worse. Most charities operate on funding contracts with no guarantee of renewal. The share of charities naming core operating funding as their most needed support rose from 72% in 2023 to 80% in 2024, and 35% said grants had become harder to secure over the past two years (CICP Briefing Document 2). Across the sector, funding tends to be short-term, project-based, and restricted, and it rarely covers salaries, rent, or administration.

Grants and donations will always matter. But an organization that depends only on them is exposed to every shift in policy, every economic downturn, and every change in funder priorities. The CEO ends up running a fundraising operation that happens to deliver programs, instead of a mission-driven organization with a stable financial base.

Sustainability means building a revenue base the organization controls.

The Paradigm Shift

LiLoHome™ changes the basic economics of a mission-driven organization.

This is not a side fundraising project. The organization is selling something that is the mission: helping people live independently, safely, and with dignity in their own homes. Each sale advances the mandate and strengthens the balance sheet at the same time.

Doing More With Less

Sustainability is not only about bringing in more money. It is also about getting more mission out of every staff hour. That matters because the sector’s workforce is stretched thin.

• Roughly half of Canadian charities named staffing shortages as a top challenge in both 2024 (50%) and 2025 (47%), and 71% reported increased mental health challenges among staff and volunteers (CICP Briefing Document 1).
• 36% of nonprofit workers say they often or always feel burned out or exhausted, and 1 in 3 are ready to quit (Future of Good Changemaker Wellbeing Index).
• In home and community support, nearly two-thirds of personal support workers had considered leaving or had left their position in the past two years, and Canada needs about 10,000 new PSWs each year just to keep up (CIHI).
• 41% of older adults in Canada were unable to access the care they needed in 2025, likely driven by workforce shortages (Canadian Home Care Association).

An organization cannot hire its way out of this. It needs tools that let the people it already has do their work with less strain. LiLoHome™ helps in four ways.

Greater Reach Per Staff Member

One team can stay connected to daily activity across many homes from a single view. Instead of growing headcount with every new household, the organization can support more people with the same staff. That is the most direct way to do more with less.

Time Spent Where It Matters

Without a clear understanding of daily patterns, staff fall back on routine check-in calls and visits to every household, whether or not anything has changed. LiLoHome™ learns each resident’s normal daily pattern and highlights meaningful changes, such as less kitchen activity, unusual nights, or a missed morning routine. Staff can then focus their time on the households that need attention now, and spend less of it on visits where everything is fine.

Less Stress on Workers

Much of frontline stress comes from not knowing: wondering whether a resident is okay overnight, fielding worried calls from families, and carrying responsibility for people they cannot see. LiLoHome™ replaces that uncertainty with clear, timely information. Families can stay informed themselves, which means fewer anxious calls to staff. Teams make decisions from facts, not guesswork, and go home with less weighing on them. Lower stress supports better retention, and better retention means lower recruitment and training costs.

Connection to Homes and Care

For leaders, LiLoHome™ offers a clear understanding of daily patterns between visits, something that has rarely been available before:

• Daily activity awareness across every home, so changes are noticed early instead of at the next scheduled visit
• Insight into support delivery, helping show where staff attention is going and where gaps may be opening
• Evidence for planning, so staffing, schedules, and resources can follow real need
• Simpler reporting, with activity and outcome data that makes funder reports, board updates, and grant applications faster to prepare and more convincing

All of this comes from passive sensing with no cameras, microphones, or wearables, with resident consent built in. Residents keep their privacy and dignity while the organization gains the understanding it needs to support them well.

The Principle: Revenue That Comes From the Mission

Earned revenue is not new to the sector. Sales of goods and services made up 27.5% of total Canadian nonprofit income in 2020 (Statistics Canada). The question is not whether a nonprofit should sell something. The question is what it should sell.

The best answer is a product or service that:

1. Directly advances the mandate. Each sale delivers mission impact, not just money.
2. Serves the people the organization already serves. It builds on existing relationships, trust, and distribution.
3. Recurs. It creates predictable income instead of one-time events.
4. Strengthens the core program instead of pulling attention away from it.

Canadian tax rules point the same way. For registered charities, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) says what makes a business related is “the nature of the business, and whether it has some direct connection to a charity’s purpose.” Using the profits for charitable work is not enough on its own (CRA Policy CPS-019). Mission alignment is good strategy, and for many organizations it is also a compliance requirement.

