Grateful Patient Giving: Encouraging Referrals from Your Board and Clinicians
While donations to healthcare amounted to $60.51 billion in 2024 according to the latest Giving USA Report, the top 50 gifts totaled $16 billion with individuals like Mike Bloomberg, Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin, and Michael and Susan Dell leading the list. That’s more than a quarter of the giving from the largest donors.
With many hospitals and health system foundations looking to cultivate gifts from grateful patients and their families, annual campaign solicitations and special events often lead the way in offering an opportunity for an initial gift. For most donors, that is typically how they are asked, but we know that the biggest and most impactful donations come from building relationships that lead to major or planned gifts.
Effective Donor Engagement Starts with Board Members and Clinicians
According to the 2024 Association Healthcare Philanthropy Report on Giving, when influential stakeholders like board members and physicians are committed to the cause, both financially and as advocates, their support often leads to more effective donor engagement and broader philanthropic success.
Engaged leadership can signal credibility and commitment to donors, providing reassurance that the organization’s mission is valued by those who know it best.
Of course, not all patients wish to contribute philanthropically. By coaching clinicians and other patient-facing staff members to recognize signs of gratitude and refer interested parties to the appropriate fundraising personnel, healthcare organizations can optimally reach those for whom philanthropy would be meaningful and desired. Clinician referrals are widely accepted as the most reliable and effective point of contact with potential donors, but wealth screening can also assist fundraisers in helping advance their organization’s important mission.
When properly coached, clinicians know that their ethical role in philanthropy never involves asking a patient or family member for money. Further, their standards of care are never compromised by helping connect interested parties to their colleagues. Instead, they give patients and families the gift of engagement—whether through philanthropy, a volunteer role, or simply the opportunity to share their story.
Encourage Professional Referrals from Clinicians
To encourage grateful patient referrals from clinicians:
- Establish a robust referral program
- Show sincere gratitude for every referral
- Foster strong relationships with key physicians and nurses
- Incorporate a process to gather and share patient feedback
- Leverage technology to track referrals and measure the program’s success
Contributions made to healthcare organizations tend to be highly meaningful for donors—often, driven by significant life experiences. As one donor shared, “My mother has been battling cancer for over 10 years and has been receiving care from Sloan Kettering during that time. She, our family, and I are very grateful to Sloan for the care and cutting-edge treatments that she’s received – but it took them educating us (and us educating ourselves) throughout the process for us to understand how outstanding the care actually was. If it weren’t for Sloan, she would have been gone 5 years ago or would have been living in a lot more pain. My mother and our family have therefore had a positive experience and if asked to donate would try to within our means as long as they were sensitive during the ask and it appeared that they valued her care over soliciting donations.” Philanthropy can assist in the healing process, empower in the midst of tragedy, and meaningfully incorporate donors into a community of respected people doing life-changing work.
When one person was asked if a referral from their physician would be welcome, she replied, “I have no issue with the concept of a physician referral followed by the hospital contacting former patients who have benefited from care, and with that process beginning after the patient has been discharged; indeed, I receive mailings from our hospital including information on wellness programs and annual reports, and if I were to receive a direct, personal solicitation at this time, I probably would make a donation. I am a grateful patient, and a grateful spouse due to the care that my husband received.”
When health systems first established foundations, their role often centered around organizing the annual golf outing and hospital gala. They were considered a “nice to have” within the broader management of the system. With the current environment in healthcare, and the importance of revenue from all sources to increase margins and improve care in every community, foundations have become a “need to have”. If a foundation can provide 1% of the margin for the system, they are turning grateful patients into donors and showing real value as part of the revenue model. By building relationships with clinicians and creating a robust referral program, every health foundation can contribute to the bottom line and improve care across the communities they serve.