Are You Getting a 500% Return?

For nonprofit hospitals there are few product lines, business or investments that can produce a return of five dollars or more for every dollar invested each and every year. More and more, hospital executives are turning to their fundraising enterprises to help increase their bottom lines. If a community hospital Foundation can add $1, $5, $10 million or more towards the balance sheet and ultimately the Mission or strategic direction of the organization, it can become a game changer.

Effective hospital fundraising organizations should be directing anywhere between $4 and $10 dollars back to the hospital for every $1 invested in staff and programs. Today, more and more hospital executives are paying closer attention to how fundraising operations work, what strategies are in place and how they can be more involved in helping maximize that return.

Many hospital executives admit that this is foreign territory for them or they do not have the time to start learning about fundraising best practices. An organization without a plan or the people to implement the plan, fundraising enterprises wallow and don’t maximize their philanthropic potential.

I have found that the following steps lead to a higher level of effectiveness, increased philanthropic market share and ultimately maximized fundraising potential.

  • Benchmarking the fundraising enterprise with a similar cohort and project targeted growth potential for philanthropy.
  • Evaluating programs, systems and management processes to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Assessing the capability, effectiveness, and satisfaction of volunteer leaders in guiding the fundraising effort.
  • Measuring the willingness and level of engagement of hospital leadership and medical staff.
  • Determine staff core competencies, resources and training needs to accomplish goals and objectives.

I welcome your thoughts about situations you’ve been involved in and the fundraising results realized.