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AHP Pacific Regional News
I am truly honored to serve for a second year as regional director for the AHP Pacific region! We have an active 20-member AHP Pacific cabinet that meets on a regular basis to represent you well in 2008. We look forward to your suggestions and recommendations. The AHP Pacific region is committed to member education. Our regional conference in Portland, Oregon, June 22-24, focuses on “Summit to success: Trekking toward the best practices in health care philanthropy.” The conference chair is Susan Blake and the education chair is John Korb, CFRE. The 2008 AHP Annual Fund solicitation kicks off soon under the leadership of Mary Jane Crist, CFRE. Last year the AHP Pacific region raised $26,334 from 200 donors, the second highest dollar total of any region! Please be generous – your gift makes a difference, supporting scholarships to AHP Pacific region members and the AHP Resource Information Center services, where you can get your health care philanthropy questions answered. With an ever-increasing demand for professional, ethical fundraisers, I am pleased to tell you that membership at AHP continues to grow with 4,638 members as of December 31, 2007, and 820 AHP Pacific region members. Gina Griesman is launching our 2008 membership drive. Please thoughtfully consider your colleagues who are not members but should be, and contact Gina with any referrals. Dena Cochran, FAHP, is eager to assist you if you need guidance in applying for the CFRE or FAHP. She has many resources and can answer any questions you might have, including identifying mentors to help you through the process. Marite Butners, JD, LLM-TAX, is staying on top of policy issues affecting our work. To get involved in this strategic area that influences all of us, please call Marite. She would especially like to hear from members who have recently talked with elected officials and have information that could be shared. The AHP Pacific Region earned kudos in 2007 for producing more e-newsletters than any other AHP region, and the high praise all goes to Mark McCampbell, CFRE. If you have newsletter contributions, please send them to Mark, who again chairs this effort in 2008. To bring AHP closer to home, each state in the AHP Pacific Region has a regional representative. Call your state representative for more information or to volunteer. Your cabinet looks forward to serving you this year. Please feel free to call or e-mail me or our regional director-elect, Bill Littlejohn, who will take his new position with the AHP Pacific Region at the AHP International Conference this fall. The cabinet and I look forward to seeing you in Portland! Mary Anne Chern, FAHP, ACFRE
By Susan Blake, AHP Pacific Regional Conference Chair
Are you looking for opportunities to increase your fundraising effectiveness? Is professional development included among your personal goals for the New Year? Then mark yourself "out of the office" June 22-24 and make reservations to attend the 2008 AHP Pacific Regional Conference in Portland, Oregon! Here are just a few reasons why attending the conference will be a good use of your time and a solid investment for your organization:
Be sure to watch your mailbox for conference materials, including a unique-to-Oregon social event! Susan Blake
AHP Foundation 2008 scholarship deadline: February 22 Don't let budget constraints keep you from participating in AHP's education programs in 2008! The AHP Foundation will be awarding eight $2000 scholarships this year to be used for attendance at either the AHP Institute for Healthcare Philanthropy in Madison, Wisconsin (July 12-17, 2008) or the AHP International Conference in Chicago, Illinois (September 24-28, 2008). The deadline for submitting your online application is February 22. Learn More on the AHP Web site.
AHP 2007 Annual Fund - Final results By Mary Jane Crist, AHP Pacific Regional Foundation Chair The final results are in! The AHP Pacific region had 200 donors pledge $26,334 to the 2007 AHP Annual Fund. That puts us at 100% of our 200 donor goal, and 105% of our dollar goal of $25,000. Thank you to everyone that pledged and to those who made gifts at the AHP International Conference in Philadelphia to put us over goal. For 2008, the goals will remain the same. The idea is to beat them by at least 25%. More information will be coming soon. As you plan for your 2008 contributions be sure to include the AHP Annual Fund. It is the lifeblood of our connectivity and education through AHP. Thanks to everyone who has participated. Mary Jane Crist
Government Relations updates: Redesigned IRS Form 990 By Marite M. Butners, J.D. LLM-TAX, AHP Pacific Regional Government Affairs Chair Redesigned IRS Form 990 released The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released in late 2007 the redesigned Form 990 that will be applicable to information related to tax year 2008 (filed in 2009). The revised form and related information can be found on the IRS Web site. The revised form did not incorporate some earlier proposed changes, such as fundraising ratios on the main form, but does ask for significantly more information. Changes include a summary page of the organization's revenues, expenses, net balances (now to be expressed in a two year format), its governance and activities, as well as a description of its program services. IRA Charitable Rollover As most charities are aware, the tax benefits for donor's 70.5 or older, donating from their IRAs to qualified charities expired on December 31,2007 as Congress failed to pass the extension legislation before the close of the year. It is anticipated that Congress will again take up this legislation early in 2008 with the possibility that it would be made retroactive to January 1, 2008. Marite M. Butners, J.D. LLM-TAX
The AHP Resource Information Center (RIC) needs your help! AHP is looking for updated and current samples for the AHP RIC Online Library in the following areas:
Please send your samples to becky@ahp.org . Thanks!
