Spring 2022 Healthcare Philanthropy

Journal of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy | www.AHP.org | Spring 2022

HEALTHCARE

philanthropy

Health Equity Fundraising:

Exceed Your Goals and Re-Ignite Your Purpose FORWARD THINKING SPONSOR

Also in this Issue 21 Strategies for generating more digital revenue 26 A “how to” guide for stock gifting 30

From operations to outcomes: the effect of technology on fundraising

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SPRING 2022 | VOL. 50 NO. 1

CONTENTS 5 6 7

Letter from the Chair

By Fred Najjar

Letter from the CEO

By Alice Ayres, MBA

Letter from the Journal Chair

By Bob Nolan, FAHP, CFRE

/ FORWARD THINKING

8

Health Equity Fundraising: Exceed Your Goals and Re-Ignite Your Purpose

By Mary Anne Chern, FAHP, ACFRE

Take an inside look at Adventist Health White Memorial Charitable Foundation’s fundraising efforts to support health equity causes in East Los Angeles. And learn the 10 “must-haves” for successful health equity fundraising.

FORWARD THINKING SPONSOR

16

Embracing Transparency, Vulnerability and your Trusted Advisor Role in Major Gift Fundraising

By Katie Bullock

With empathy, transparency, and vulnerability, development professionals can connect with the donor’s overall philanthropy priorities and connect them with the right opportunity.

21

Raising Digital Dollars: Recommendations for Foundations from the 2021 Digital Fundraising Benchmark Report for Hospitals

By Ben Texter

The 2021 Digital Fundraising Benchmark Report for Hospitals, prepared by Digital Health Strategies in collaboration with AHP, reveals digital strategies every hospital foundation leader can invest in to generate more digital revenue, both right away and over time.

AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 3

AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal | Spring 2022 President and Chief Executive Officer: Alice Ayres, MBA 2022 AHP Journal Advisory Council Chair: Robert Nolan, FAHP, CFRE Sophia S. Ahmad Murray Ancell, MS, CFRE Jewanna Apawu Michelle J. Collins Sarah Fawcett-Lee, CFRE Jolene Francis, FAHP, CFRE Matthew Lang, CFRE Bonnie Jess Lopane, CFRE Andrea Page, FAHP, CFRE Harrison Porter, CAP, CFRE Elizabeth Rottman, CFRE AHP Board of Directors: Chair: Fred Najjar Vice Chair: Arthur J. (Art) Ochoa, JD Secretary/Treasurer: Pamela Puleo, FAHP Immediate Past Chair: Randy A. Varju, MBA, FAHP, CFRE

26

What, why and how to embrace stock gifting

By Steven Latham

Accepting stocks from a donor can be complicated. Learn more about the tools that can simplify the process.

30

From Operations to Outcomes: The Effect of Technology on Fundraising

By Stu Manewith

Succeed in meeting donors where they are, maintaining data integrity, and staying compliant with data security.

Directors: Julie E. Cox, FAHP, CFRE Shawn A. Fincher Jeanne Jachim Tammy Morison, CFRE Published by: Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, 2550 South Clark Street, Suite 810, Arlington, VA 22202 Managing Editor: Olivia Hairfield Business Manager: Michelle Gilbert About Us: The Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) is the healthcare development professionals’ definitive source of thought leadership, connections to facilitate innovation, and tools to advance knowledge and elevate philanthropy. As the world’s largest association for healthcare fundraising professionals, AHP represents 7,000 members who raise more than $11 billion each year for community health services. Our mission is to inspire, educate, and serve those transforming healthcare through philanthropy.

The Journal’s Mission: Healthcare Philanthropy will be an authoritative resource for healthcare development professionals by providing a timely, informative, and insightful collection of literature that will raise the standard of individual and organizational performance. Serving as the premier forum for healthcare philanthropy literature, the Healthcare Philanthropy journal will educate, empower, and inspire development professionals and, thereby, help strengthen the case for philanthropic support and the mission of AHP.

AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 4

Letter from the Chair

T

he past two years have shown that the ingenuity in the AHP membership knows no bounds—from incorporating digital events to making strides for a more inclusive profession. For the Spring 2022 journal, we’ve provided you with a variety of articles that will support your continued growth. You’ll read about the findings from a digital fundraising survey created by AHP and Digital Health Strategies.

Stu Manewith and Steve Latham share guidance for using technology to make your work easier. Katie Bullock recommends taking on the role of trusted advisor with your donors. And Mary Anne Chern, FAHP, ACFRE, provides guidance for meaningful and impactful health equity fundraising. I know you’ll find their contributions valuable.

Fred Najjar AHP Chair of the Board of

For many of us, July 1st is the beginning of a new year of membership Directors with AHP, and we hope you will continue to be a part of this vibrant Executive Vice President, community. There are opportunities for all in the coming 12 months, Chief Philanthropy Officer, whether you prefer to join us at in-person events or continue with CommonSpirit Health virtual learning. AHP’s signature educational experience, Madison Institute, is back in Madison, Wisconsin, from July 17th to 22nd. And, of course, the International Conference in October brings all of us together in Chicago from October 26th to 28th. For virtual options, you have access to webinars, on-demand classes, and our new Grateful Patient Mini-Course. AHP is committed to flexible education to meet your needs.

Through AHPrime, the updated Report on Giving survey, and the Salary Survey report, we also continue to provide data and analytics to help you improve. You can see where you stand compared to your peers and gain the knowledge to assure your C-Suite that philanthropy significantly impacts your organization’s bottom line. These resources will help you stay on the path to becoming one of AHP’s High Performers.

Because of you, I can’t help but be optimistic about the future of this profession. Thank you for your commitment to healthcare philanthropy, and I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming AHP event.

Best, Fred

AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 5

Letter from the CEO

E

verywhere I turn, it seems like the topic on everyone’s mind is health equity and the need to remedy the chronic issues that create disparities both in health and wellness, as well as in the quality of care received by different populations.

I have had the privilege of talking with some of the leaders in the health care industry about this. Marc Harrison, MD, president and chief executive officer of Intermountain Healthcare, said, “Injustice makes me crazy. Nobody wants Black people to die at a rate twice or three times as high as white people during a pandemic. Nobody thinks it’s okay for Black babies to die more frequently in newborn ICUs than white babies, so it’s clear that there are just things we need to change.

It has been extraordinarily exciting to address these things in a divided and divisive and angry time and to unify people around doing good things for folks who don’t look like them.”

Alice Ayres, MBA President and Chief Executive Officer, Association for Healthcare Philanthropy

Randy Oostra, chief executive officer of ProMedica Health, underscored this in my conversation with him as well, “Our work doesn’t just stop at our door. In most communities, the healthcare institutions are the best resource or among the best to make a difference. And if you are a missionbased nonprofit, why wouldn’t you use your tremendous resources and your ability to mobilize the community to change the trajectory of the community?”

So many of you are working toward raising the dollars that will fund this critical work, and it is exciting to see the different approaches you are taking. I was delighted to read Mary Anne Chern’s cover story in this issue about the work Adventist White Memorial has been doing for years. I was also awed by the commitment that ProMedica in Toledo, Ohio has made to serve as an anchor in their community. Among other things, they have launched financial literacy, job training, screening for social and personal determinants of health, and have grocery stores and food pharmacies at every one of their sites. Some like CommonSpirit Health, Ascension, and Providence have launched system-level foundations to support this work.

Every day, you change the course of people’s lives. As Lloyd Dean, chief executive officer of CommonSpirit Health, said, “To know that the association’s membership is out there every day looking at how we can take the precious resources we have and get the greatest return on them via helping others and helping communities gives me a great deal of comfort.” This work is among the most important in healthcare.

AHP is proud to be a small part of it with all of you. Access all of Alice’s C-Suite interviews here.

AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 6

Letter from the Journal Chair

W

hat are the resources that you turn to each day to help you do your job? Where do you find the information that helps you connect with and engage your donors on behalf of your organization? Where do you find the tools to advance your career and the profession of healthcare philanthropy?

While there are innumerable resources you can turn to, I hope that Healthcare Philanthropy, the journal of the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy, is a trusted resource that you rely on.

Within each issue, we work to identify those topics of concern to the membership of AHP and provide helpful articles that will educate, inform, and provide context for the issues that you face each day.

Bob Nolan, FAHP, CFRE Journal Advisory Council Chair Executive Director of Development

The authors of articles for the journal are your colleagues in the Indiana University School of profession. They most likely have already faced the issues with which Public Health you are wrestling. Let their experience guide your thinking as you consider how to best address a problem, consider a new approach, or set out on a completely new path. Our authors share their experiences in order to help all of us improve our practice and to refine the art and science of healthcare philanthropy.

As you review the articles in this issue of Healthcare Philanthropy, I hope that you will find something to help you on your journey. I hope that something here will spark a new thought, a new approach, or a new opportunity to consider. If you find that in recent issues, we have not covered a topic of particular interest to you, please reach out and share that with us. The journal is a resource for the membership, and we look forward to your feedback.

If you have an idea to share with the membership, we hope that you will review the guidelines for submission at ahp.org and share an article of your own. We look forward to working with you!

AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 7

/ FORWARD THINKING

Health Equity Fundraising: Exceed Your Goals and Re-Ignite Your Purpose

By Mary Anne Chern, FAHP, ACFRE, Senior Consultant, Netzel Grigsby Associates

T

he Covid pandemic has been an exhausting roller coaster ride for fundraisers and donors involved with healthcare organizations. It’s more important than ever—for our own self-care, to energize our donors and volunteers, and to maximize needed revenue for our organizations— to remember and celebrate the meaning of philanthropy: to love humankind. There is no better way to do this than raising funds to reduce and hopefully eliminate health disparities.

Healthy People 2020 defines health disparity as a “health difference that is closely linked with economic, social, or economic disadvantage.

Health disparities adversely affect groups of

Forward Thinking article sponsored by

people who have systematically experienced greater social or economic obstacles to health based on their racial or ethnic group, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, age, or mental health; cognitive, sensory, or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.”1 AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 8

Informative articles can be found at HealthyPeople.gov regarding the five social determinants of health: economic stability, education, health and healthcare, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context.

Health equity is achieved “…when every person has the opportunity to ‘attain his or her full health potential’ and no one is ‘disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances,’” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).2 Those impacted live longer lives, experience lower disease and disability rates, and have reduced severity of illness.

Health Equity Fundraising Is Gratifying and Impactful Work Health equity projects are especially rewarding for fundraisers because it provides clear evidence that our work makes a difference in people’s lives. It’s also FUN to raise these funds because it requires strategic thinking. I found that at the beginning of each project, I needed to spend significantly more time “connecting the dots” for health equity project fundraising as compared to raising money for capital campaigns or equipment purchases. But long-term, the Return on Investment (ROI) of my time compared to dollars raised was higher for health equity projects. Also, population and community health projects are emotionally rewarding, and donors are excited (and want to donate again) when they see the measurable impact in their communities and hear appreciation expressed by those whose lives are improved.

At Adventist Health White Memorial (AHWM), our Foundation started fundraising for health equity projects 25 years ago. Our 90% Hispanic community faced many entrenched social, economic, and environmental issues, and our unique positioning in East Los Angeles enabled us to lead out on health equity fundraising

initiatives. These projects helped us to increase fundraising production year over year, achieving AHP “Top Performer” status every year since 2015. More importantly, we were able to improve health in our community, and the philanthropy projects we launched energized donors, Board members, community, volunteers, elected officials, and employees.

In just the first six months of 2021, our fundraising production at Adventist Health White Memorial Charitable Foundation (AHWMCF) increased 200% over all of 2020 thanks to health equity projects the hospital launched to address Covid. Fundraising projects that were unique to 2020 and 2021 helped provide free food to needy residents and PPE for the hospital.

Thanks also to a health equity project launched 20 years earlier, our hospital benefitted from 984 RNs and student RNs who administered over 65,000 vaccinations in the community, saving the hospital over $600,000, the cost of the hourly rate if we had paid our own nurses.

Must-Haves for Successful Health Equity Fundraising For health equity there are many criteria to evaluate in addition to determining fundraising feasibility before embarking on a project: value of the project to the hospital both in terms of dollars as well as short- and long-term operational value, value to the community in terms of services provided, and the value of engaging a new donor base and new community leaders for your organization.

In more than two decades of health equity fundraising, here are a few things I’ve learned which are critical to success.

1.

Read your hospital’s Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) carefully, and also review those of nearby hospitals serving the same community/zip codes. The CHNA is typically found on the hospital website. If you are at a healthcare organization that is not required to file a AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 9

CHNA, read the CHNA for hospitals located in your service areas.

2. Look for differentiators between your healthcare organization and all the others and determine where your organization is uniquely prepared to excel. For example, perhaps you have the “acknowledged star”

SUCCESS STORIES TO INSPIRE YOU

Expanding and Enhancing Diabetes Care In 2015 one of our ER physicians met with our executives, expressing his concern about the volume of patients coming to the ER who would probably require limb amputation. It turned out that our community had 10 times the number of amputations due to complications of untreated diabetes than a wealthier community located just 17 miles away.

Although our CHNA had identified diabetes as an issue before the ER physician alerted us, we were unaware of the significant disparity.

To address this disparity, the Foundation set out to secure funding to create an outpatient Center for Limb Preservation and Advanced Wound Care with specialized equipment and innovative technology.

Also, diabetes patients who couldn’t afford to take unpaid time off work could see a culturally competent endocrinologist, cardiologist, internal medicine, and other specialists all in one day.

The campaign ignited the passion of our donor community, and we raised $281,000 in a quick six-month fundraising effort. Patient limbs and lives were saved.

physician for mental health that the others don’t have. At our hospital the OB/GYN physicians shared that they were seeing more depression in low-income new moms, and philanthropy was able to secure funding to provide the moms with mental health screening. Although this was an important health equity issue, at the time it had not been identified in the CHNA. Our community also experienced significant childhood obesity due to cultural issues and diet.

Philanthropy paid the salary of the hospital’s diabetes team allowing them to develop a unique and highly successful culturally competent curriculum, which they used to educate children in local schools. While the CHNA had noted that diabetes was an issue in the community, it had not yet identified the serious issue of childhood obesity at the time our hospital started this program.

3. Develop a relationship with your emergency room physicians. They are uniquely aware of health equity issues in the community because they see cases every day.

ER physicians aren’t specialty-focused, and they ask patients many questions to gather information about the root cause of illness that has sent them to the ER. For example, is the child sick from eating lead paint at home?

Are diabetic patients being re-admitted over and over again from the ER because they lack refrigeration for medications? ER physicians can often provide current health equity insights that are not apparent in a CHNA prepared every three years.

4. Review your organization’s operating budget and strategic plan; identify opportunities to relieve current operating expenses or secure funding for upcoming projects that can tangentially impact health equity. Emphasize these opportunities. For example, it’s a huge health equity issue when public transportation to your location is not accessible to community members who cannot afford cars or AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 10

taxis. If your hospital already provides free transportation to help patients access services, then raise monies to offset expenses such as van purchases, maintenance, and drivers. At our hospital we raised 6-figure funding every year to underwrite transportation; we documented the miles traveled and zip codes of transported patients, as well as other information. As another example, access to healthy fruits and vegetables may be an issue for your community if residents don’t have many grocery stores in the neighborhood—or don’t have the money to purchase the high-priced fresh food often found in local urban markets.

