Heart and Stroke Foundation closing Canadian offices

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The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is closing over two dozen offices across Canada, including one in Sudbury.

It appears to be an effort to cut real estate and office rental costs in a time of dwindling donations.

A total of 26 offices will be closing and will now be managed by people working from home.

According to officials with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, this decision came after an analysis of the funding situation.

Linda Horn is the area manager for Heart and Stroke Foundation Sudbury, North Bay, and Manitoulin Island.

"Community fundraising is declining, people are still very generous but they are donating differently. So these closures had to happen to reduce real estate costs and so the money is being put to our mission." said Horn.

Michael Cullen is the executive director for United Way North East Ontario.

"The struggle that Heart and Stroke is talking about is no different than any charitable entity across the country basically. It's been happening for a number of years, so it's not new to this month or this year. It's been happening for years around the United Way circles and other charities, so what we’ve done over the past couple of years is challenged that shift and addressed issues internally and externally." said Cullen.

Cliff Skelliter is a marketing expert.

"There's growing competition right? There's a lot more charities out there, there's a lot more social enterprises out there. There's a lot more crowd funding out there, so everybody's dollars are spoken for and it's basically being fragmented in so many different areas that it's really hard for certain charities to maintain themselves." said Skelliter.

Sudbury's Heart and Stroke office will be closing its doors on Friday August 24th.