Martin Carolan

Association of Healthcare Philanthropy Conference

Martin Carolan What a wonderful opportunity was bestowed to me last October when I was the successful applicant for the Fundraising Institute of Australia’s scholarship to travel to the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy’s Conference in the USA. When putting in my submission I wanted to be very clear as to what I wanted to get from the Conference. All too many times we attend Professional Development Sessions and take back so much information it is hard to know what it is we can implement. I went with one key area of learning that I wanted to gather as much information on as possible – what are the key elements of a grateful patients campaign.

Needless to say I attended every session that I could about Grateful Patients at the Conference, and there was quite a few. The format was quite different at the AHP - often during a session there was three hospitals presenting their ideas. Whilst this was a good approach in that you gained knowledge from small to larger hospitals, I would have preferred a more comprehensive presentation from one of these organisations. A lot of time was spent setting the scene for the three organisations, however there was a lot to learn.

Key areas of learning for me were:

Ensure you have buy in from Senior Management – get approval from them first and through to all staff that they are endorsing this program.
Have Senior management attend all Grateful Patients functions.
Promote the program internally to staff so they are aware of it – that way any queries on donations can be passed onto the Fundraising Team for actioning and stewarding.
Don’t forget to work with HR and be an integral part of Staff Induction.
In the USA donors who donate as part of a Grateful Patient Program like to receive recognition on a Honour Board – this is not the case for everyone but generally this was an important element of the donors thank you.
Hands on cultivation of donors is key.

So that I could learn from other practitioners whilst at the Conference, I held an early morning session for conference attendees. I promoted this through Linked In, and invited attendees at the Conference to come along and be a participant, share what worked for them, and learn from others what is or is not working. This was an invaluable session as we had a great group of about 20 practitioners sharing and learning from each other on what a great Grateful Patient Program looks like.

Some key elements to the most successful programs were:

Staff involvement – again this is key – patients are donating because they received great care. Acknowledge that.
When having donor thank you events get staff along - donors want to meet care givers. One great example was one hospital brought the Paramedic along who resuscitated the patient – this brought tears to everyone’s eyes.
Your Grateful Patient Program should include a staff recognition nomination on the donation slip. That way staff who are nominated for wonderful care should then be invited to the donor thank you events. Bear in mind this staff member could be anyone from a volunteer, a nurse, doctor right through to kitchen staff or cleaners. They all contribute to a lovely stay at the hospital.
Try and create a program that is integrated as part of the healing process.

So where to from here?

I have come away with some great ideas and I am clearer on what I want my Grateful Patient Program to look like. I am in the process of working with my creative team on mocking up what the key elements of the program will look like, but I certainly think all of the above will add to a wonderful Grateful Patient Program.

Martin Carolan EMFIA
11 January 2012