This is a health equity issue if a segment of your community has a high rate of obesity and diabetes. If the operating budget or strategic plan indicates that administration is planning an upgrade for the hospital cafeteria, be sure to ask if the plan can include displays about how to purchase and prepare healthy meals, live chefs who cook healthy meals, or lectures by your diabetes nutritionist. All of these opportunities can excite potential donors about the re-model.

5. Develop a close working relationship with the hospital director(s) and/or physician(s) who will actively manage the health equity project. Just like in a capital campaign where the hospital has architects, contractors, designers, and others to develop the project and make it viable for donations, you will need a similar team for a health equity project. For example, if you are planning a healthy eating education program in a local grammar school, either the diabetes team or the nutrition team need to be fully committed to partner on the project. If you don’t have the “buy-in” from administration as well as the department team, you should identify a different project.

6. Focus on health equity projects where you can regularly and accurately measure impact and identify both baseline and

goal metrics. Provide a realistic timeline, budget, and plan for sustainability if the project will continue long-term.

Impact measures can include numbers of vaccinations given, numbers of patients transported, tons of food given away, amounts of BMI reductions, percent of patients screened, etc. Frequently one or two metrics will suffice. However, for one complex community mental health project we ended up with 25 measures of success tracked by the hospital mental health team; expenses we budgeted in advance and paid from donations included salary for staff to track the desired metrics. Potential donors will want to hear about the goals and timeline for the project before they donate. In particular you need to be sure donors understand upfront whether the project is a short-term trial (for example, educating one class of local students for one year about healthy eating to reduce BMI), or long term and sustainable (educating students long term if the program proves successful). Donors will quickly become disenfranchised if a project is successful, but the funding and support is discontinued. Our foundation raised $2,000,000 over one year to construct, equip, and staff a Simulation Center to train nurses and medical residents from the local community, and to inspire local high school students to pursue higher education as healthcare professionals. As part of our fundraising, we budgeted Sim Center staff salaries for five years to allow the Sim Center time to secure training contracts outside the hospital that would provide long-term sustainability. As one of my donors liked to say, “a vision without goals, timeline, and budget is never going to be more than a dream.”

7. Create a small “kitchen cabinet” to advise you before the health equity project is selected by your organization. This sounds like the simplest task and yet it’s the hardest.

A knowledgeable “kitchen cabinet” can help you find the land mines as well as the opportunities. Most organizations working AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 11

on population health projects want to be inclusive when it comes to committees, and they will invite many Board members and donors, representatives from the County and City, local schools, and multiple nonprofit organizations working on the same health

equity issue. However, it has been my experience that competing organizational interests around the table can become counter-productive over time, making fundraising very difficult in the long term. So, I prefer to start with a very small group and

SUCCESS STORIES TO INSPIRE YOU

Increasing RN Cultural Competence and Community Employment In 2002 we initiated a health equity project to train and recruit culturally competent youth from our low-income Hispanic community to become RNs. Although the CHNA had identified a high unemployment rate in our community, the hospital had not previously considered how this community problem could lead to fulfilling a hospital need.

Our TELACU Education Foundation/AHWM Nursing Program linked two of the most highly respected local organizations to “connect the dots.” The community had: high unemployment as well as cultural, language, and financial barriers, which resulted in low-educational attainment among the low-income Hispanic students in East Los Angeles. Even students who wanted to attend college typically did not have the financial capacity to do so.

On the other hand, the hospital had: high nursing turnover rates that negatively impacted the hospital’s operating budget and staffing model, as well as high-cost, Spanish-speaking (but not culturally competent) traveling nurses who did not stay at the hospital long term. The hospital’s ongoing attempts to hire Hispanic RNs were thwarted by the fact that nationwide only 8% of all RNs are Hispanic and therefore highly in-demand. Finally, we recognized a shared need: to educate and provide jobs

to community residents who could provide culturally competent Registered Nurse care at a hospital where 90% of the patients were Hispanic.

For 20 years this health equity project has produced culturally competent nurses for our hospital and allowed young people to realize their dreams of becoming RNs and serving their community. AHWM’s innovative partnership with a community nonprofit organization to create a successful model for securing and retaining nurses from the local low-income, Hispanic community was specifically cited as evidence of “Citizenship with Results” when AHWM won the 2019 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award,3 a Presidential award widely recognized by hospital CEOs as “the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a US organization can receive.”4 Startup and operating expenses for the first four years were paid entirely by philanthropy. For the last 16 years the program has been financially sustainable from operational savings generated by reduced nurse turnover. Our connections through this program to the students and nursing schools also allowed us to provide Covid vaccinations when our community residents desperately needed them.

AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 12

a trusted partnership that complements each other, then both organizations can offer a robust and coordinated fundraising plan to maximize philanthropy for the project.

In developing a community garden for the hospital, we partnered with another highly respected local nonprofit organization that provided gardening expertise; we waited almost ten years to add a second partner that provided volunteers and a tilapia farm.

add members slowly. Start by engaging one to three large potential donors who have a deep understanding the community and an interest in the project; they can be helpful in guiding the selection of others for a kitchen cabinet, and of course active participation in the project will make them more likely to give.

8. Select the right community-based organization (CBO) partner. Meet with the fundraiser or CEO from a large, respected local community nonprofit that is already working on the health equity issue and seek their advice. For example, if we are addressing a health issue endemic to the homeless, I select the single largest and most successful (as defined by fundraising and community trust) nonprofit in my community working on homelessness. This is where those one to three donors on your kitchen cabinet can be helpful in advising you because they probably already have a good potential partner organization in mind.

Your potential partner organization ideally has an expertise that your hospital doesn’t; also, they need to be able to work collaboratively on fundraising with you and your team. Set clearly defined roles before you start working together. If the two organizations can develop

9. Prioritize projects at your organization with linkages and opportunities that address all eight “must-haves” listed above. Ideally you should choose to fundraise for health equity projects that will resonate the most with your administration, donors, and community. However, if a health equity fundraising project has already been selected and assigned to you, look at the project like you would examine a diamond with many facets: ask questions, investigate all sides, and work with your administration and physicians to find what makes it unique. Be sure the right partner(s) and donor(s) are around the table and, if not, make sure to add them.

10. After the project starts, ask your marketing department to share personal stories about how philanthropy is making a difference. Highlight the elderly lady who rode in the free hospital van to visit her husband after surgery. Or have the young child and his parent explain how he reduced his BMI by reading labels. One year as part of a contest we challenged kids in our atrisk childhood obesity program (all patients referred by our pediatricians) to tell how they changed their eating habits and to film it (we provided the phones to tape videos).

One 10-year-old boy filmed himself eating a panini and explaining how he had learned to choose healthier, lower calorie breads; he was also reading nutritional content food labels and explaining them to his parents. It was an unexpectedly funny video and also very emotional. We showed this inexpensive home AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 13

video at the hospital’s signature Gala and online, and it led to significant donations that kept the program funded for many years!

The Value of the Work We Do Fundraising for health equity projects can inspire a fundraising team, donors, and community members while also exceeding fundraising production targets. Isn’t this what we all need as we help to ensure an equitable recovery from Covid? Raising money is only one outcome of philanthropy. Philanthropy is about more, and the work we do as fundraisers to create health equity is especially important.

Mary Anne Chern, FAHP, ACFRE is a nationally recognized healthcare fundraiser, hospital senior executive, published author, speaker, and consultant.

She also has a deep passion and extensive experience raising funds for health equity projects that address the social determinants of health. She is known for her skill in formulating philanthropic strategy, as well as her ability to engage leadership and community stakeholders in fundraising. Mary Anne is one of only seven fundraisers in the US to achieve both advanced professional certifications: the Fellow of Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (FAHP) and the Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive (ACFRE).

She was elected Chair of AHP in 2010-11, and in 2015 received AHP’s Si Seymour Award. She has raised over $750 million dollars during her career, and for the past 24 years served as Foundation President at Adventist Health White Memorial in Los Angeles. The health equity programs launched through fundraising were cited as helping the hospital win the 2019 National Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award.

