Hospitals face what can often seem like insurmountable odds. Mired in an environment of ever-increasing regulations, unfunded mandates, demand for services and rising costs that outpace smaller increases in reimbursement, philanthropy is becoming more and more critical. The word philanthropy means “love of humankind.” Nowhere is that more evident than in not-for-profit hospitals that typically began when a group of concerned citizens raised funds to ensure their community could access the best health care available.
To learn more about philanthropy in hospitals, Smart Business spoke to Jim Normandin, president of the Memorial Medical Center Foundation at both Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach.
How important is philanthropy to hospitals?
These are your community hospitals, and philanthropy makes a difference. Even in challenging times with less discretionary income, we are witnessing a larger number of donors committing their support to becoming engaged to ensure their communities have access to the highest quality health care close to home.
Philanthropic donors and organizations are partners in planning for and achieving success at Long Beach Memorial and Miller Children’s. This is especially true at a time when many hospitals report an inability to access the newest technology and expand programs to meet the needs of the community. Thanks to countless philanthropic friends, we are able to add the programs, services and facilities that are necessary to keep pace with important medical innovations and advances.
How does philanthropy support hospitals?
Every gift has a story. These stories all begin with a philanthropic friend, continue through the work of our health care team and then impact the lives of our patients and our communities. Every week premature babies are saved, elderly patients comforted, illnesses diagnosed, bones mended and lives saved — thanks to the generous philanthropy of individuals, corporations and private foundations in our caring communities.
Philanthropy elevates a life of success to a life of significance. We see people making that choice every day: children raising $12 for cancer research through a lemonade stand, individuals funding charitable trusts and annuities, others making outright major gifts, board members providing expert leadership, hundreds of volunteers and organizations sponsoring fund-raising events — and all of them appreciate the value of having high-quality patient care today and in the future.
In addition, many individuals choose to fund endowments that provide sustainability to critical patient programs and continuing medical education.