This past year has been challenging for everyone. In response to the plummeting financial market, we have had to ask Hartford grantees to scale back programs and strategically redefine their core elements to make the most of fewer resources. I know it must be a difficult time to be a grantee. During tough times like these, Foundation staff feel the need to provide non-financial support through capacity building efforts--what The Center for Effective Philanthropy defines as “assistance beyond the grant check.” Foundations want to give back to those who are out there doing the mission-driven heavy lifting. I wanted to use my role as a Program Officer to act as a catalyst by convening a group of people across academic institutions that would not otherwise come together. I wanted them to share ideas in the hopes of inspiring ongoing conversations that would translate into action.
The vehicle of change would be a simple telephone call: a fundraising teleconference for the directors, development officers, and deans of our Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence. We began planning the teleconference after a 2008 meeting of the directors of our
Hartford-funded nursing projects, where we learned our grantees could use assistance with (of course) fundraising.
Because the Hartford Foundation does not make grants in perpetuity, the goal of the teleconference was to provide a forum for sharing fundraising techniques and strategies in order to contribute to the growth and sustainability of the Centers. We tailored the agenda to key fundraising issues as identified in advance by the Center directors.
I will admit I was a bit nervous. While I knew that every participant had a vital role to play in both setting the tone and contributing to what I hoped would be a candid and productive call, we had assembled an august group of people on the line. Because of the novelty of the exercise itself, the atmosphere was one of uncertainty.
What I heard on the call was heartening. We had asked our various stakeholders to come prepared to speak from their perspective about the Centers, and they did. The Center directors reviewed their individual strengths; the deans shared fundraising successes and spoke of how the Centers have benefited their schools or institutions; and the development officers detailed their approaches to fundraising.
As the call continued, I heard deans share out-of-the-box fundraising ideas. I heard directors poll other Centers for advice. I heard development officers offer to share their time and materials. I heard that people wanted to continue the work initiated on the call. I don’t know if development officers and deans of schools of nursing have participated in calls of this nature before, but based on the richness of the discussion, we are grateful that they participated here.
Lest I oversell, let me be clear: fundraising mountains were not moved; people may have become mired in the details; and be-all, end-all, one-size-fits-all solutions did not spontaneously emerge. What did happen, however, was that major players met around a common table to begin an important dialogue. This dialogue may have even transpired after the call ended (victory!) when deans, development officers, and directors may have vetted new ideas on their own. They may have considered collaboratively creating fundraising goals for the Center or framing the Center’s strategic plan within that of their overall academic institution.
I hope so. I believe the more we collaborate, the more we can strengthen the field of geriatric nursing. Let this call be the spark of many conversations to come.