Women & Infants Hospital brings almost 10,000 babies into the world each year – three-quarters of Rhode Island’s newborns, from the healthy and strong to the tiny and fragile. It cares for their mothers before and after birth, sometimes well into old age.
It’s a regional hub for women with problem pregnancies and for vulnerable infants. It’s a training site for tomorrow’s doctors, and a cutting-edge research center. And it’s a community resource, providing education and preventive care to women across the state.
So if you want to make a difference for Rhode Island families, invest in Women & Infants.
That is the pitch that the 122-year-old hospital is making as it seeks to raise $16 million for the biggest construction project in its history, a $64 million, five-story addition to its main building slated to open in 2009 (the rest of the cost will be covered by bonds and equity funds).
“People need a compelling reason to give,” said Karen A. Davie, vice president for philanthropy. “What they’re hearing from us is that we’re a leader in clinical care, research and education. … Individuals want to be associated with winning organizations.”
It’s an ambitious campaign for Women & Infants, founded in 1884 as Providence Lying-In Hospital and now the nation’s 10th-largest obstetrical facility.
The most Women & Infants has raised before was $12 million, over 10 years, to build its endowment, Davie said. For this campaign, the “quiet” phase began in December 2004, and the public kickoff will be this September. The goal, she said, is to complete the campaign within 15 to 18 months of that kickoff.
Simone P. Joyaux, a fund-raising consultant for small and large organizations across the United States – and co-founder of the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island – said that’s a tall order in this market, though “I’m not saying it can’t be done.”
The challenge, said Joyaux, who has no connection to the hospital, is to reach the right audience with a strong message. It’s not that fund-raisers are all competing for the same dollars, as people often think, she said, but there is a lot of “congestion.”
“It’s a very important distinction,” Joyaux said. Competition “assumes that everyone in the community is interested in the same stuff, and that’s not true. [But] I do think there’s enormous congestion, as in, there are lots of worthy causes asking for money, so it’s even more important than ever before … to focus on those that might be interested in your cause.”
So who is the target audience for Women & Infants?
For most hospitals, the best donors are often people personally affected by the institution’s care – cancer survivors who go on to donate to oncology programs, say, or grateful families who want to support the doctors who cared for a loved one.
Women & Infants has its share of those people, too, Davie said. But the vast majority of patients, she acknowledged, have only a brief contact with the hospital, and it’s at a time when they’re younger, just starting a family – hardly prime time for philanthropy.
Then again, that brief contact is memorable, said Anne Szostak, chair of the Women & Infants’ Development Foundation and a prominent figure in Rhode Island philanthropic circles.
“Having a baby – that’s one of those things you don’t forget,” Szostak said. If all went well, she added, “there’s nothing more joyful.” And if your baby had serious problems and the hospital provided expert and compassionate care, “you just never, ever forget that.”
Davie and Szostak also noted that even if the patients themselves aren’t ready to contribute to the hospital, often other family members will want to make a donation. At the same time, the campaign is reaching out beyond those with personal connections to Women & Infants.
That’s where the extent of the hospital’s mission and impact comes into play. A lot of people don’t know much about Women & Infants, Szostak said, so the first step to winning their support is to educate them about the hospital. They also make a broader pitch: “We’re building a healthier community and state and region,” Davie said. And while the campaign is focused on a specific building, she added, “people are making a gift to the total concept that really transcends the bricks and mortar.”
That, in turn, will have long-term benefits for the hospital, President and CEO Constance A. Howes said. Women & Infants’ operating income is too limited to support all of the hospital’s educational, research and outreach programs, she said, so fund raising is key.
“Philanthropy gives you the edge,” she said. From research on fetal development, to a van that provides preventive care in the neighborhoods – “those kinds of projects that are funded by philanthropy are crucial to what we are.”
And the current capital campaign will help strengthen Women & Infants’ fund-raising ability, Howes said, both by spreading the word about what the hospital does, and by building new relationships with donors. “People who give to capital campaigns often turn around and support on an annual basis,” she said.
As for the campaign itself, Davie wouldn’t provide any figures, but she said it’s going well. “The early results are overwhelmingly positive and have exceeded our expectations,” Davie said. “I’m thrilled.”
