Heart and soul: Community-focused fundraising after the pandemic

How one fundraiser uses innovation, empathy and efficiency to further philanthropy

In this post-pandemic environment, fundraising professionals are finding their footing again. During a time of stress, loss and confusion, charities had to flex their creative and strategic muscles to mitigate or overcome the negative impact of Covid19 on fundraising and operational goals. Now, emerging stronger, many organizations are adopting important learnings from the nerve-shredding but confidence-building pivoting they did over the last few challenging years.

“I think we've changed things quite a bit because of the pandemic,” says Ron Hogue, Director of Development at Manitoba’s Victoria Hospital Foundation. “It forced us to be a little more introspective regarding our activities as they relate to our mission.”

In his role as Director of Development, Ron has a unique vantage point in understanding the impact the pandemic has had on the Hospital’s community. In fact, understanding and empathy are at the heart of the Foundation’s innovative new programs, which Ron sees as a welcome, community-centred approach to philanthropy.

“The fallout effects of the pandemic relate to community mental health,” says Ron. “There’s something that is sort of a hidden residue, if you like, of the pandemic within our communities.” Knowing this led to the Foundation’s initiatives to educate people that this fallout is a concern and will be for some time, and to create awareness of the Foundation’s initiatives to address those effects within the Hospital’s communities.

“One of the things that was realized by the team during the pandemic is that, out in our community, there are a lot of organizations that are aligned with our mission that were really faltering because of the pandemic,” says Ron. “And it shed light on some of the inadequacies of the resources within their organizations to deal with an environment like that.”

So, responding to this new knowledge, the Foundation started to provide grant money to organizations that align with the Hospital’s mission to support them in getting through the pandemic. One form this took was to provide technology grants to community organizations for new computers to support an increased level of digital operations, which ultimately meant they could serve more people. (Added support to these agencies came from Sargent Solutions in the area of database clean-up.) Ron says that, though his team has not yet been directly fundraising for the community grant program, feedback from Foundation donors has been supportive and very encouraging.

Another innovative area the Foundation is investigating is impact investing, which can feature multiple types of investments in companies. It’s a funding program with the intention of generating a positive social or environmental impact, while earning market or below-market rates of financial returns. Ron explains that this type of investing can take the form of guarantees that secure debt and increase access to capital for organizations.

“We're looking at things like social impact bonds, for example,” says Ron. “One of Manitoba's first was a social impact bond between our Foundation and the REHFIT Centre as it related to a program called Her Heart Her Way.” This heart health prevention program, for women age 30 and older at risk of heart disease, is now underway.

Ron’s career has been characterized by customer-focused innovation. Five years ago, after 30 years in the for-profit sector – in media, television and radio commercial sales – he made the decision to move out of that space, and was very intentional about finding a role in the not-for-profit space. Landing in healthcare turned out to be a great fit, allowing him to bring experience, efficiency and fresh engagement ideas to meaningful philanthropy.

Sargent had a hand in helping Ron create efficient operations to support his organization’s innovative approach. “Sargent Solutions has given us improved clarity with respect to our knowledge of our database and has strengthened our confidence,” says Ron. “The evaluation of our database - to separate the wheat from the chaff - has reduced our number of constituent records in half. This was on the strength of an analysis of what was valuable and what wasn't in terms of the data that was in there."

And, with characteristic precision and grace, Ron explains why that’s important. “I mean, we know we can trust it. We know that what's there is now important information. I think that has really been helpful - to have somebody walk us through that process.”

https://www.thevicfoundation.ca/