Donor Relations and Stewardship: Best Practices in Health Care and Academia Presented by Michael D. Seymour Senior Director Development Operations Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California

Start at the Very Beginning …. Begin with a Stewardship Standards document for your department / organization. This will describe the minimum and maximum standards for all of the areas pertaining to donor relations and stewardship. This sets your business plan into motion and guides your daily / monthly work flow

Academic Medical Centers v. Community Hospitals and Health Care Centers Academic medical centers usually have the following donor / prospect base: * Alumni * Faculty / Staff (current and emeriti) * Research Fund focused (e.g., stem cell) [Most of the fundraising is department and disease focused for research] Community Hospitals and Health Care Centers usually have the following donor / prospect base: * Grateful patients * Physicians and staff (current and former) * Community at large [Most of the fundraising is patient focused for treatment and care]

Some success stories at USC Endowed Funds Scholarship stewardship Patient Disease Area stewardship

Endowed Funds Endowed Funds include: * Faculty endowments – chairs and professorships * Lectureships * Research Funds * Award / prize funds

Endowed Funds, continued The minimum standard is that donors [or a living relative / trustee, etc…] will receive an annual written narrative report, including financial details, of their endowed fund over the past fiscal year. The report usually comes from the Dean of the Keck School of Medicine. Visible recognition may also be provided, as needed. Donor walls, plaques, events and press releases and other appropriate publicity may also be used to recognize newly established endowed gifts, depending on the size. [Chairs are $2M] Keeping these donors informed and happy almost always ensures that they will give again – if not to the same area they originally funded, but perhaps multiple areas within medicine.

Scholarship stewardship Annual thank you letters are sent to the donors (or living relatives, trustees, etc… as appropriate). Stewardship Office staff coordinates this effort and usually does not give out donor addresses for confidentiality and privacy reasons. Donors (or living relatives, trustees, etc…) receive a framed piece. Photo(s) of donor(s) along with written bio and history of creation of scholarship fund. One frame is given to donor and another frame is put up on Scholarship Wall. The Stewardship Office also co-ordinates one-on-one donor and student get- togethers upon the request of the fundraiser and/or donor (e.g., lunches, football game picnics, etc…) The Development Office holds an annual Scholarship Recognition Luncheon (mid November) for all scholarship donors to meet their recipients. Prior to this annual luncheon, the Scholarship panels are updated Once a year, the Dean sends an annual “thank you” letter to all scholarship donors and highlights one scholarship student [usually one of the speakers at the luncheon]. We reproduce the student’s speech along with a color photo of the student. While we do not ask for money, we enclose a return envelope in the mailing.

Patient Disease Area Stewardship Similar to the scholarship stewardship mailing, we have replicated this on the patient disease area side. All donors to a specific Diabetes doctor’s fund were sent a letter informing them of what she has done with the funds for the past year. The letter thanked them for their support and said everything would not be possible without private gifts. Color photos were spread throughout the text. Again, no solicitation was made, just the inclusion of an envelope. Many donors sent in another gift. The ones that did not respond to this mailing were then re-solicited several months later.

Keeping costs down Buy in bulk when possible Try to use materials that can be re-used or easily modified if you have to add things in the future (e.g. donor honor walls)

Comments / Questions ? Contact Information Michael D. Seymour Senior Director, Development Operations Keck School of Medicine, USC (626) 457 – 4076