The digital space is growing rapidly each year. But many hospital foundations have been slow to adapt, leaving engagement opportunities, new audiences, and donations on the table.
In an effort to better understand how healthcare non-profits use digital platforms to engage with their patients, communities and donors, we surveyed 83 leading non-profit hospital foundations, spanning academic, specialty and community-based systems across the country.
Benchmarks were developed from data sourced from 27 hospitals and hospital systems. The data used was validated and standardized by Digital Health Strategies and only includes revenue that has come from e-mail, website, and solicitation campaigns. Efforts from events and employee giving are excluded.
Here’s what we learned:
Key Takeaways
Digital fundraising is a top priority
62% of hospital foundations say that increasing digital revenue is one of their top priorities.
Foundations need an email and direct mail integration strategy
Nearly half (48%) of respondents still rely on direct mail for their greatest donor revenue. 21% don’t have an integrated digital and direct mail strategy at all, and less than 50% coordinate their email and direct mail sends.
Digital resources are necessary for success
65% of foundations do not have a dedicated digital fundraising staff.
Foundations want to digitize their grateful patient programs
65% of foundations don’t have a digital grateful patient program in place.
Optimized email programs can drastically improve results
Of foundations that regularly send emails, less than ¼ engage clinical leadership as senders, ⅕ don’t segment their audiences and nearly ½ have never performed email testing.
Hospital Foundation Digital Fundraising Benchmarks
2020 was a transformative year for non-profits, especially those involved in the COVID-19 response.
Data sourced from 27 hospitals shows that online donors were more willing to support healthcare this year than nearly any other industry.
Year-over-year online giving growth
Non-profit hospitals saw an average 204% increase in digital revenue from 2019 to 2020. This was higher than the average growth across most non-profit industries.
Average online donation
The average online donor contributed $338 to non-profit hospitals in 2020.
Fundraising email open rate and click rate
Non-profit hospitals saw an average open rate of 19.66% and a click rate of 1.97%.
Email list growth
Non-profit hospitals had a 40% increase in their email list growth from 2019 to 2020.
Full survey results
We heard from 83 non-profit hospital foundations in 4 countries and 31 states.
Here’s what they said:
1. What database platform do you use
to track your online fundraising?
2. What platform do you use
to send fundraising and other marketing emails?
3. Does your Foundation have its own website?
By integrating a digital fundraising program with an optimized foundation website, one non-profit health system was able to increase traffic to their website by 30% in 2020.
4. Do you perform data screening on your donors and donor prospects?
5. What types of data screening do you perform?
The power of data
By customizing giving levels on donation pages and optimizing campaign landing pages, one non-profit saw a 137% growth in high-dollar (over $1000) online donations
6. How frequently do you screen your constituent files?
7. What types of communication do you use email for?
8. How many fundraising solicitation emails
do you send on average each month?
9. How many non-solicitation/stewardship emails
do you send on average each month?
10. When you send an email to your constituents,
which of the following senders do you use?
11. What type of segmentation do you use
for your email communication?
12. How do you determine who receives email communications
and who receives direct mail communications?
13. What communication channel brings in
the most revenue for your Foundation?
14. In the past 12 months, how frequently have you
conducted tests as a part of your email program?
By varying senders between foundation leadership and clinical physician senders, a non-profit hospital saw a 79% increase in email opens during their 2020 end-of-year solicitation campaign.
15. Which of the following solicitation campaigns
do you run each year?
Digital engagement means versatility
As COVID-19 caused in-person fundraisers and events to be canceled in 2020, one non-profit health system used the power of online engagement to raise $650,000 for COVID response and their greatest needs.
16. Do you have a digital grateful patient program in place?
17. Do you have full-time, dedicated digital fundraising staff?
18. Do you work with your marketing and/or human resources
departments to coordinate communications
and outreach to prospects and donors?
19. What are the top three priorities for your Foundation
over the next 12 months?
Small steps can lead to big results
After implementing an online fundraising and Honor Your Caregiver grateful patient program, one regional health system successfully converted an online lead from a first-time digital donation into a 7-figure donor in less than 6 months.
Methodology and Participants
Survey Participants
This survey was sent to members of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy. The results from that survey, compiled with data from the work of Digital Health Strategies, were used to develop this report. Survey responses from 83 participants are included in this report. 63 are based in the United States, and 20 are international. These organizations span from small, community-based hospitals, to large inter-state hospital networks.
Geographic presence of survey participants
34
urban
communities serving a principal city
of a metropolitan area
33
suburban
communities serving within a metropolitan
or micropolitan area
16
rural
communities outside of a
metropolitan area
Size of survey participant hospitals
15
small
hospitals <100 beds
30
medium
hospitals 100-499 beds
38
large
hospitals 500+ beds
Benchmarking Participants
Benchmarks were developed from data sourced from 27 hospitals and hospital systems. The data used was validated and standardized by Digital Health Strategies and only includes revenue that has come from e-mail, website, and solicitation campaigns. Efforts from events and employee giving are excluded. All participants are based in the United States. The participating organizations span from small, community-based hospitals, to large inter-state hospital networks.
Geographic presence of benchmarking participants
5
urban communities
serving a principal city of a metropolitan area
12
suburban communities
serving within a metropolitan or micropolitan area
10
rural communities
outside of a metropolitan area
Size of benchmarking participant hospitals
11
small
hospitals <100 beds
13
medium
hospitals 100-499 beds
3
large
hospitals 500+ beds
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