The biggest lessons I’ve learned developing Grateful Patient Programmes

I’ve been developing an approach to Grateful Patient Fundraising in the UK since 2017. Here are the Top 5 lessons I’ve learned:

1. Get the right endorsements

You will get nowhere with your GPP unless both your Trustees and your Hospital Thought Leaders are on board. You need your Trustees to endorse your approach to the hospital board - to instil confidence and trust. This is not the idea of a “sole fundraiser”, this is the new strategic direction of the charity and it should be taken seriously. It’s important to win over your Hospital leadership team but more importantly you need to win over your Thought Leaders. Who are those people in the hospital that staff gravitate towards and listen to - not necessarily those at the highest level - this is not about job title. This might be a Matron, a Doctor, a Director of Operations - someone people relate to and like.

2. The success of your Grateful Patient Programme relies heavily on relationships so you need the right people in your team

I read a brilliant white paper in 2017, produced by the team behind the Commission on the Donor Experience which talked about how to recruit the right people as fundraisers, This resonated with me and became my recruitment checklist for new team members.  Read the Top 10 skills of the best fundraisers here. Your team will need to foster excellent relationships with your hospital staff. They will need a quasi-major donor approach; people focused on the hospital’s interests, able to build a rapport, feel accountable for delivering and to present a professional face of the charity. They must also be able to say “No”. All of my best fundraisers are able to say no - and for your GPP to be effective this is very important. Where our programme didn’t work is where fundraisers were kind and friendly but were not able to handle negative feedback (of which there can be a lot!)

3. A Grateful Patient Programme is the best way to increase unrestricted income

As Director of Fundraising, I’ve had many conversations with Trustees about the easiest way to increase unrestricted donations. Unrestricted income is vital for charities’ longevity but unless you have a clear purpose for your unrestricted proposition, it’s very hard to fundraise for. When introducing a GPP, you can talk to patients on a macro-level about “supporting your hospital’ - any many will - but you will need to accept that many will want to restrict their donation to the ward / department that they have benefitted from. However, the key to boosting unrestricted income is to upgrade donors to support unrestricted after their first donation. It is much easier to do after the first “gratitude’ gift, once you have proved the impact they’ve had, thanked them, and thanked them again - you can upgrade the thousands of donors you recruit from your GPP to start giving in an unrestricted way. Our policy was always - first gift to the department and then make and unrestricted ask, which worked rather well.

4. A Grateful Patient Programme is the easiest way to grow your charity database

I’ve met so many small charities who have had small databases. Everyone starts somewhere! Acquisition, particularly cold acquisition is very expensive, time-consuming and attrition rates are high. Eg By cold acquisition I mean - going out to recruit new donors outside of your hospital - talking to the general public. However if you focus on warm acquisition - recruiting your patients to help you - your cost per acquisition is MUCH cheaper, your donors will be more loyal because of their emotional connection to your cause (it’s personal to them), and you will find it easier to grow your database. We doubled the size of our database, thanks in no small part to our GPP programme. Acquisition should be the second most important strategic priority on your to do list.

5. Your biggest growth will come from Community and Individual Giving first. Major Gifts will take time.

I was absolutely convinced that our GPP programme would spike our income because there were thousands of major donors walking around our campus every day. I pinned all my hopes on unearthing these hidden gems. We have indeed had clinicians refer major donor prospects - we have seen a huge uptick in first gifts of £10k from first-time grateful patient donors, and we have had a grateful patient referral worth seven-figures. However this part of the programme takes time to mature. The hidden gems were in fact the individual donors making cash gifts and setting up direct debits. And the community fundraisers who have thronged to help our charity. Focusing on recruiting big numbers of smaller givers will give you the best return for your programme and trust that major donor referrals will come - but they rely on YOU building trust with clinicians over time.

‘I enjoyed working with Gemma because she looked after my patients in the way I wanted them to be looked after” -Mr S, Prostate Surgeon

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