Recession Leaves Its Mark on Hospital Fund Raising
12/28/2009
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Holly Hall
In a sign of how the recession is changing giving patterns, hospitals say more donors are making long-term pledges and fewer are making outright cash gifts, according to a new survey of 58 hospitals conducted by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.
The study found a 14 percent decrease in cash gifts last year and a 5 percent increase in pledges, bequests, and other future giving commitments.
The study also showed that charities worked hard to get those cash gifts. For every dollar spent on fund raising, the hospitals collected $3.92 in cash gifts, down from $4.53 in 2007 before the economy soured. But when pledges and other commitments were taken into account, the hospitals saw returns go up from each dollar spent on fund raising, from $4.48 in 2007 to $4.63 last year.
Grants from foundations rose by 4 percent, to an average of $52,000. And, although less than a quarter of the hospitals in the survey pursued government funds, grants from local, state, and federal governments increased by 6 percent to an average of $268,000.
But gifts from corporations and individual donors to hospitals in the study, which accounted for more than half of all donations, declined by 2 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Gifts from physicians employed by the hospitals and auxiliary groups also declined.
Another sign of the grim economy: The number of hospitals in the study that reported operating in the red last year more than doubled from 2007 figures. Their negative revenues, the study said, “are a product of decreasing government reimbursement, losses in investment income, escalating costs, lower insurance payments, and patients who are unable to pay for the most basic of health-care services in this challenging economy.”