5 Benefits of Giving Days for Hospital Foundations
Hospital fundraising is getting more attention following the COVID-19 pandemic and with good reason. With the increased need for expensive medical equipment like respirators and the decline of elective surgeries, hospitals throughout the United States are struggling.
“Healthcare Philanthropy has Never Been More Important” – Alice Ayres, chief executive of the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy
Emergency relief funds have been established for many hospitals, and while they have helped bring in some extra revenue, it still may not be enough. According to Inside Philanthropy, “As the pandemic rages on, it’s still not clear how hospital fundraising will ultimately fare, or if a surge in donations is enough to offset lost revenues at these organizations.”
Unlike these emergency funds, Giving Days are a solution that goes beyond crisis relief by getting to the heart of a hospital’s mission, elevating awareness, engagement, and support unlike any other form of fundraising available today.
Let’s take a closer look at the five primary benefits of Giving Days for hospitals.
1. Engage Your Greater Community
Your hospital plays an integral role in keeping everyone in your community safe and healthy. To local residents, your hospital isn’t just made up of patients, nurses, and staff, but of family members, coworkers, and neighbors. Everyone in your community is familiar with the work you do to some capacity, making it especially important that you actively engage and provide ways to give back during times of increased need.
Imagine reaching your community wherever they are online to increase awareness about the great work you’re doing. A virtual Giving Day event creates this opportunity! The GiveGab Giving Day platform is designed to engage visitors on the site in multiple ways, making their giving experience enjoyable.
For their first Giving Day, Cayuga Health System showcased 47 pre-recorded videos to stream 24 hours worth of content. This kept their supporters coming back to the Giving Day site to watch and share the videos with their peers through their social networks.
2. Reach More New Donors
Unlike a gala or other in-person event, a Giving Day has zero barriers to entry for new supporters. It costs nothing to visit the Giving Day site, learn more about the cause, and make a donation. Giving Days are also more readily accessible to more people because they can be found on any digital device anywhere in the world and any donation size is accepted.
For example, Cayuga Health System’s Giving Day was launched in June of 2020 to help supplement the funds they typically would expect from their two annual galas that had to be canceled because of COVID-19. Through engaging their network of supporters and recruiting peer-to-peer fundraisers, the Cayuga Health team reached 42 new donors!
“Utilizing Peer-to-Peer Fundraising for our Giving Day not only allowed us to engage key stakeholders such as our Board of Directors, Physicians, and Hospital Staff, it allowed us to greatly expand the reach of our cause far beyond expectations. Our mission came directly from those who care the most – those having a personal and direct interest in our success.“ – Tiffany Bloss, Director of the Schuyler Health Foundation
3. Promote Equity Among Departments & Donors
Giving Days offer a space to represent various departments, funds, or cause areas equally. While one of your departments may be the most popular, a Giving Day allows you to showcase all of your departments on the same stage, bringing heightened awareness to each of them.
Unlike in-person fundraising events, donors are also equally represented regardless of their gift size. A supporter who gives $100 shows up on the same donor feed as someone who gives $5,000, so everyone can feel as though they’ve made a difference toward the Giving Day effort.
Because engagement and giving are encouraged at every level across various departments, this results in more gifts from more new donors to more areas that need support.
4. Spend Less and Raise More
Compared to your typical in-person fundraising event, a Giving Day will likely cost you thousands less and help you raise thousands more. The majority of people working at GiveGab have prior or current experience working directly within the nonprofit fundraising space, which means we have a deep understanding of the type of strain it can put on an organization to host an in-person event. It often takes months of coordinating with high operational costs, such as catering and venues.
With a Giving Day, you bypass the typical costs of planning an in-person event and focus on your marketing efforts to spread the word and tell your story.
Take the example from Cayuga Health System’s Giving Day, where they raised $33,000 more from their very first Giving Day than what they brought in from their two annual galas combined while spending a fraction to make it work.
5. Streamline Donor Stewardship
Giving Days allow you to segment your donors within the donation flow by providing custom prompts for ways your donors can define themselves. As with Cayuga Health, they were able to segment their donors based on whether or not they self-identified as “Grateful Patient or Family Member” on the donation form.
This allows you to more effectively understand and steward your donors as you can tailor communications based on the segment they fall under. What kind of information would be useful to track regarding your own donors and supporters? How could you use this information to make informed decisions about your outreach strategies?
Your hospital is leading the fight against COVID-19 in your community. The pandemic has shifted the way that your hospital operates and how it is able to raise funds and engage with donors. Through a Giving Day, you can bring your donors, supporters, and community members together to rally behind your critical mission and foster a community that cares.
Discover how a Giving Day can help you maximize awareness, engagement, and donations!