Mary Anne is currently Senior Consultant, Netzel Grigsby Associates.

Footnotes 1

Healthy People.gov. Disparities [cited 2022 Feb. 6]. DOI: http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/disparitiesAbout.aspx

2

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [cited 2022 March 3]. DOI: URL:http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/healthequity/index.htm

3

National Institute of Standards and Technology: Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. (2019). Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award 2019 Award Recipient, Health Care. DOI: https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/adventist-health-white-memorial.

4

National Institute of Standards and Technology: Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. (2019). Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award 2019 Award Recipient, Health Care. DOI: https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/adventist-health-white-memorial.

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How to go Beyond Gratitude™ Go beyond gratitude and elevate your grateful patient and family fundraising by understanding three key limiting perspectives and their antidotes: LIMITING PERSPECTIVE #1:

Grateful patient and family fundraising is a mechanism for giving.

While unintentional, grateful patient fundraising is often viewed as a way to give, rather than an understanding of why one gives. Thus, grateful patients and their families are often not approached in a way that creates meaningful engagement from their perspectives.

ANTIDOTE:

Focus on the motivations behind the patients’ and families’ sentiments, rather than the mechanisms through which that support is delivered. Even though creating materials in which grateful patients can self-identify can be valuable, this is not enough. The process begins with understanding the prospective donors’ interests in philanthropic support that goes beyond their simple ‘thank you,’ and continues with productively uncovering their motivations.

LIMITING PERSPECTIVE #2:

All you need is data.

When it comes to identifying patient prospects through data, it is natural to search for a magic bullet. However, it is even more crucial to understand the cultural acceptance of grateful patient fundraising within your institution.

ANTIDOTE:

This cultural acceptance varies from institution to institution. Identifying the level of acceptance toward the use of patient data and the engagement of medical professionals in the fundraising process is crucial. This environmental scan will determine a path forward in an institutionally appropriate manner.

LIMITING PERSPECTIVE #3:

Physicians don’t want to ask for money.

It’s true—and caregivers shouldn’t have to! The only way this becomes problematic is if you use it as an excuse to avoid engaging medical providers.

ANTIDOTE:

Your role is to discover each care provider’s personal inclination and help them find their voice in the grateful patient process. Move beyond scripts and proscriptive approaches. Through a coaching process, build skills and confidence on an individual basis.

To learn more, visit www.grahampelton.com/healthcare.

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Embracing Transparency, Vulnerability and your Trusted Advisor Role in Major Gift Fundraising

By Katie Bullock, Senior Director of Development, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

H

ow many times have you heard the reactions of your friends or family when talking about being a major gift fundraiser, with comments like “I could NEVER do that” or “I would never want to ask strangers for money.”

Make no mistake, this CAN be a challenging occupation at times. From those skeptical donors, to those who’ve had bad giving experiences, to the donor objections, or those difficult faculty, we’ve all likely encountered such challenges. For me, these challenges began to dissipate once I started incorporating transparency, vulnerability, and leaning into my trusted advisor role. I’ve found that not only have these principles made difficult situations easier, but it’s also brought a deeper sense of purpose

to this noble profession and more enjoyment in my day-to-day work.

Transparency Transparency builds trust, and trust builds transparency. For example, when speaking to my own physicians as a patient, those who are the most honest and clear are the ones reducing my fear and anxiety. Imagine if your physician was withholding, dishonest, or squishy with the details? That would likely discourage you from making another appointment with them.

Similarly, in the business world the stagnant model of hiding weakness and only touting the good is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

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Now more than ever, our society seeks complete truth and accountability, and nonprofits should be at the forefront of that philosophy.

Based on a 2018 survey from Nonprofit Trends Report;1 however, our industry still has a way to go: “69% of nonprofits say the demand for transparency regarding funding has increased in the past five years, which was up 5% from 2018.

Yet less than half of nonprofits share the impact of programs with top donors (48%).”

It is worth noting that the groundwork for building trust and transparency is empathy.

As major gift fundraisers to individuals who are often either dealing directly or indirectly with healthcare, it is essential to have and always lead with empathy in our benefactor relationships.

As discussed by Tanya Drollinger in her article “Using Active Empathetic Listening to Build Relationships With Major-Gift Donors,”2 when fundraisers use empathy, “they are able to communicate on a deeper level while developing trust and ultimately commitment to the organization.” In addition, “Empathy in listening provides the listener with additional information that is received on an intuitive level.”

We all know that trusted relationships are the strongest relationships, so it should also be critical to your fundraising efforts. The article “6 Easy Ways to Demonstrate Transparency and 1000 Reasons Why Nonprofits Should” by Sari McConnell,3 explains why they are so important to fundraising success: “Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, two giants in the field of behavioral economics, would call these ‘relationships’ a heuristic, or mental shortcut that allows donors to make decisions quickly and efficiently. That mental shortcut establishes trust that would otherwise take years to establish. Relying on relationships to create that trust shortcut helps a nonprofit

efficiently build support among a broader base of individuals.”

Yes, being radically transparent and honest can be difficult, especially if you’re telling a donor “no” to an idea that doesn’t align with your organization’s priorities or sharing that the impact they wish to make is not attainable without a few extra zeros at the end of their check. But it’s the right thing to do, and it’s the bold thing to do. And dare I say it, this could lead to an even bigger gift conversation with that same donor down the road.

Vulnerability As researcher and queen of vulnerability, Brené Brown suggests, vulnerability in relationships is key: “Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.”4 That doesn’t mean it’s an easy thing for a gift officer or a nonprofit organization to embrace.

Being vulnerable shows your weaknesses— which can certainly be a risk—but it also shows your humanness. In the professional setting, I believe it shows your commitment to your organization. Will we know every question our benefactors ask? Absolutely not. Saying “I don’t know that answer, but I will find out” is perfectly acceptable, and it also leaves a point of outreach in connecting back to them. During this global pandemic, we’ve likely all experienced vulnerability. This shared experience has perhaps deepened the things you talk about with friends or changed the way you interact with

“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.”5 –Brené Brown

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strangers in your day-to-day life. In your work you may have found that simply picking up the phone to ask how a donor is doing without any agenda behind it has resulted in a much deeper connection with your supporters.

There is a lot in this quote that relates to what we do, so let’s break this down further. The idea of vulnerability and lack of control is a tangible one in our fundraising world. Even with all our experiences, skillsets, compelling ideas and inspiring leaders, the actual act of giving a gift is not in our control. Why not embrace vulnerability as its own compelling narrative? This could sound like “we realize this is a big vision” or “we want to share the complete story of where we are going” when you are sharing funding opportunities at a high level. In regard to the idea of having courage to show up and be seen, this could simply mean quickly admitting when we’ve done something wrong and asking how we can do better next time. I would also bet that many of us have encountered situations where we had to “fall on the sword” and apologize for an unpleasant experience that could have happened years before you or your team were involved. I believe approaching benefactors with vulnerability will only enhance your relationships and benefit your organization.

Trusted Advisor Role

Being a trusted advisor can make opening these conversations easier, such as “Some of our donors are making a large impact through their required minimum distributions” or “by designating us as a beneficiary for one of their policies in their estate plans.”

The idea of the trusted adviser is also part of the core argument for the recent discussion, led by Russell James, Texas Tech professor and allaround planned giving guru, about the impact our job titles can have on benefactors. In this well-known study,6 “Testing the Effectiveness of Fundraiser Job Titles in Charitable Bequest and Complex Gift Planning” first published in July 2016, James found that titles including “development” and “advancement” were too vague for those outside of the organization; they also referred to the organization and what the employee does for the organization vs. for the donor specifically. The best performers based on the study were titles such as “donor advisor” or “donor officer.” I believe embracing your role as a trusted advisor for the donor, and not just for the organization, is the right thing to do.

