November 9, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
American hospitals and other health-care institutions raised an estimated $7.1-billion in 2005, 16.3 percent more than the donations they collected the prior year, according to a new report. Even after taking into account last year’s 3.4-percent inflation rate, that amounts to a nearly 13-percent jump — a considerable improvement over 2004, when contributions did not increase at all.
The survey by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy also found that hospitals in Canada saw giving increase by 7.6 percent after adjusting for inflation, rebounding from a 4.8-percent decrease the previous year.
The report is based on survey responses from 327 U.S. and 49 Canadian health-care institutions.
Arthur M. (Rusty) Brink Jr., vice president and chief philanthropic officer at the Martin Memorial Foundation, in Stuart, Fla., and past president of the association, attributed the increase to two factors:
“One is that people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are setting new standards with their level of philanthropy,” Mr. Brink said. The second factor, he added, is that hospitals have increased their fund-raising efforts, as the costs of technology and patient care have grown at faster rates than the payments they receive from private and government health insurers.
“Hospitals are hiring more people to work on the philanthropy side,” he said. “You can see that in the way membership at the association has gone up in the past year. Participation in our educational programs is off the charts.”
More than half of health-care gifts in the United States in 2005 came from people who made big gifts (17.8 percent), gave in response to annual-fund appeals (17.7 percent), or contributed to capital campaigns (16.6 percent).
Among the other key findings:
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Nearly 60 percent of all hospital donations came from individual donors.
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Foundation and corporate grants made up 31 percent of gifts.
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Almost half of all donors had an affiliation with the health-care institution they supported. Employees accounted for 18.9 percent of donations, patients gave 16.5 percent, physicians 5.5 percent, and board members 4.9 percent.
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The health-care organizations spent the largest portion of their fund-raising efforts on annual-fund appeals (22.7 percent) and fund-raising events (22.5 percent).
A summary of “The AHP Report on Giving 2005″ is available free. Copies can also be purchased for $100 for members and $150 for nonmembers through its Web site, or by contacting the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, 313 Park Avenue, Suite 400, Falls Church, Va. 22046; (703) 532-6243.