By Mark McCampbell, CFRE, AHP Pacific Regional RIC/Communications Chair This begins a new series that looks at several components the health care philanthropy fundraising professional needs to review in the coming year to assure optimal success and achievement of goals. January - A new year, fresh start, goal setting, daylight hours are getting longer and, the annual exam. Yes, even health care fundraisers must be real about walking the talk. If we’re going to promote health, we need to be healthy. To find out what kind of health you’re in you need to go through the annual exam. (Note: Just as there are things you don’t say in the security line at the airport, certain words should be avoided during your exam, such as “chest pain” and “breathing” unless you want to spend several weeks in follow up with specialists.) While the physical exam is a must, fundraising professionals might benefit from undergoing a philanthropy exam as well. The start of a new year affords opportunity for a close examination of your “fundraising” health. This isn’t about New Year resolutions and it is something different from goals. This check-up is designed as a self-assessment to see if you’re ready to take off on another year in health care philanthropy. Experience – The first check point in this exam is to look at your experience. Do you have what it takes to achieve the goals and tasks you’re about to undertake? Before entering a lengthy training period for a marathon or triathlon, athletes are advised to have a thorough medical exam to be sure they can bear the rigors of the training and be in good health. Before undertaking a significantly larger goal, such as a capital or endowment campaign, launching a new online fundraising effort, or tackling a new event, fundraising professionals must audit their personal experience level as well as the experience of their staff and volunteers. For example, if you have a $25 million campaign coming up in your plans, and you have managed campaigns of $3 million to $5 million in the past, you may be short on experience required to execute a campaign that could involve more complex gift arrangements, longer pledge periods, multiple levels of leadership giving and many more volunteers. While you may not be in a position to gain such necessary experience personally, your assessment may lead you to a decision to hire specialized campaign staff or consultants to assist in this effort. Identifying and recruiting experienced staff is challenging in our current climate. While it has become popular in recent years to move outside the fundraising profession to fill key leadership roles in non-profit development, there are nuances to the art of fundraising that may not exist in other industries. At the end of 2007 one organization shared that their effort to find the right person to lead the philanthropic effort forward had been fruitless. After three attempts with individuals who did not have a professional fundraising background, the executive team was hesitant to make another hiring mistake, fearing that the already weary crew might give up the ship. Unless you are in a rare market that is flooded with candidates, you may want to consider engaging an executive search firm to assist in the process. Listing your position on the AHP Job Center allows people all over the world to consider your organization as a possible target for the next career move. Campaign consultants offer experience in a wide variety of fundraising settings. Many firms tout decades of combined experience among their competent staff. Often, larger consulting firms are comprised of senior development professionals who have perfected their craft after years of hands on development leadership. If you sense that the challenges of your strategic and tactical plans for 2008 may require more experience than you bring in any specific area, investigate consulting firms that may be helpful to you in planning and executing your plan. An overlooked but valuable asset to membership in AHP is the network it provides with thousands of fundraising professionals engaged daily in health care philanthropy. If your annual exam has you looking for more experience, an effective and free source of insight, advice, support and affirmation is available to you through our association. Other important check points for your annual exam include professional growth, leadership ability, spirit of philanthropy, ethics and best practices, and relationships. Stay tuned throughout 2008 for continued installments in the “Annual Exam” series. Here’s to a healthy start to your fundraising year! Mark S. McCampbell, CFRE
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