Another reason to lean into your trusted advisor role is a more pragmatic one due to the changing times we find ourselves. Many benefactors are in moments of pause or reflection about the things they care most about, and some are shifting their impact accordingly.

Becoming a trusted advisor for your benefactors can take your relationships to new levels. This is something I would argue needs to be built right alongside trust, transparency, and vulnerability.

Once you get to that point where benefactors feel you can not only be their charitable advisor for your institution but for their overall philanthropy, beautiful things can happen. For example, wearing your advisor hat can help you introduce planned, blended, or endowed giving into the conversation much sooner. This allows you to share all possible ways to make a gift. For some benefactors, it’s helpful to also know what other benefactors are doing to make an impact.

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Others are realizing how lucky they are, and they may be interested in making a larger impact than ever before.

As Ken Nopar, with American Endowment Foundation put it in his 2022 blog:7 “The need for content and guidance in the past few years has been greater than ever before, as clients realize that establishing a charitable vehicle is only step one in achieving their charitable goals.”

Even more, donors “are aware of the importance and impact of their financial, tax, and legal advisors, yet some are not aware that philanthropic advisors can help shore up the fourth leg of the family’s charitable planning table.”8 Providing this service will only grow that ever important trust in your benefactor relationships and open the door to more fruitful conversations about their ultimate gift intentions.

I’d like to think that in addition to our shared experiences of how difficult major gift fundraising can be, we also share the belief that we are so incredibly lucky to be doing this

kind of work, and we share those moments of joy when we see what good philanthropy can do for this world. By incorporating these core values into our work, we can help increase that joy for our benefactors, for ourselves, and for our organizations.

Katie Bullock has been in the nonprofit sector for over 15 years in roles ranging from donor advised fund management, event and community partner management, and most recently as a major gift development officer for the past seven years. Katie has been with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus for four and a half years doing both internal development work with faculty partners and currently as a Senior Director of Development working directly with benefactors. Originally from Columbus Ohio, Katie lives in Boulder County, Colorado with her husband, her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, a dog, and a cat and loves the outdoors.

Footnotes 1

Nonprofit Trends Report, “Creating Data-Driven Transparency with Fundraising, Finance & Funders”, May 7, 2020, https://www.salesforce.org/blog/creating-data-driven-transparency-with-fundraising-finance-and-funders/.

2

Tanya Drollinger, “Using Active Empathetic Listening to Build Relationships With Major-Gift Donors”, Taylor & Francis Online, Sept.

20, 2017, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10495142.2017.1326336.

3

Sari, McConnell, “6 Easy Ways to Demonstrate Transparency and 1000 Reasons Why Nonprofits Should,” LinkedIn, July 12, 2021, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6-easy-ways-demonstrate-transparency-1000-reasons-why-sari-mcconnell/.

4

Brené Brown, August 27th 2010, The Gifts of Imperfection, Center City, Hazelden Publishing.

5

Brené Brown, August 27th 2010, The Gifts of Imperfection, Center City, Hazelden Publishing.

6

Russell James, “Testing the Effectiveness of Fundraiser Job Titles in Charitable Bequest and Complex Gift Planning”, Texas Tech University, Dec. 1, 2016, https://scholars.ttu.edu/en/publications/testing-the-effectiveness-of-fundraiser-job-titles-in-charitable--5.

7

Ken Nopar, “How Philanthropic Advisory Firms Can Help Generous Clients”, Advisor Prospectives, Nov. 15, 2021, https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2021/11/15/how-philanthropic-advisory-firms-can-help-generous-clients.

8

Ken Nopar, “How Philanthropic Advisory Firms Can Help Generous Clients”, Advisor Prospectives, Nov. 15, 2021, https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2021/11/15/how-philanthropic-advisory-firms-can-help-generous-clients.

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Raising Digital Dollars: Recommendations for Foundations from the 2021 Digital Fundraising Benchmark Report for Hospitals

By Ben Texter, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Digital Health Strategies

I

n partnership with AHP, Digital Health Strategies surveyed 83 leading nonprofit hospital foundations, including academic, community, and specialty hospitals, about their digital fundraising programs. We chose a subset of 27 hospitals to develop digital fundraising benchmarks, so that foundation leaders, for the first time, can reliably compare their foundation’s performance to their peers.

The results, which appear in the 2021 Digital Fundraising Benchmark Report for Hospitals, will help hospital foundation leaders improve their digital programs. Below are some of our most

important findings, which you can use right now to begin raising more money online in the current fiscal year.

Two-thirds of hospital foundations say digital fundraising is a high priority Almost two-thirds of the hospitals we surveyed (62%) said that increasing their digital revenue is a top priority. The pandemic drove more people than ever before to give online to nonprofits, with a 21% increase in 2020,1 and the new donors who have joined hospital fundraising programs AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 21

since March 2020 clearly understand the value of healthcare workers. Foundation leaders see a huge revenue opportunity, and know they need better digital programs to take advantage of it.

But digital transformation comes slowly, because it requires executive buy-in, budget, management and staff time, and workflow changes. Almost always, you’ll make change happen much faster when you add the support of an outside digital agency.

Within a few weeks, a digital agency with hospital fundraising experience can spin up a more powerful online fundraising program.

External support isn’t just cheaper than hiring full-time staff, it’s also much easier to manage, because you don’t need to make any new hires; you can borrow agency capacity that scales as you grow. And, depending on the agency you choose, you can get the benefit of expertise built on their work with dozens or hundreds of hospitals, and best practices recommendations that evolve in real time.

Hospital foundations need their own digital fundraising benchmarks With more donors preferring digital, hospitals need to evolve away from a model that relies so heavily on direct mail, events, and donor outreach, which are expensive and time-consuming. You should keep doing these things, obviously, since some donors depend on and respond to them.

But your program needs to better accommodate your newer donors, who will be less responsive to traditional tactics, and many of whom will expect to hear from you online.

But to run an effective digital program, you need benchmarks. And hospital foundations can’t simply borrow the benchmarks that other kinds of nonprofits use, because their fundraising patterns are different. Many other healthcare nonprofits, like patient advocacy groups and medical research foundations, are like

nonprofits in other sectors, and can rely on highvolume mass-market fundraising. But hospital foundations typically depend on a smaller number of donors with more personal ties to the institution and its mission.

That’s why, as part of this report, we developed an initial set of four hospital foundation fundraising benchmarks, using a statistically balanced subset of 27 of the hospitals we surveyed. These benchmarks can help you understand how your program is currently performing compared to your peers and illuminate actions you can take to optimize and improve it. We’ll supplement our benchmarks with additional metrics in the future, to help foundation leaders further understand and improve their programs.

Our four initial hospital foundation benchmarks: ■ Year-over-year online giving growth:

Nonprofit hospitals saw an average 204% increase in digital revenue from 2019 to 2020, much higher than the average growth in the nonprofit sector.

■ Average online donation: The average online

donor contributed $338 to nonprofit hospitals in 2020.

■ Fundraising email open and click-through

rate: Nonprofit hospitals saw an average open rate of 19.66% and click-rate of 1.97%.

■ Email list growth: Nonprofit hospitals saw a

40% increase in their email list growth from 2019 to 2020. This was higher than the email list growth across the nonprofit sector.

Many hospital foundations are ready to digitize their grateful patient programs Almost every hospital foundation runs a grateful patient program, but most have not caught up

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with the digital times, with two-thirds reporting that they rely primarily on direct mail.

Relying too heavily on direct mail is expensive, and it leaves money on the table, since many of your newer donors don’t respond to mail appeals. Foundations understand this–half the foundations that reported relying on direct mail said they wanted to convert their grateful patient programs to digital.

A digital grateful patient program is more effective for multiple reasons: ■ Connect with patients faster: No need to wait

weeks after discharge to send a grateful patient appeal. You can reach out to patients while they’re still in your care and primed to give.

■ It’s simpler for donors: Acting is just one click

away: patients can share their stories about their caregivers and make a gift immediately.

