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At UW Medicine, an integrated learning health system that is part of the University of Washington, philanthropic support is an integral part of academic medicine and vital to advancing our mission to improve the health of the public. Our donors are motivated by many reasons to give, from gratitude for the care they’ve received, to loyalty to the institution, a desire to support research or education, or a passion for improving access to expert patient care services.

As our advancement team assessed the significant potential prospect pipeline for our health care system, we identified the need to create a plan to harness its vast capacity. To address this challenge, we focused on enhancing our partnerships with our faculty. They serve as the front door to UW Medicine and can connect us with potential prospects who have an interest in making a gift.

In 2020, we launched Engage: Advancing Care Through Philanthropy (“Engage”), a program to increase our philanthropic pipeline and impact​ by providing resources, training, and coaching for frontline fundraisers and faculty. We specifically seek out faculty partners who demonstrate a desire to learn about philanthropy and a willingness to partner with our advancement team. To enhance existing faculty partnerships and empower new faculty to participate in the donor engagement process, we are focusing on several key strategies.

Defining Faculty’s Role in Engaging Donors

Engage strives to meet faculty where they are in terms of their interest, time and desire to engage in donor cultivation. We offer structured workshops and coaching in partnership with a third-party consultant. The trainings help define a collaborative, repeatable fundraising process that involves fundraisers and their faculty partners. The trainings also help demystify fundraising mechanisms and define faculty’s role in donor cultivation and solicitation — reassuring faculty that their role is not to assess a prospect’s philanthropic capacity or make an ask, but instead to listen for expressions of gratitude or interest in supporting their work. Faculty learn to provide a referral or warm handoff to our advancement team, who can more formally assess the prospect’s motivations and intentions.

Creating Compelling Communications and Effective Interactions With Prospects

The advancement team partners closely with faculty to help prioritize connections and outreach. Faculty are uniquely equipped to describe the impact of their work and case for support — and acknowledge the trust that potential prospects have placed in the healthcare system. Whether it’s a one-on-one interaction, a lab tour, a webinar or sending a lead communication to invite a prospect to contact advancement. Faculty members play a crucial role in generating compelling communications and optimizing outreach to our prospects.

Supporting Frontline Fundraisers

Each of our frontline fundraisers receives support from the Engage program through regular staffing meetings. Our team provides one-on-one opportunities for each fundraiser to ask questions, share challenges, and refine strategies for engaging their faculty member and cultivating potential prospects.

The trainings offered by our consultant help reinforce the fundraiser’s role as a fundraising expert. The fundraiser is more than just a partner with their faculty member — they are the leader in developing a prospect strategy and guiding the fundraising work. Fundraisers learn to set expectations with faculty by helping them understand the often lengthy donor cultivation process and how the faculty’s knowledge and expertise in medicine can help motivate and inspire prospects.

Developing Faculty Champions Who Can Speak to the Value of Partnering With Advancement

Our program encourages faculty and departments/divisions to learn more about philanthropy and the vital role it plays in our health care system. Our fundraisers promote awareness by offering introductory presentations at department and division meetings, and our faculty share successes with their peers. As a result, faculty often self-identify as willing advancement partners.

Outcomes

Engage has proven to increase skills, comfort and confidence among participants and has increased fundraising efficiency and effectiveness. In the first 12 months of our program, five fundraiser-faculty pairs generated significant major gifts as a direct result of their participation in Engage.

Participants have also shared feedback about how Engage has enhanced their knowledge and confidence in understanding the prospect pipeline and fundraising work:

"Exceedingly helpful at meeting us where we were. I have more clarity and confidence in how to move forward."

“The conversation made us feel like we were equal, active partners in this work.”

"Engage has helped clarify the best strategies and techniques for reaching out to patient populations and building better relationships with our clinicians."​

“It gave me more clarity on my faculty’s thought process and brought new perspective to things that we’ve been hashing out for a long time.”

As we grow and adapt Engage, our focus remains on partnering with faculty to serve as the important connection to our pipeline, as well as continuing to support our fundraisers and position them as collaborative, expert partners with their faculty. These partnerships will create more opportunities for our prospects to express their gratitude by making gifts that advance the needs and missions of our institution. By demonstrating success and demystifying the advancement process, Engage will continue to create a meaningful way for faculty to successfully partner with advancement and ultimately lead to more philanthropic support.