Boston hospitals tally record giving in 2006

Boston-area hospitals have hired dozens of employees to identify and woo wealthy donors, making 2006 a record year for philanthropy at many of the city's medical institutions.

A survey of eight major teaching hospitals and medical research centers found that they raised more than half a billion dollars combined in the just-completed fiscal year -- $529 million. That was 68 percent more than donors gave five years earlier.

Hospitals face growing uncertainty over government money for research and tightening payments from health insurers. As a result, they have significantly expanded their fund-raising operations. These larger staffs are targeting not just grateful patients, who traditionally have been donors, but also young venture capitalists and wealthy individuals and foundations in New York City and on the West Coast who are passionate about finding new treatments for specific diseases.

"It costs an enormous amount of money to do research, and we know we cannot count on the government," said Susan Paresky, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's senior vice president for development. "The opportunity for [research to produce] answers is so much greater now," she added, with the sequencing of the human genome, the explosion in technology, and more powerful computer databases. Gifts also help hospitals buy expensive technology and erect buildings.

Dana-Farber, which has tripled its development staff in the past 10 years to 165 employees, raised $203 million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, including gifts from individuals, foundations, and corporations. It was its best year ever and more than double its 2001 tally. The 2006 amount included a $50 million unrestricted gift from trustees Richard and Susan Smith, the largest donation to Dana-Farber ever, which it will use toward a major new research and patient care building.

The center also has benefited from a national fund-raising effort, including 150 golf tournaments in 11 states, and from patients who are surviving longer and therefore forming lasting relationships with the institution.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Children's Hospital Boston also had record years for philanthropy, hospital executives said, while Massachusetts General Hospital, which raised $112 million, matched its best year. Boston Medical Center and Tufts-New England Medical Center, which is building its development staff after a recent financial crisis, have also seen increases in giving.

Many non profit organizations nationwide, including hospitals, are raising more money in recent years because of a generally bright economy. But some Boston-area hospitals seem to be faring better than their counterparts nationally.

Hospitals have become more successful in part by borrowing techniques from universities that have long been more aggressive in fund-raising, specialists on national charitable-giving said. So many hospitals and non medical organizations are running campaigns that some fund-raisers worry donors "will become tired of being hit up," said Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Potential donors come to the attention of hospital fund-raising staffs through doctors who treat wealthy patients and trustees who have well-off friends. Searches of online public databases also are useful, yielding information about a person's real estate holdings, publicly held stock, and medical organizations he or she has donated to in the past, all of which can help staff identify potential donors and gauge how big a gift an individual might be able to afford.

Hospitals in Boston increasingly are courting venture capitalists, a relatively new and potentially plentiful source of donations. Board members of Children's Hospital, which raised $69 million last year, host "cultivation events," inviting eight or 10 business people to their homes for dinner or offices for lunch. The hospital often invites a doctor to talk about stem cell or some other type of cutting-edge research, and then provides tours of labs and clinics.

Venture capitalists "really love working with smart doctors," said Janet Cady, president of Children's Hospital Trust, the hospital's fund-raising arm.

Beth Israel Deaconess and Brigham and Women's both plan to take their fund-raising national. They are establishing "leadership councils" of doctors and philanthropists from around the country who are interested in a specific disease or medical issue for which the hospital is known -- such as patient safety at Brigham and HIV vaccine research at Beth Israel Deaconess -- to raise more money for the programs.

"In the past, a lot of times gifts weren't motivated by a big, bold idea in medicine," said Mark Kostegan, chief development officer for Brigham and Women's. "You can ask for much larger gifts when you articulate that kind of vision."

Beth Israel Deaconess has engineered a comeback in donations, after many donors deserted the hospital during its financial crisis early this decade. When she came aboard in 2003, Kristine Laping, senior vice president for development, started a monthly electronic newsletter for 400 families whose members had served on various hospital boards, and invited small groups of donors to lunch with new chief executive Paul Levy, who reassured them about his turnaround plan.

In October 2003, the hospital hosted a $500-a-plate dinner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel to honor past board chairs. The 300 attendees each got a white coat embroidered with his or her name. Hospital donations increased that year to $13 million. Laping has increased the development staff to 35 people from five, and in fiscal year 2006 Beth Israel Deaconess raised $30 million.

One area of philanthropy that has become increasingly sensitive for hospital executives is providing special help to donors when they are in the hospital or need a doctor, especially as many hospital patients face frustrations and delays in getting appointments or even finding a doctor.

At Cape Cod Hospital, executives said these donor liaison programs have brought in more donations. When Cape Cod Health Care System started its Lightkeeper's Society four years ago to show appreciation to donors who give at least $5,000 annually, "nurses and doctors were very fearful it would become a two-level health care system," said Thomas Mundell, president of Cape Cod Health Care Foundation. Donors in the group receive a membership card with a pager number that connects them directly with development staff, who can meet them in the emergency room to wait with them, bring them blankets, or arrange for a private room, but donors don't go to the head of the line, Mundell said.

Mass. General, Brigham, and Lahey Clinic have similar programs, and development officers said they do not ask doctors to treat donors or grant them appointments by displacing other patients. But some development executives acknowledge that their influence may be subtle, and doctors interviewed concur, saying they usually try to accommodate requests from development staff.

"These people have made a huge difference at the hospital and a huge difference in what we're able to do," said Dr. Thomas Lynch, chief of hematology-oncology at Mass. General Cancer Center.

Liz Kowalczyk can be reached at kowalczyk@globe.com.