■ It’s cheaper and simpler for you: No more

printing or postage. Compared to direct mail, digital grateful patient programs are also less labor-intensive, easier to manage, and much quicker to yield performance data and actionable insights.

The fastest way to digitize your program is to bring in an agency that has direct experience with digital grateful patient programs, and has developed customized tools, workflows, and strategies optimized to convert and retain grateful patients as donors.

Foundations need an email and direct mail integration strategy Close to 50% of foundation respondents indicated that direct mail brings in the most revenue. Direct mail can be a cost-effective way to continue to raise money from donors who have shown they’ll give that way. But it costs money up front, and many of your newest donors

(including grateful patients) won’t respond to mail; they expect to be able to give online.

Simply running a separate email program in parallel with your direct mail program is not sufficient to take full advantage of your digital potential. Your activities in all your channels should work together to advance the same goals, with the same themes, content, and messaging running at the same time.

Ideally, you’ll plan fully aligned campaigns that run in direct mail and email at once, with each channel reinforcing the other. For instance, sending an email kicker to follow a direct mail piece will likely result in raising more money in total, because many donors will see the messaging an extra time and will give via the channel they are most comfortable with.

You can’t do this unless your two channels are coordinated. But 21% of our respondents don’t coordinate their email and direct mail programs at all, and most respondents don’t do everything they can to coordinate them. So, sit down with your team and think about how you can work together more effectively, so that your donors hear you speaking in one voice across all your channels.

Because direct mail is costly, ideally you will send it only to those donors who will only give through mail. With a coordinated program, you can help

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generating more revenue right away if you adopt A/B testing and adhere to other simple best practices like these: ■ Shift from email newsletters to appeals:

Almost always, if you ask for money more often, you’ll raise more money overall. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time to keep your donors informed, but most foundations explain too much and ask too little, especially when speaking to people who have proven they’re willing to donate.

■ Take advantage of your physicians and

clinical staff: People open emails from a clinician at rates two to three times the industry average, because they see clinicians as trustworthy, familiar, and authoritative.

■ Improve your subject lines: The subject line

is the first thing donors see in their inboxes; make it catchy and engaging. so, the reader will open the email to learn more. donors shift from direct mail to email giving, and then remove them from the direct mail program, leading to lower overall costs over time.

Following email best practices can boost your conversion rates It is no secret that email marketing generates a very high return on investment, as much as $42 in lifetime value per dollar invested.2 But how much money you raise depends on all the details about how you run your program: your strategy, messaging, email tactics, and testing and optimization.

Many foundations don’t adhere to basic email best practices: for instance, almost half of the surveyed foundations (47%) conducted 3 or fewer email tests over the past year, even though A/B testing (like testing one subject line against another) is one of the simplest ways to improve performance. You’ll likely start

■ Find a time that suits your supporters: Even

half an hour’s difference in send times can have a drastic impact on your engagement rates. Every audience is different, so it’s important to look at your personal trends.

■ Keep the ask simple: Your email should have

a single call to action, and it should be clear and direct. Asking for more than one thing clutters your email and confuses people, so that many of them will click away without taking any action.

Conclusion Many of our survey findings will take time to bear fruit. But others, such as tactical email best practices, will start showing results right away. And if you start now, you may be able to materially improve your digital fundraising program’s performance in time for the important end-of-year giving season.

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So, gather your digital team and talk about how you can work together to sharpen your digital fundraising program, and raise more money than ever before. And if you work with an agency partner, bring them in, too; they’re likely to have additional recommendations that are tailored to the specific mechanics of your program.

Get in touch with Digital Health Strategies.

Contact Matt Tripsas at matt@digitalhealthstrategies.com

Ben Texter creates and implements successful marketing, communications and fundraising campaigns for a wide range of healthcare clients and nonprofit organizations.

As Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Digital Health Strategies, Ben blends data and technology to create effective digital marketing, communications and fundraising strategies for executive-level healthcare clients, including Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore, Md.), Geisinger (Danville, Pa.), PeaceHealth (Vancouver, Wash.), PIH Health (Whittier, Calif.) and Good Samaritan Hospital (Los Angeles).

He also served as the Interim Vice President of Communications at Geisinger in 2017.

Prior to forming Digital Health Strategies, Ben established the healthcare practice for Blue State Digital—the agency that managed the 2008 and 2012 Obama Presidential election campaigns’ digital engagement programs—by developing and launching successful campaigns for the American Hospital Association, the California Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

Footnotes 1

“The Blackbaud Institute’s 2020 Charitable Giving Report Finds That Online Giving Grew 21% amidst Global Pandemic.” Blackbaud, February 16, 2021. https://investor.blackbaud.com/news-releases/news-release-details/blackbaud-institutes-2020-charitable-giving-report-finds-online.

2

Kirsch, Katrina. “The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2022.” HubSpot Blog, January 20, 2022. https:// blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-stats.

One of Ben’s earliest successes was helping to build CODA Automotive Inc., a Los Angelesbased company that designed and assembled electric cars and battery systems. As a Founding Employee and Director, Ben helped enable CODA to raise nearly $400 million from investors that included former Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs CEO Henry “Hank” Paulson; former White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty; hedge fund manager and philanthropist Tom Steyer; and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson.

Most recently, Ben was named one of Pepperdine University’s 2020 Outstanding Alumni in Healthcare.

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It’s Time to Embrace Stock Gifting.

Here’s Why and How

By Steve Latham, Co-founder and CEO, DonateStock, Inc.

C

haritable stock gifting’s time has come and now it’s easier than ever to make it a core part of your fundraising program. Here are the what, why and how of stock gifting that will help you diversify and expand your fundraising program.

Stock Gifting 101: unlocking $100 billion in new funding For decades charitable stock gifting has been overlooked and underutilized as a source of funding for nonprofits of all sizes. While stock gifting represents $100 billion in potential annual funding, it is largely untapped for several reasons: 1.

Few donors are aware of the benefits of donating stock—namely the ability to avoid capital gains tax on the appreciated stock

while maximizing the value the deduction. To date, stock gifting has been one of the best kept secrets in personal finance.

2. Only larger nonprofits with brokerage accounts could receive stock gifts. To receive stock, your organization needs a brokerage account. As we’ve seen firsthand, it is increasingly difficult to establish a brokerage account if your organization does not have significant assets.

3. Painstaking process: to donate stock without the help of a financial advisor, donors must contact the nonprofit to research the process and gather information their broker will require. In some cases the nonprofit requires the donor to complete a form. The donor must then contact their brokerage to find out how to execute a charitable stock transfer.

AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 26

They will then be asked to download, print and complete an authorization form, and to return it in person, via fax and/or in some cases via secure upload. The archaic process is major deterrent—for many it’s simply too much work.

4. Lack of transparency: when stock is transferred from the donor to the nonprofit’s account, the donor’s information does not accompany the stock. Unless the donor provides the details of their stock gift (which stock, how many shares and when it took place), there is no way for the receiving nonprofit to know whose stock they received.

5. Poor donor experience: For donors, stock gifting has historically been a very unpleasant experience. Beyond the painstaking process of making the gift, the lack of acknowledgement from the nonprofit is also deflating. Donors naturally assume that the nonprofit will know who donated stock; when they don’t hear back (due to lack of transparency above) they may feel unappreciated or even irritated. This does not bode well for future giving.

6. Administrative burden: even if you know the identity of the stock donor, the process of selling stock, transferring funds, reconciling gifts and sending donation authorizations is a costly, manually intensive process. For these reasons it has been difficult to scale.

For these reasons, stock gifting has been largely untapped. Excluding Donor Advised Funds (used primarily by the wealthiest 1%), less than 0.5% of U.S. households donate stock. Sadly, billions in potential funding for nonprofits go unrealized every year.

The good news is that everything is changing!