Why LiLoHome™ Fits

A Mandate-Level Need

Canada’s population aged 65 and older is expected to grow by 68% over 20 years (CIHI). In the National Institute on Ageing’s 2025 survey, 81% of older Canadians said they want to stay in their own home, or a smaller one, for as long as they can. Yet just under half (49%) felt their homes were fully suitable to support them as they age (NIA 2025 Ageing in Canada Survey). For any organization whose mandate covers housing, independent living, seniors, families, or community wellbeing, closing that gap is the mission itself.

There is strong public support for organizations working on it. In an Ipsos poll for COURAGE: Action for Better Aging, 93% of Canadians supported stronger long-term grant funding for community organizations that provide aging-in-place services (Ipsos).

A Product Built Around Dignity

LiLoHome™ uses passive presence and motion sensing and passively learns patterns of daily living across the home: the living area, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and hallways. It recognizes routines and notices meaningful changes from a resident’s normal pattern. It uses no cameras, no microphones, and no wearables. Residents keep their privacy and their independence, and families get peace of mind. LiLoHome™ is wellness and activity-awareness technology, not a medical device.

Those values are already central to most community nonprofits: dignity, autonomy, safety, and support that does not intrude.

Real-World Proof

LiLoHome™ is already live. It is installed across 17 assisted-living suites at The Vineyards Residence in Kelowna and in private homes, supporting real residents, their families, and the teams who serve them, with more deployments underway. Organizations that partner with us are building on a platform that is already working in real settings, not taking a chance on an untested idea.

The Model: Four Mission-Aligned Revenue Streams

LiLoHome™ can support several revenue streams that build on each other. The partner model allows resale of the product, so the organization can be more than a referral source. It can act as the local seller and keep the margin to fund its mission. Each stream starts with a community benefit.

1. The Included Amenity (Housing Providers)

How it works: Every unit includes LiLoHome™ as a standard feature, and the cost is built into rent or operating budgets.

Mission value: Residents can live independently longer, which reduces turnover and moves into higher-cost care settings. Units become more attractive to residents and their families.

Sustainability value: Better retention and lower vacancy protect the organization’s main revenue source, its rental income. A feature that sets the housing apart also strengthens applications to funders and partners who are looking for innovation in attainable and seniors’ housing.

Connection and accountability: Caregivers and family members stay connected to what is happening on a daily basis. This gives them comfort and confidence that their loved one is getting the level of support they need.

2. Authorized Resale (The Core Revenue Engine)

How it works: The organization buys LiLoHome™ at partner pricing and resells it. It sells the hardware package, installation, and the ongoing monthly service to:

• older adults and families in the wider community who live in their own homes
• adult children buying for a parent
• other housing providers, co-ops, seniors’ residences, and assisted living operators in the region
• employers that support staff caring for aging parents

Mission value: The organization’s reach extends past its own walls to help people stay in the homes they want to remain in. People buy from an organization they already trust, not from a stranger.

Sustainability value: Resale produces two kinds of income:

• Upfront margin on each hardware and installation package
• Recurring margin on each monthly service subscription, which builds a predictable revenue base that grows with every household added

Pricing can be tiered or sliding-scale, so households with higher incomes help keep LiLoHome™ affordable for households with lower incomes. This is cross-subsidy built into the model. Because the organization controls local pricing and the customer relationship, it decides how margin is balanced against access.

Every household added increases the organization’s recurring income. A portfolio of 100 subscribing households, for example, produces a predictable monthly margin the organization can plan around year after year.

All margin goes back into programs, sponsored installations for low-income households, and core operating costs.

3. The Sponsored Home (Funders and Donors)

How it works: Donors, service clubs, foundations, or corporate partners sponsor LiLoHome™ installations for households that cannot afford them. The organization delivers and administers the service.

Mission value: No one is excluded because of income.

Sustainability value: Donors get a concrete, easy-to-understand impact story: “Your gift keeps a senior safely at home.” That is much easier to fund than general operating support. Sponsorships can also pay for program delivery costs.

4. The Partnership and Referral Channel

How it works: Where reselling directly is not practical, for example with large property managers or municipalities that buy through their own procurement, the organization refers the customer and earns an agreed referral fee.

Mission value: More households in the region get access to independent-living support through an organization they trust.

Sustainability value: Referral fees, agreed in advance and priced at fair market value, add income with little added overhead. They also complement resale in markets the organization cannot serve directly.

