The Importance of Grateful Patient and Community Annual Giving Programs in Healthcare Philanthropy
The Importance of Grateful Patient and Community Annual Giving Programs in Healthcare Philanthropy
(By Matthew Brasmer)
Many experienced and successful healthcare development officers can tell exciting stories about how a sophisticated Grateful Patient and Community Annual Giving Program is critically essential to forwarding more significant gifts, particularly in capital campaigns where the fundraising program is geared to enhancing clinical excellence.
Here are several experiences of my own.
A recurrent yet smaller donor calls the development office to request a copy of her annual giving statement for tax purposes. She speaks with an administrative assistant who promptly duplicates her information and puts it in the mail. The staff member then came to me and said, “There was something about her tone; I think she wants to do more. I think you should call her and at least express our gratitude.” I did. The result was a stronger connection with the donors and a follow-on personal visit. A generous estate gift and continued annual support were the results of her choice. The insight and curiosity of the staff member, thinking like a fundraiser, made all the difference.
A retired banking executive had been making generous quarterly gifts. They were not large amounts based on his research capacity. I had made several visits to his home. When he missed his pattern of giving, I went again to see him. We had a frank conversation and determined that he wanted to see a more robust and detailed case for support before he would continue any help. I asked his permission to return to him and get his advice once we had created a more robust action plan. Working with the CFO and other leaders, we wrote a detailed campaign case for his interests and the institution's needs. After several conversations, he approved our plan and said he would like to support one area.
I replied to him, “Well, that would require funding of about $35 million.” He replied, “Yes, that is the gift I want to make.”
A physician called me to share that one of her patients expressed great gratitude for his wife’s care. I called him, and shortly after, a $600,000 commitment was made to the hospital.
Even as the Vice President of Philanthropy, I routinely looked at the list of gifts of whatever size. One day, I recognized the name on a check for $750. It was from the wife of a famous National League Football team owner. Despite my best efforts, I could not arrange a meeting with her or her husband. So, I drove to their home and asked the gardener to pass my letter along. Not long after, we met for lunch in a restaurant that was only open for our meeting. The meeting resulted from paying attention to donor behavior, research, and the readiness to be entrepreneurial. A relationship was formed.
I could tell many more stories and share my research from Big Ten Universities, their medical schools, and hospitals on the behavior of annual sustaining donors before they became significant supporters of focused or comprehensive campaigns.
The truth is that any healthcare organization that wishes to create a more robust culture of philanthropy needs to think seriously about its Grateful Patient and Community Annual Giving Programs.
Below are programmatic suggestions on the elements these efforts should focus on and the aspects of personal coaching that are equally important to raise fundraising performance and staff satisfaction.
All solid Grateful Patient and Hospital Community Annual Giving Programs focus on data and donor behavior and relentlessly incorporate the following elements.
· Donor Segmentation: get to know your donor base and donor behavior. Doing research is essential here.
· Diverse Communication: connect with your unique donors creatively—show them your gratitude and the impact of their giving. This means two-way communication.
· Persistent, Personal, and Timely Outreach: don’t forget about your donors—or their reasons for supporting you.
· Acquisition: counteract attrition through unique strategies to engage new donors
· Metrics: precise, measurable goals will empower your annual giving staff and allow for program adjustments and improvements.
· Pipeline Integration: collaborate within the department and hospital to maximize your efforts.
Don’t accept a plan or consultant’s advice that is “boilerplate.” Your organization is unique, as is your history. Use your data for program development.
Your data will uncover tactics as you look at essential data points, including:
· Donation Growth
· Donor Acquisition
· Lapsed Donors
· Donor and Dollar Retention
· Donor and Dollar Reactivation
· Average Donation
· Donor Lifetime Value
· Bequest Potential
· One-time vs. Recurring Donors
· Retention Rates
· Donation Frequency
· Interest in Recurring Giving Programs (e.g., monthly ACH gifts)
· Internal Pipeline Integration
o Number of significant gift prospects identified for follow-on gift cultivation
o Inclusion of Annual Giving Director in pipeline development processes
· Physician and staff giving programs
On Coaching
Many fundraising firms say that they can coach their clients. Yet does such coaching enhance staff development and the organization’s long-term fundraising capacity, or are they only providing a checklist?
A coach’s task is not to provide answers or solve the coachee’s issues beyond, for example, practical skills like statistical analysis. A good coach understands that the greatest gift he can give is to help the coachee consider ideas, strategies, behaviors, and other approaches and actions that she had not considered before in the current context.
In my personal experience providing coaching leadership to highly successful military teams and nonprofit organizations, I have found that coaches can provide support in four ways: maintaining motivation, assessing resources and strategies, celebrating small wins, managing setbacks, and creating a sustainable learning agenda. Good coaching builds capacity and sustainability beyond present fundraising goals.
This means listening to staff perspectives, uncovering internal and external obstacles, and helping to craft a step-by-step approach, particularly when the organization seeks transformational goals.
A good coach in the nonprofit world treats administrative staff with the same respect and listening skills as he would treat donors. After all, the retention and development of professional staff translates into those staff members becoming impotent overall “donors” to the organization's mission.
Matthew Brasmer has served in fundraising leadership and consulting roles in organizations as diverse as The University of Iowa Foundation; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Wyoming Catholic College; Northern Arizona Healthcare; Health First Foundation—Northern Arizona; the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse—Wisconsin, the Carmelite Monastery of Lisieux—Normandy, France; Monastic communities in North America, Mexico, and Peru; and Catholic Charities. He has led and consulted on dozens of capital campaigns for noble missions.
He holds a Lean/Six Sigma Blackbelt and is a licensed commercial pilot. He resides in the mountain community of Flagstaff, Arizona.