Innovative new solutions—such as Donatestock. com, a fintech platform that automates the process of initiating and receiving stock gifts,

have made stock gifting accessible and easy for every donor and nonprofit. Here is a summary of what is new: 1.

Receiving stock gifts is no longer restricted to nonprofits with brokerage accounts.1 By using a 3rd party to process stock gifts and distribute cash, smaller nonprofits can solicit and receive stock gifts.

2. The donor experience is dramatically better.

What used to take hours can now be done in minutes—Donatestock.com has made stock gifting fast, safe and free for donors. With email notification sand dashboard reporting, donors have visibility into the process of each stock gift. A much more enjoyable process may lead to subsequent donations and larger gifts in the future.

3. The nonprofit experience is also much better.

No longer must you explain the stock gifting process to every donor, nor do you need to post your brokerage account and DTC number on your website (which by the way is highly discouraged). Just direct donors to your stock gifting page and the rest is fast and easy.

4. Transparency and data to ease reconciliations.

Gone are the days of wondering whose stock was donated. Nonprofits are now notified when each donation is made and completed.

The details of each gift and donor are at your fingertips. This makes reconciliation a breeze for those who want to do it in-house. For those who are under-staffed, Donatestock. com can also process reconciliations and donor acknowledgement letters.

Up to now, the archaic process and lack of transparency made it difficult for nonprofits to scale stock gifting programs. With manual handling, reconciling and reporting, most struggled to process more than a handful of stock gifts efficiently. But now that dashboard reporting, notifications, donor education, stock AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 27

CASE STUDY

Chapman Partnership Chapman Partnership of Miami, FL provides health care and support to homeless individuals and families. Over the past 25 years, Chapman has served more than 126,000 homeless individuals. in 2021 Chapman realized the need to embrace change and seek new sources of funding. Appreciated stock emerged as a large untapped opportunity, allowing donors a new way to give that offered advantages for them and the partnership. The CEO and head of development worked in concert to educate the board and seek alignment to support a partnership with DonateStock.

In their words, the turnkey onboarding, ease of use and live support was instrumental in providing confidence to start soliciting stock gifts in late 2021.

In just 60 days, Chapman realized more than $100,000 in stock grants from new and existing supporters.

“We had to pivot quickly to virtual events and digital communications to sustain engagement in a post COVID environment. Taking an integrated approach to giving opportunities was necessary and an important part in fulfilling our mission. One of those approaches was starting a stock gifting program with DonateStock.”

— Symeria Hudson - President & CEO, Chapman Partnership

gifting is set to scale as an easy proposition for non-profits of all sizes.

The opportunity is tremendous. Most are aware that pre-tax stock gifts are generally much larger than after-tax cash gifts. Moreover, U.S. Households (45+) have $7 in their investment portfolio for every $1 in the bank. Stock is where the money is.

If each investor donated $1,600 in appreciated stock, $100 billion would flow to nonprofits each year. Stock has the potential to grow the $400 billion individual giving market by 25%.

Keys to Success Here are some proven keys to successfully launching and/or growing your stock gifting program.

1.

Get informed: rather than spend hours researching articles on stock gifting, Donatestock.com has condensed everything you need in the Ultimate Guide to Stock Gifting

2. Educate your board and your team on the need and/or opportunity to make stock gifting a key part of your fundraising program.

3. Optimize your “Donate Now” pages and make “Other ways to give” highly visible to donors.

4. Add a snippet of content to educate donors on the unparalleled benefits of donating appreciated stock (provided by Donatestock. com) to every client).

5. Ask your board to make a stock gift. Most directors have investment accounts – ask them to experience the process themselves and provide a quote you can use to promote to your donors.

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6. Make it newsworthy: Issue a press release that you can now receive tax-advantaged stock gifts. Include a quote from a board member about how easy it was to give smarter via stock.

7. Email your donors: Educate them on the benefits and ease of donating stock, and how they can have greater impact by making a pre-tax gift. Changing behavior takes time so start now and maintain consistent messaging throughout the year 8. Make it social: Include stock gifting in your social media posts, newsletters and web communications.

9. Integrate stock gifting language in all communications: newsletters, brochures, onesheets, emails, donation requests, pledge fulfillments, etc.

In closing, the time to unlock stock gifting has arrived and the prize is huge. Take time now to incorporate stock gifting into your development program—it’s a small investment of time that will pay massive dividends for years to come.

Steve Latham, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of DonateStock, Inc. A tech entrepreneur and Harvard MBA, Steve spent the last 25 years in finance, digital marketing, and advanced analytics. Before founding DonateStock in 2020, Steve launched and grew two digital marketing technology companies and 2 nonprofits. Steve has been a contributing author and thought leader in the marketing and financial services industries and is a lifelong supporter, fundraiser, and volunteer for many worthy causes.

Footnotes 1

Any tax-exempt nonprofit can now receive stock gifts through DonateStock Charitable, a 501c3 that converts charitable stock gifts to cash for nonprofits.

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From Operations to Outcomes: The Effect of Technology on Fundraising

By Stu Manewith

I

t’s difficult for development team members to go for more than a day or two without discussing technology. This includes front-line fundraisers, who may not be as technologically savvy as their DevOps peers, but who certainly want to leverage technology to make their lives easier, their work more efficient, and their fundraising outcomes more fruitful.

When we talk about leveraging technology to improve fundraising–operations, outcomes, or both–we’re really talking about two distinct sets of challenges: 1.

Using technology to provide grateful patients, other prospects, and existing retainable donors with the supporter experience that today’s ‘consumer’ has come to expect.

2.

Managing all of the disparate systems, data, and processes that such a broad and supporter-centric technology stack requires.

Solving for these challenges will improve fundraising organically. By both meeting donors and prospects where they want to be met and on their own terms, and by using all of the data available cogently and strategically to build and maintain relationships, you can improve acquisition, grateful patient conversion, and donor retention across the board. Moreover, addressing these issues intentionally will result in a virtuous cycle that not only provides more support for healthcare operations but for future technology as well.

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Fundraising and the DonorConsumer The American Marketing Association defines ‘consumer behavior’ as referring to ‘the study of how customers, both individuals and organizations, satisfy their needs and wants by choosing, purchasing, using, and disposing of goods, ideas, and services.

As the marketplace, including the nonprofit marketplace for donors, became more and more digital over the past 20-plus years, donors and prospects have been taking pages from the commercial consumers’ handbook and are more and more basing their giving and renewing behavior on what they’ve come to expect in the commercial sector: ■ Easy online engagement. Think of how easy

it is to shop, pay bills, or take classes online.

Think of how many sites have chat boxes that provide solid answers to basic questions and even live humans to handle relevant consumer dialogues.

■ Relevant information and preferences will

be stored and recalled. Forms are filled out for you, payment methods are retained, and preferences help guide commercial sites to dish up content that their algorithms say you’ll want.

■ Digital communications. Interesting content

and even important correspondence are sent and received in real-time and are instantly accessible.

■ Immediate response and gratification.

Consumers have become used to a level of almost instant interaction with and fulfillment from the vendors from which they make purchases. And this includes returns and refunds.

■ Easy to find competitors. When product or

customer service expectations are not met, it’s incredibly easy to search for and find viable

competitors who will have the chance to win the business.

The first technology challenge is that healthcare foundations and development teams need to provide donors and prospects with the consumer experience that commercial enterprises (typically with far more resources) have been providing: easy online engagement (for all types of engagement, not just donations), preference retention, digital communications, and (close to) immediate response, so they won’t be inclined to look elsewhere for charitable opportunities.

The good news is that there are a variety of technology platforms and applications that support these needs–and that can further your efforts to establish, maintain, and build relationships.

The even better news is that hospitals have a special place in the hearts of their donors, grateful patients, and other prospects–who love to see their philanthropic resources at work in the community. So, you have the advantage going in.

The not-as-good news is that more technology applications add not only real cost outlay, but also add to your internal costs in terms of more systems, more data, and more processes to manage. The return-on-investment had better be worth it.

