Children’s Hospitals: Look No Further for a Sustainable Revenue Source

Children’s Hospital Foundations face several fundraising challenges:

1. Funding from hospitals to their foundations has dropped because of the hospitals’ steep decline in revenue during the pandemic.
2. Many foundations rely heavily on event revenue. Events aren’t possible right now, and may not be anytime soon. Virtual versions aren’t raising the same funds. 
3. Foundations have had to reduce staff, leaving fewer people to manage fundraising.

When so many arrows are pointing down, Children’s Hospitals need a durable, scalable, sustainable revenue source they can rely on. Those who have a professionally managed direct mail donor acquisition and cultivation program have it.   

Nationally, 2020’s year-to-date direct mail revenue trends prove it. Campaign performances for TrueSense Marketing’s Children’s Hospitals and other health/child-related charity clients show the same. Most of our Children’s Hospitals’ donor cultivation revenue has increased between 10 – 26% YTD. 

Direct mail giving has a long history of endurance, through economic busts, major change, and, yes, even through disasters. It offers the predictability that fundraisers and finance managers love. It doesn’t consume staff time, and it’s easy to manage from anywhere.

So why aren’t ALL Children’s Hospitals taking advantage of their direct mail opportunity? The reasons could be many. We’ve learned that some hospitals simply haven’t had the experience of seeing the massive difference in value between a true managed direct mail program and the occasional in-house mailings that they send to existing database names. They may have tried converting grateful families into donors without professional guidance on the precise timing and tactics, and abandoned the strategy as unsuccessful. 

Over the years, we’ve talked with countless CEOs, board members, and Development Directors of regional charities. Ultimately, it is through seeing our detailed plan and the data-backed, multi-year revenue projections we provide that these nonprofit leaders realize the potential.   

If your Children’s Hospital has not recently explored direct mail fundraising with an agency, know that there has never been a better time to do so.  

You’ll see that the collective giving — of relatively small amounts, by many thousands of individuals, that regenerates itself year after year after year, and does not require personal interaction — is the type of funding diversification that pays dividends for a lifetime. Now is the time to take the leap into new fundraising strategies! And with direct mail, there is a nice, soft, safe landing cushioned by some of the most loyal donors you’ve never met.