Bradley Hospital is the nation’s oldest psychiatric facility for children, founded in 1931, and every year, it admits more than 900 patients and serves countless others through home health care and outpatient visits.
As part of a major effort to expand and upgrade its campus, the hospital has launched the Uniquely Bradley: Advancing Children’s Mental Health capital campaign. Now Diane Rennie, most recently associate director in the Brown University Office of Development, has been hired to lead that campaign as Bradley’s new director of development.
Rennie, who has also been a partner with Synthesis Partnership, which advised nonprofits such as Save The Bay and the Providence Public Library, and has been an active trustee for The Wheeler School, answered questions about her new job.
PBN: You’ve worked in academia and with a range of other nonprofits, but never before in health care. How similar is fundraising across sectors?
RENNIE: The underpinning in all fundraising is the building of relationships through communication. In engaging in conversation with prospective donors, my aspiration is to learn what is important to the individual with whom I’m speaking, and to determine if there is an institutional service here at Bradley aligned with the prospective donor’s values. It is my experience that people enjoy making a difference in the lives of others through their philanthropy. My hope in this endeavor is to share with prospective donors the important and inspirational treatment and research that is taking place here at Bradley.
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PBN: Some of hospitals’ greatest benefactors are patients they’ve helped, and those patients’ families. Is that the case for Bradley as well, or does the nature of the hospital’s work make that less likely?
RENNIE: Bradley’s supporters do include grateful patients, but this constituency does not yet represent our largest donor group. … Anytime a family is in crisis and in need of emergency services, its members are doing all they can just to cope with the demands of daily life. Making the time and having the wherewithal to express gratitude in the form of a gift may be stretching many of our families’ resources. So yes, the dynamic is different.
Bradley enjoys the support of regional corporations and foundations, and of individuals who recognize that Bradley is an extraordinary, premier resource that makes our state and region a healthier, safer place for our children and families.
PBN: Bradley is a pretty old and well-established institution. How strong a philanthropic tradition does it have, and is there a solid endowment?
RENNIE: Bradley was founded and originally sustained through the philanthropy of George and Helen Bradley. Bradley supporters include some families who have given to the hospital over the decades through volunteer service and financial support.
Bradley’s endowment was formed with the original bequest of the Bradley family. As is the case with most nonprofit organizations, the larger our endowment, the more flexibility we have in fulfilling our mission through service, education and research. We are always seeking to grow our endowment; it is the lifeblood of our operations.
PBN: Tell us about the ongoing campaign. What are your fundraising goals, how far along are you, and are there specific audiences that you’re trying to reach?
RENNIE: Bradley is in the last phase of a campaign to significantly increase and modernize the hospital’s patient, visitor and research space. This includes the construction of a new, state-of-the-art inpatient building, which opened this spring and is, without question, one of the finest children’s mental health facilities in the world. Overall, we are more than halfway through this campus-wide revitalization, and next steps include the renovation of existing space throughout the hospital. We have raised $5.5 million toward our $7.5 million goal, a tremendous achievement.
Our target audience would be anyone who is concerned about the health and well-being of our children and families. Our new inpatient facility provides dignity and respect to the treatment process. It gives families comfortable and private surroundings in which to confer with the medical staff and spend time with their children. It is bright, open, well-designed and provides parents with the assurance that their children are in a safe and caring place. I would be delighted to show this facility to anyone who is interested.
PBN: Do you have strong corporate and institutional benefactors, and do you see a greater potential for Rhode Island businesses to support Bradley?
RENNIE: Bradley already has very strong relationships with state and regional corporations and foundations. We work hard to demonstrate how their grants support their mission – and ours. Businesses that value the health and safety of our region’s children would find that Bradley is an important and worthy recipient for their support. Bradley turns no child in need away and is often the last stop for desperate families.
One way corporations and local businesses can support our hospital is through our signature event, the Garden of Hope fundraiser, which is coming up on Sept. 17 at the Botanical Gardens in Roger Williams Park. [For more information, go to www.bradleyhospital.org]
