The most dangerous number in a healthcare campaign is the one announced too early. Set the goal before the lead gifts come in, and a campaign that raises $80 million can look like a failure, or one that could have raised $100 million settles for less.
GOBEL campaign consultants Howard Siegel, Denise Pope and Al O’Keefe have spent decades on healthcare campaigns, from a $500,000 rural hospital to a $1 billion health system campaign. We sat down with them to peek into their playbooks, find out what set’s campaigns up for success, and dig into the common mistakes many organizations still make today.
Don’t announce your goal yet
Many campaigns go wrong before anyone makes an ask. It happens when leadership commits to a goal before knowing what its donors can actually give.
“A common mistake is when leadership sets a goal before they really understand what is realistic.”
Denise Pope, CFRE, Vice President, GOBEL
Even a well-researched number can hurt you if it goes public too soon. A planning study typically produces a potential range, rather than an exact fundraising goal, since it measures the potential, interest, capacity and likelihood of giving among your most important prospects. For example, your study may indicate the gross fundraising potential of $80M to $100M. If you swing for the fences and announce your goal at the top end of the range before securing your lead gifts or establishing multiple pathways to achieve it, you run the risk of underperforming. Suddenly, raising $80M looks like a failure when it was always within range of the potential. Conversely, undervaluing your overall goal or your individual asks can set a low bar and send a message to your donors that minimizes the role of philanthropy and therefore lowers sights as to what is needed. Strong campaign leaders will use the intelligence and insight from the campaign study to stretch goals, building in intermediate milestones to celebrate before extending the goals and striving for more.
Taking that logic one step further, GOBEL consultants often recommend allowing the quiet phase of your campaign to validate the range and help crystallize the goal before you truly set the final number and announce it publicly. Ask early donors to consider gifts in the context of the overall cost of your vision, not a premature fundraising target, and base the goal on the leadership gift results.
“It’s a handful of gifts that determine the magnitude of your campaign. And it would be really ill-advised to set your goal before you know what those top five or 10 donors have committed.”
Al O’Keefe, Senior Vice President, Campaign Practice Leader, GOBEL
Howard works the same way, with a working objective for the quiet phase and no public number until all leadership gift prospects have been exhausted. Those first asks matter more than any others. “Often folks don’t shoot high enough with their first few asks,” he says. “The early gifts can set the pace for the whole campaign.”
Done properly, the process can surprise leadership in the other direction. “Sometimes you come up with a number greater than you thought you were going to have the capacity to raise,” Denise says.
The planning study is the blueprint, not a formality
All three named planning as the single most important step. Organizations that skip it rarely save time.
” Many organizations struggle when they decide to skip the planning study and jump right into the campaign because they need to raise the money. Inevitably, they’re going to hit a wall or two along the way.”
Al O’Keefe
GOBEL’s studies rest on 50 or more one-on-one interviews with a cross-section of individuals and come away with real names, gift amounts and approach strategies, “as opposed to just conjecture from … how many billionaires there are in your service area,” Howard says. Eager prospects don’t wait for the final report: “With the interviewees’ permission, we share key information with the client, such as this one’s eager and ready. No reason to wait for the results. Let’s start the dialogue.”
Gratitude beats wealth
Early in her career, Denise sat around tables with foundation volunteers leaders discussing who the wealthiest people in town were and how could they to convince them to give to their organization. .
“Healthcare philanthropy is not about financial capacity. Philanthropy is about gratitude.”
Denise Pope
Someone can be enormously wealthy and have no connection to your institution. But when a caregiver treats you with compassion during one of the hardest moments of your life, Denise says, “even if you don’t have a lot, you might be willing to give everything you have to say thank you.”
Howard sees the same thing in how campaigns are actually funded. Roughly 80% of the goal comes in during the quiet phase, and it comes from people who already know you.
“Your lead gift phase prospects are your family; people you already know. It’s all about relationships.”
Howard Siegel, Vice President, Campaigns, GOBEL
Yet many hospitals still hesitate to approach the patients and families they serve. “People got spooked by HIPAA and they just said ‘hands off’,” Howard says. That’s a missed opportunity. Some of those families have capacity, and many have networks of people who care about the mission.
Data helps find them. Gratify, GOBEL’s grateful patient intelligence platform, surfaces what Denise calls “high affinity prospects that are in our patient population that aren’t necessarily in our donor database.” But the gift still comes from the relationship.
The biggest barrier is fear of “no”
Ask Al what holds campaigns back and he doesn’t mention strategy.
“What many CEOs, what many chief development officers, what many board members are afraid of is hearing that word no. … You might ask three people and two might say no, but that one might make the difference.”
Al O’Keefe
The fear often shows up as prejudging: assuming a donor will decline because the last one did. “You can’t prejudge conversations,” Al says. “Everyone’s different.” And not asking is a decision too: “If you don’t ask, somebody else is going to be asking and they’re going to give somewhere else.”
Confidence comes from preparation, and each consultant has a shorthand for it. Al tells campaign staff and leadership to be ready for three questions: Why your organization (Differentiation)? Why now (Urgency)? Why do you need so much money? (Impact of philanthropy)? Howard’s is three words: “Case, prospects, leadership. Whenever there’s a compelling case, sufficient prospect base and motivated leaders you have the recipe for success.” Denise’s is to spend time with your doctors and nurses until you understand, and can articulate, the clinical impact.
“You’re not just there to broker a transaction. You’re there to save and change lives.”
Denise Pope
Common questions about healthcare campaign planning
When should a hospital announce its campaign goal?
After the lead gift phase. Setting the public goal from confirmed gifts by your top prospects, not from a planning study’s projection, avoids both a public shortfall and a goal set too low.
What does a campaign planning study include?
One-on-one interviews with leaders and prospects, plus a review of the case for support, donor capacity, staff bandwidth and volunteer leadership. The result is a range of potential and a list of named lead gift prospects.
Should hospitals ask grateful patients to support a campaign?
Yes. Grateful patients and families are often among a hospital’s most motivated donors, and HIPAA allows fundraising outreach to patients when organizations follow its rules, including offering an opt-out.
GOBEL provides campaign planning studies, campaign counsel and grateful patient intelligence for hospitals, health systems and academic medical centers. Learn how a campaign planning study can provide a blueprint for success, a campaign readiness assessment shows what your organization can support, explore Gratify, or connect with our team before you set your next goal.
