This includes an unexpected $64,000 to cover electricity costs, after a hospice application was turned down for the first time in seven years by a charitable trust.
The hospice receives $2.8 million in funding from the Southern District Health Board and its running cost is $4.8 million. The shortfall is met through grants and fundraising.
Services are free for patients and their families in Otago and most services are delivered in the community.
In recent years, the hospice had needed to raise about $1.6 million a year to cover the shortfall, but that had now risen to $2 million, chief executive Ginny Green said.
The hospice faced increasing costs across the board and the demand for its services had risen - 190 patients and their families were now receiving care through the hospice, 30 more than usual.
Funding pressure was increasing, as the value of contracts did not keep up with rising costs, while the impact of the pressure on funding organisations was becoming increasingly apparent.
In the 2010-11 financial year, the Otago Community Hospice received $257,000 from funding organisations, $191,000 in the 2011-12 financial year and $243,000 in the 2012-13 financial year. There had been a sharp drop to $154,000 in the 2013-14 financial year.
''Unfortunately, the significant reduction between the last two years is what we are predicting to continue,'' Mrs Green said.
''The organisations that we have relied on historically that do fund those operating costs like salaries or general expenses, are giving us less and less, or turning us down,'' she said.
For the past seven years, the hospice had applied to the same charitable trust to cover the cost of its $64,000 annual electricity bill and, for the first time, had been turned down this year.
''We now have to raise that money from other sources,'' Mrs Green said.
The Otago Community Hospice had an amazing database of regular, supportive donors but the constant need for funding was ''a huge pull on a small community''.
The organisation was looking forward to the Government's promised injection of $20 million for hospice services across New Zealand, which was due in July, 2015, she said.
The Otago Community Hospice will be the beneficiary of a fundraising concert next Friday at 7.30pm in First Church, featuring United Kingdom musicians the Poster Piano Trio.
The hospice will also benefit from the novelty Snowline Ram Race, to be held at the Cromwell Christmas at the Races on November 30.