A Story Close to Home

This is not theoretical for me. My mom volunteers with seniors in our community. Recently, on one of her regular visits, she found the senior she supports alone and on the floor after a stroke. No one had known anything was wrong. This person lived alone, and nothing told anyone that their day had changed until a volunteer happened to come to the door.

That moment shows the gap this article is about. The volunteer program worked exactly as designed. My mom showed up, recognized the emergency, and got help. But the system depended on timing and luck. Between visits, no one knew.

With a stroke, time matters more than almost anything else. About 1.9 million brain cells die every minute a stroke goes untreated (Heart & Stroke). And living alone is common at older ages: in 2021, 42% of Canadians aged 85 and older in private households lived alone (Statistics Canada).

LiLoHome™ is built for exactly this gap. It learns a person’s normal daily rhythm, such as getting up, moving to the kitchen, and going between rooms. When that rhythm stops or changes in a meaningful way, it notices. A morning with no movement, or a long stretch with no activity at all, can prompt family or the organization to check in hours earlier. It does not wait for the next scheduled visit, and it does not depend on someone happening to drop by.

LiLoHome™ cannot prevent a stroke, and it is not an emergency response or medical device. What it can do is shorten the time a person is alone and unseen when something goes wrong. For the volunteer, it means not carrying the weight of “what if I had come sooner.” For the organization, it turns a program that depends on chance into one that stays connected between visits.

Use Case: A Community Hospice Society

Hospice societies show the model clearly. Their mandate is to support people and families through serious illness, dying, death, and grief, in the setting the person calls home. They do this mainly with volunteers and donations.

The Context

• People want to be at home, and most cannot be. About 75% of Canadians would prefer to die at home, but only about 15% have access to palliative home care services (Health Canada Framework on Palliative Care). In 2021–2022, 13% of Canadians died at home with palliative home care, up from 7% five years earlier (Health Canada).
• Lack of support at home is the barrier. CIHI says one of the main barriers to dying at home is lack of support in the home (CIHI).
• Needs are found late. Half of people die within 22 days of being identified as having palliative care needs (Canadian Virtual Hospice).
• The sector runs on volunteers and donations. Community hospice societies depend heavily on trained volunteers for home visiting, companionship, caregiver support, and vigil services. Most of these programs are paid for through community donations, fundraising events, and social enterprises such as thrift stores, so income rises and falls with the generosity of the community.

A hospice society CEO has a mandate built around home, a heavy reliance on volunteers, and income that rises and falls with donations. LiLoHome™ speaks to all three.

How a Hospice Society Uses LiLoHome™

1. Peace of mind for family caregivers. Family caregivers carry most of the load when someone is seriously ill at home. Many are working, raising children, or living some distance away. With LiLoHome™, they can know that their loved one is up and moving, has been in the kitchen, or is resting comfortably, without calling every hour. Fewer nights are spent wondering, and more energy is left for being present.

2. Smarter home visiting and companionship. Volunteer coordinators can use daily activity patterns, with consent, to plan home visits. For example, they can schedule visits for when a client is usually awake and active, and give priority to clients whose routine has changed. Volunteers go where they are most needed, and the society’s limited volunteer hours reach further.

3. Earlier awareness of changes. LiLoHome™ notices meaningful changes from a person’s normal pattern: more time in bed, less movement between rooms, missed meals, or restless nights. That information can prompt a timely check-in from family or hospice staff, and help the family connect with their health providers sooner. LiLoHome™ supports awareness. It does not replace clinical palliative teams and is not a medical device.

4. Dignity and privacy at the most personal time of life. There are no cameras, microphones, or wearables. For people at the end of life, and for their families, that matters. The person stays in control of their home and their privacy, and the hospice can offer support that does not intrude.

5. Support through bereavement. After a death, a surviving spouse often lives alone for the first time, frequently while grieving and isolated. Continuing LiLoHome™ for the surviving partner extends the society’s bereavement mandate. It gives family and bereavement volunteers a gentle way to know how the person is managing, and to reach out when routines change.

How It Becomes Revenue for the Hospice Society

What It Changes for the Hospice CEO

• Steadier income: Resale and subscription margin add revenue that does not depend on the next gala or grant cycle.
• More reach from the same volunteers: Visits are planned around real need, so each volunteer hour does more.
• Less strain on staff and volunteers: Teams worry less about clients between visits and get fewer anxious calls, which helps prevent burnout and keeps volunteers involved.
• A stronger case to funders: Activity and outcome data show funders how many families were supported at home and how support was delivered.
• Mission impact: More people can spend their final months where they want to be, at home, with their families supported.

