As hospitals and health systems continue to face unprecedented revenue pressure, health care leaders are turning to philanthropy to support a broader array of needs. Philanthropy leaders need to deliberately align fundraising and health system strategies to meet rapidly evolving expectations.

To support your alignment with your hospital or health system, we've collected our best resources on strategic integration in one place. Below, you'll find best practices, implementation tools, and guidance on these three essential steps to hardwire philanthropy into your hospital or health system's strategic objectives and planning processes:

1. Gain or strengthen executive commitment to philanthropy
2. Set realistic performance and contribution goals for philanthropy
3. Align fundraising activities with the health system's strategic priorities

Gain or strengthen executive commitment to philanthropy

Frame the economic value of fundraising in terms that resonate with the C-suite

Philanthropy: The Biggest Income Opportunity You're Probably Missing is written specifically for hospital and health system executives. This research briefing explains the high return potential of philanthropy, especially when compared to other revenue centers in the health system. Use this briefing as a springboard to:

• Secure investment in philanthropy
• Encourage executive participation in donor relations
• Build a culture of philanthropy

Download the Briefing

Translate the impact of philanthropy on your own hospital or health system's financial position

Quantifying Philanthropy's Value presents paradigm-shifting ways to help make the case for investment. This research report explains how to reframe your financial contribution to the hospital in terms of:

• Hospital net operating revenue
• Margin impact and reliability of cash transfers
• Relative value of philanthropy dollars to patient revenue and discharges
• Your core fundraising capacity

Read the Research Report

Establish a shared language and working relationship with your finance team

The CFO's Guide to Philanthropy is written specifically for hospital and health system chief financial officers by Advisory Board's Financial Leadership Council. This research briefing explains to finance executives how investment in philanthropy can improve overall financial performance through:

• Incorporating philanthropy in strategic planning
• High returns on major gift fundraising
• Getting physicians involved in donor development

Download the Briefing

Our Fundraising-Finance Collaboration Toolkit can ensure that your philanthropy and finance teams work together effectively. Use the toolkit to:

• Diagnose current fundraising-finance alignment and communication
• Establish comprehensive and appropriately stratified communication touch points
• Improve operating efficiency
• Deepen collaboration through case development and priority identification

Access the Toolkit

Make your case for investment with our ready-to-use presentations for executives

Use our slides and talking points in presentations to executives on:

• Integrating philanthropy into business planning
• Why they should invest in philanthropy
• How to incorporate philanthropy requirements into physician contracts
• Why they should invest in fundraiser retention
• The essential role they can play in fundraising campaigns

Download the Presentations

Set realistic performance or contribution goals for philanthropy

Choose appropriate measures of development program success and evolution

Philanthropy planning often leaves discussions of measuring success until the end of the process. The DIY Philanthropy Metric Selection Toolkit is intended to identify success metrics early on to ensure that development leaders can design and implement an effective strategy to achieve them.

This toolkit includes all of the resources to prepare, run, and implement findings from a metric selection workshop. Resources include:

• Metric picklist
• Customizable agenda
• Delivery guide
• PowerPoint presentation
• Metric scorecard
• Follow-up guide

Explore the Toolkit

Establish a realistic fundraising goal based on historical performance

Fundraising is inherently cyclical. Campaigns, outsized major gifts, or unexpected bequests can distort expectations for baseline fundraising potential. The Core Fundraising Tool is designed to help set realistic goals by excluding outlier gifts in its calculations.

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Align fundraising activities with the health system's strategic priorities

Embed philanthropy into business planning and capital allocation processes

To help hospitals and health systems counter increasing financial pressures, philanthropy should be an active participant in strategic and business planning processes. Integrating Philanthropy into Health System Business Planning offers strategies for:

• Hardwiring philanthropy into capital allocation processes
• Improving strategic alignment through priority identification
• Translating the impact of alignment with top system priorities to donors

Read the Research Report

Evolve philanthropy strategy in line with emerging care transformation priorities

Hospitals and health systems have embraced new priorities like population health, primary care, and patient consumerism—a marked shift from the priorities that philanthropy has successfully supported.

Train staff on the inner workings of health care

The Fundraiser Virtual Academy is our online training tool for frontline fundraisers. In addition to courses on moves management, case making, and grateful patient programs, we also offer instruction on the health care industry, including:

• An overview of the U.S. health care system
• Fundamentals of health care philanthropy
• Health care reform
• Hospital finances

Access the FVA