2 New Reports Confirm Number of Fundraisers, Staff Retention Key to Raising More Dollars, AHP Says

(Press release, Jan. 27, 2014) — As the United States and Canada emerge from the recession years, in-depth analysis by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) shows that investing in fundraising personnel provides the biggest impact to health care organizations in terms of generating donated dollars for nonprofit hospitals, systems and health care organizations. These and other findings were contained in two reports published by AHP based on its detailed Performance Benchmarking Service survey and its annual Report on Giving of fundraising activities in both countries.
"This comes as no surprise," said William C. McGinly, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of AHP. "Having the right number of fundraising professionals focused on the right programs makes a huge difference in how much an organization can raise," McGinly added. "These two new reports provide in-depth statistical analysis that strengthens the importance of retaining key staff even in tough economic times."

"Philanthropic contributions can make an extraordinary difference in the health of our communities. Philanthropy is an investment strategy and key to that investment is highly skilled fundraising professionals who know how to inspire a culture of philanthropy from the top down in their health care organizations." said William S. Littlejohn, chair, AHP Board of Directors. "Having the right people is by far the best return on investment," Littlejohn added.

Previous benchmarking reports had continually pointed to a handful of factors that impacted total dollars raised including the fundraising expense budget, fundraising staff size, fundraising staff tenure and compensation, a focus on major gifts and the size of the health care organization (as measured by net patient service revenue, gross revenue or bed size). The two latest reports, Optimal Investment Levels in Health Care Fundraising for Chief Development Officers and Characteristics for Sustaining High Performance, confirmed these results but also highlighted the importance of the fundraising team.