Hospice-Specific Guardrails

• Consent first. Get informed consent from the client, or their substitute decision-maker, and agree with the family who can see activity information.
• Sensitive selling. Offer LiLoHome™ as a service, never through pressure. Families in crisis should never feel they must buy something to receive hospice support. Sponsored access should always be available.
• Clear boundaries. Make clear that LiLoHome™ supports awareness and peace of mind. It is not emergency response, and it does not replace clinical care.
• Charitable compliance. Selling a service that helps people stay at home supplements the society’s charitable programs, which supports the CRA’s “linked” test. Keep the activity secondary to core hospice programs, and confirm the structure with your advisors.

The Mandate-Alignment Test

Revenue strategies fail when they drift away from the mission. Before each stream launches, and at every annual review, the board should be able to answer “yes” to these six questions:

Governance and Compliance

Earned revenue only lasts if it is well governed. Organizations should put these in place:

• Know your tax category. Registered charities can run a related business if it is linked to their purpose and subordinate to it (CRA Guidance). Non-profit organizations exempt under paragraph 149(1)(l) of the Income Tax Act face a different test. Business connected to their non-profit goals is generally acceptable, but the CRA’s position is that profits should be incidental and should not build up beyond reasonable needs (Miller Thomson). Structure the program to fit your category, and get legal and accounting advice before launch.
• Set up resale properly. Sign a written reseller or partner agreement with LiLo Health that covers partner pricing, territory, installation and support responsibilities, warranty, returns, and how service contracts transfer. Adopt a board-approved pricing policy that sets margins and sliding-scale tiers. Check GST/PST obligations on resale, and confirm with an advisor how resale income should be structured for your tax category. In some cases a separate social-enterprise subsidiary may be the better fit.
• Use accurate product language. Market LiLoHome™ as wellness and activity-awareness technology, not as a medical device or a replacement for care.
• Manage conflicts of interest. Where board members or leaders have ties to a technology partner, decisions should be made by directors who have no conflict, priced at fair market value, and fully documented.
• Protect privacy. Build clear consent, data-handling, and resident-choice policies into the program from the start. Data privacy and security are the biggest digital-skills gap in Canadian nonprofits (CCNDR). LiLoHome™’s camera-free design starts from a strong position here.
• Report transparently. Publish both the mission outcomes and the financial results of the program.

A Phased Path to Launch

Measuring What Matters

A mission-aligned revenue program should report two sets of results together:

Mission impact:

• Households supported to live independently
• Average length of tenancy or time living independently at home
• Resident and family confidence and satisfaction
• Households served through sponsorship or sliding-scale pricing

Workforce and operations:

• Households supported per staff member
• Share of staff time spent on routine check-ins compared with responding to real need
• Staff stress, satisfaction, and turnover
• Family calls and after-hours inquiries to staff
• Time needed to prepare funder and board reports

Financial sustainability:

• Packages resold and active service subscriptions
• Upfront and recurring resale margin
• Recurring subscription revenue and growth
• Unit retention and vacancy rates
• Sponsorship and partnership dollars raised
• Earned revenue as a share of the total operating budget

When both sets of numbers rise together, the model is working. The organization is earning more because it is delivering more of its mission.

The Bottom Line

For most nonprofit CEOs, the hardest job is not running programs. It is keeping the organization funded and its people from burning out. LiLoHome™ addresses both. It creates revenue the organization controls, lets each staff member support more households with less stress, and keeps leaders connected to daily patterns and support delivery in a way that has not been possible before. Sustainable nonprofits do not have to choose between their mission and their margins. Organizations dedicated to housing, independence, end-of-life support, and community wellbeing are well placed to bring LiLoHome™ to the people they serve. A hospice society, for example, can help more families keep a loved one at home while building income it controls. Because the model allows resale, they can earn revenue from it that directly advances their mandate.

Each household that lives more independently is a mission outcome. Each package resold, subscription renewed, and home sponsored is a step toward stability. Together they give the organization a stronger base for serving its community over the long term.

If you lead an organization that could bring LiLoHome™ to your community, I would welcome a conversation about a pilot, reseller agreement, or partnership. You can reach me directly at blase@lilohealth.care.

Blase Wayken is the founder and CEO of LiLo Health, a connected home health platform based in Kelowna, British Columbia.