Community Health Network Foundation works to raise financial support for Community Health Network, a nonprofit health system providing care through more than 200 sites and hundreds of physicians throughout Central Indiana.

After completing a Breakthrough Fundraising exercise to explore their barriers to success, Community Health Network Foundation worked with Allegiance Group + Pursuant to develop a multichannel campaign that achieved transformational results.

The Challenge

Like many regional healthcare foundations, Community relied heavily on donations from employees and constituents in their area. However as the fundraising landscape has evolved, the foundation began experiencing new challenges around acquiring, retaining, and upgrading donors in an intentional way.

The Solution

Allegiance Group + Pursuant worked closely with key leaders at Community in a Breakthrough Fundraising exercise to explore their barriers to success. As part of the exercise, the leadership at Community faced some of the “brutal facts” and started thinking about a breakthrough outcome. Community began to think about new ways they could find and prioritize mid-level and major donors for upgrade. They considered how to leverage their internal resources better and planned special events to maximize their year-end efforts. The exercise challenged their thinking in every area and provided greater focus and intentionality for achieving what might seem like an “impossible” goal.

The Foundation then set out to triple the fundraising goal of years past. The entire organization was made aware of the goal—from the receptionist to the CEO. It transformed the thinking of the organization. Everyone asked, “What can I do to help us reach our goal?” Community then worked with Allegiance Group + Pursuant on acquisition, retention, and upgrade strategies with the goal of building awareness and engagement among Central Indiana’s philanthropic community. This was accomplished through an integrated direct mail and digital campaign.

The Results

As a result of Community’s breakthrough framework, the foundation came within $50,000 of reaching its 3X revenue goal. The foundation would have exceeded the goal but made a wiser, strategic decision to delay a major gift until the next year. In addition to the huge lift in year-end results, Community also experienced 66% of key multi-year donors were retained, and 9% of campaign donors gave $1.7 million more to the campaign than they did the previous year.