Embrace the Technology; But Now, to Manage It Those on hospital IT teams, and those in development operations roles, would describe the technology model discussed above with a term called ‘best-of-breed .’It’s the concept that, while the backbone of the development team’s data repository is its main CRM system, certain ‘satellite’ applications generally provide a better solution for certain key business needs, AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 31

with richer functionality, and a better user experience both for the development team and the donor/prospect/grateful patient/ volunteer.

So, in meeting donor-consumers (current or future) where they want to be met, and in giving them the ideal donor-consumer experience, you’ll likely have different systems for email marketing, online giving, event management, personal fundraising pages, volunteer management, tribute giving, etc.

Which leads us to the second technology challenge–managing all of those systems, processes, and–most importantly–so much data residing in multiple repositories across the organization. So much information, so many sources, so many formats, so many errors (often initiated by the donors themselves as they fill out forms or incorrectly key in an email address), and so many opportunities for duplicate data.

And let’s not forget about another imperative source of data thrown into the mix–your Grateful Patients–permitted, compliant EMR data.

As much as development teams rely on those satellite applications to do what they do best, you also depend on the vast historic repository of data in your main CRM system to ensure that donors and prospects are being properly engaged, cultivated, solicited, and stewarded. So, if the data in satellite systems are not properly integrated with the data in the main CRM repository, there’s a very real risk that the main database will not be current, clean, or complete.

Those are three pillars of data quality–databases should be current, clean, and complete.

Current Data from the satellite systems should be integrated into the main CRM database expediently–if for no other reason than for timely acknowledgments (not just e-receipts), but also to ensure that any record changes are updated

in a timely fashion, and that records themselves are up-to-date for stewardship purposes.

Clean Supporters can provide data to the satellite systems in nonstandard formats, in all upper or all lower case.

They can even misspell their own names, addresses, and email addresses, which increases the chances for bouncebacks and for duplicate records to be generated. Data from the satellites should be integrated in a way that ensures the main CRM system remains hygienic and standardized to your requirements, that good data are not overwritten with bad data, and that duplicate records are not created.

Complete The benefits of best-of-breed generally outweigh the costs, but one very real potential cost is the risk of siloed data–different information about

The Premise Current and future donors, including grateful patients, are reasonably aligned with your hospital and its mission. Nevertheless, loyalty to healthcare organizations can be capricious, and you are being proactive and have taken a AHP Healthcare Philanthropy Journal|Spring 2022| 32

page from the consumer-behavior playbook.

You are meeting your supporters on their own terms with easy online engagement, effective preference management, digital communications, and interactions as immediate as possible.

To support that strategy, you are using a variety of supporter engagement platforms, resulting in naturally siloed donor information. In addition, you are receiving permitted, compliant grateful patient data on a reasonably regular basis from the EMR system.

The Cycle 1. Technology and tools. You have technology and tools at your disposal to effectively integrate the data from the various satellites (including the EMR). That technology is appropriately sophisticated to ensure expedience, standardization, data transformation, and duplicate detection and can serve as a central integration hub. You can be confident in your main CRM database to always contain quality, high-integrity data.

In addition, you can be assured that relevant information will be sent back to the satellites so that they also have accurate and timely data.

Or your data remain siloed and become stale.

If you do attempt to bring data into the main CRM system, you import possibly erroneous or nonstandard data and create duplicate records that include only partial details on those who have contributed.

2. Data and processes. With a main CRM database that is perennially current, clean, and complete, you are confident in the effectiveness of the processes that leverage your data. You also have confidence in the decision-making that is based on your data.

In addition, without having to worry anymore about things like the timeliness of acknowledgements, ensuring that donors and prospects are being pulled in the right segments, misspelled names, and duplicates–you have time to focus on other priorities.

Or your data remain problematic and incomplete, and so the processes that leverage your data are also problematic and ineffective.

Acknowledgments are delayed or go out wrong; donors are pulled into the wrong segments based on incomplete information, prospects (who might actually be donors) get duplicate solicitations, etc.

3. Supporter experience. With quality data and processes working effectively, your donors’, prospects, and grateful patients’ experience will be one that is expected and is consistent with–or even better than–other consumer experiences in the second decade of the 21st century. Relationships will flourish. Naturally, loyalties will grow and be maintained, and supporters will remain mindful of you as their healthcare provider of choice.

Or ineffective processes leveraging incorrect or incomplete data provide your donors, prospects, and grateful patients with a substandard experience. Relationships languish or may even be damaged, and loyalties wane.

4. Fundraising outcomes. A great supporter experience and stronger donor and prospect relationships naturally lead to improved new donor acquisition, donor retention rates that beat the averages, and more giving to areas that you identify as having the most need.

You exceed fundraising targets, and your Finance team is just as happy.

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Or a subpar supporter experience, inconsistent relationship-building, and waning loyalties result in missing fundraising targets, as well as a Finance team that is forced to report bad revenue news.

5. Mission impact. More effective fundraising and more funds raised–restricted and unrestricted–provide more program support to your healthcare institution–plain and simple. And, when the hospital has more funding, it can be even better at the things that your donors and grateful patients care about, providing tremendous stewardship leverage, and the cycle continues.

Or with fundraising targets missed and less money raised, program support to the hospital is reduced. Less funding leads to not being able to do what the community expects, and so donors and patients look elsewhere for their healthcare needs.

In the virtuous cycle scenario described above, the cycle continues even further with the observation that effective technology is at the root, at the starting point in the cycle, and directly informs increased fundraising and mission impact. It stands to reason that when hospital or foundation executives and other key stakeholders understand this, more resources for technology will be made available.

Do What You Do, Better While the premise presented above includes magnified examples, these points cannot be overstated: technology can bolster effective fundraising; the effective use of technology can

be weaved into improving classic fundraising practice; the results of leveraging technology will lead to providing more financial resources to the healthcare institutions that we support.

And, this whole thing will become more complicated down the road, not less. Donorconsumers will continue to demand the best donor-consumer experience, it will likely be more and more digital, and new technology platforms will be required to meet donor-consumer expectations as well as build relationships and loyalty. This will undoubtedly lead to more information to capture, more platforms to integrate, and more data to manage.

So now is the time to embrace technology and reap the rewards of quality data. Whether you are a frontline fundraiser, a DevOps IT guru, or a development executive, leveraging technology will help you do what you do better, regardless of where you work within the virtuous cycle.

Stu Manewith joined Omatic Software six years ago and serves as the company’s Director of Thought Leadership and Advocacy.

In that role, he is Omatic’s nonprofit sector domain specialist and subject-matter expert and is responsible for actively promoting and demonstrating Omatic’s position as the nonprofit industry’s leading partner in the areas of data health and integration. Prior to Omatic, Stu spent 13 years at Blackbaud, working with Raiser’s Edge, Financial Edge, and Blackbaud CRM client organizations as a consultant, solution architect, and practice manager. Previously, Stu spent the first half of his career in the nonprofit sector and served both as Director of Annual Giving and as Senior Director of Finance at the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. He holds business degrees from Washington University and the University of Wisconsin, and he earned his CFRE credential in 1999.

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“We received a higher level of grateful patient and research engagement to our most critical audience, the physicians and researchers we work with on a daily basis.

By deploying thoughtful, personal experience and relationship-building testimonials from development staff, faculty, and donors, you bridged the understanding that the philanthropic process is a team effort with clearly defined roles. Ultimately, our

development officers are empowered to form not only closer relationships with our physicians and researchers, but also increase the trust between the two, which is an essential part of our overall philanthropy strategy.”

WILLIAM GREEN VICE PRESIDENT, DEVELOPMENT RUTGERS BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES

Enable your healthcare organization to achieve unprecedented levels of support with Graham-Pelton’s data-driven approach and human-centered philosophy. www.grahampelton.com/healthcare