Mayo Clinic got into the campaign business late, but it’s made up for lost time.
In February, the charity announced it had raised $3.76 billion during a drive whose quiet phase began in January 2010. The campaign, “You Are ... The Campaign for Mayo Clinic,” exceeded its $3 billion goal one year early.
Support came from 530,000 donors representing 99 countries and all 50 states. It fueled the opening of a medical-school campus in Scottsdale, Ariz., the expansion of one in Jacksonville, Fla., research into medical techniques that replace or help regrow damaged cells and organs, research into health-care delivery, and more.
Making the accomplishment more impressive: It was only the second sustained philanthropy campaign launched by Mayo Clinic, which was founded in 1914. And the campaign came hard on the heels of the organization’s inaugural effort, launched in 2005. That drive, designed to support operating costs, aimed to raise $1.25 billion in seven years; it raised $1.35 billion in five.
Changes loom at Mayo Clinic: Its president, Dr. John Noseworthy, who helped stabilize the organization’s finances during his seven-year tenure, has announced plans to retire at the end of 2018.
On the occasion of wrap-up of the latest campaign, Cheryl Hadaway, who became chair of the organization’s department of development in 2011 after years in other jobs at the organization, talked to the Chronicle about the secrets of the drive’s success.
First of all, congratulations on the campaign. When did you know that things were going to go as well as they did? Was there a turning point?
When we made our announcement in May 2014, we felt we were experiencing very good success with the campaign, and we were certainly seeing opportunities and that the campaign was going to accelerate toward the end of the campaign. And that, in fact, happened.
Was there any concern internally that back-to-back campaigns might result in donor fatigue? What prompted the decision to do them back to back?
An important point is that the prior campaign was the first campaign Mayo Clinic had ever had. For our benefactors, that was really new for them; it was new for the institution. As we were really seeing continued acceleration and decided to continue with that. We did consider whether there would be benefactor fatigue, but there was not.
A key point is that the funding priorities for that second campaign were launching initiatives at Mayo Clinic that would have a direct impact on patient care. And our benefactors, 85 percent of them are grateful patients. So the launching of a campaign, or continuation into a second, was inspired by the work we had accomplished and the impact on the patients of Mayo Clinic, and beyond Mayo.
You have more than half a million benefactors. Can you talk about how you went about trying to attract support that broadly?
We engage primarily with our patients. I would say our response is very similar to peer institutions. It follows that 80-20 rule (in which 80 percent of a campaign’s money comes from 20 percent of supporters). But we had great response, really, all across the continuum, with gifts of all sizes. Our patients are tremendously inspired by the care they received, and they wish to give back.
The middle of the pyramid — meaning gifts from about $100,000 to about $5 million — we were able to double the response from benefactors at that level. We doubled the number of gifts compared with the previous campaign.
You had just had a campaign in 2010. Did you add more fundraisers for the second campaign?
We started a strategy in the first campaign and continued in the second to just gradually build our team over time.
Did you have a lot of turnover after the first campaign? Sometimes people leave when one finishes.
No.
Were there any challenges with hiring for such a big campaign?
One of our strategies is the steady pace of hiring. We don’t really have a start-and-stop. We’re kind of in a constant mode of doing that activity. That’s designed intentionally. If an individual expresses interest in joining our team, we always have the opportunity to consider them. And we’re always out there looking for highly qualified individuals. That strategy has worked very well for us.
The campaign saw some very big gifts: Richard Jacobson , $100 million in 2011. Robert and Patricia Kern gave more than $67 million in 2014. Any good stories behind those gifts that you’d like to share?
Mr. Kern has a remarkable grateful-patient history with Mayo Clinic, from when he was a child. He continued his relationship with Mayo Clinic throughout his life, along with Mrs. Kern. Mrs. Kern passed on last year, sadly. But they have been exceedingly engaged grateful patients of Mayo Clinic and really saw the outcome of their generosity in terms of impact on patient care. And they have global impact on health care. They inspired us to name a Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery after them.
Mr. Kern’s an engineer, and he really understands intuitively the value of applying engineering and design concepts to health care to create a more efficient, high-quality, value-based delivery of health care. With that investment by the Kerns, Mayo Clinic was able to launch that new center that today, in less than a decade, has become a national resource for that kind of activity in health care.
Did the organization do anything new in terms of stewardship during this campaign?
Well, we have very rich history of stewardship. That’s probably the most critical part of our fundraising cycle. We probably didn’t do anything novel, but what we did was keep an aggressive pace of keeping our benefactors informed of how their gifts were being utilized and engaging them in that activity.
Meaning, for example, with the Kern Center, on an annual basis, Mr. Kern met with members of the center and was kept informed on what was happening.
We also seek their guidance and their advice. We try to keep our benefactors an active part of the gift activity.
What’s next? Is there another campaign on the horizon? Are you going to focus on retaining the folks that you’ve been able to hire during this campaign?
In terms of our staffing, we will continue to grow our staff. In terms of the campaign, no determination has really been made about that.
Dr. Noseworthy has been very clear in his communications about Mayo Clinic; it is in a very stable financial position. We’re focused on continuing the work underway, but we’re also going to be focused on some pretty aggressive capital initiatives that will require pretty significant philanthropic support.
The campaign may have ended, but there’s still a lot for us to do. We will continue just like we’re in campaign mode.
The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
