November 1, 2007 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Giving to American hospitals and health-care providers grew to $7.9-billion last year, but donations did not increase as fast as they did in 2005, according to a new report.
Contributions to health-care institutions rose last year by 8.3 percent, adjusted for inflation, compared with a 12.9-percent rise from 2004 to 2005.
The report, published by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, in Falls Church, Va., was based on a survey of 291 hospitals and other health-care providers.
The association’s president, William C. McGinly, expressed frustration about the slowing pace of giving, blaming the deceleration on what he called “a perfect storm of problems” for the field.
Among other difficulties, he said, are tough privacy rules that limit access to potential donors, and attempts in Congress to challenge and change the tax-exempt status of nonprofit hospitals.
“All the attention health care is getting, in terms of coverage for the uninsured and the activity in Congress, ends up focusing so much on the high costs, the instances of fraud and abuse, that it’s too easy for the good story to get lost,” Mr. McGinly said.
That may help explain, he added, one of the survey’s findings: The number of donors to health-care providers remained flat from 2005 to 2006.
Still, according to the survey, gifts from individuals once again accounted for the biggest chunk of total gifts, or about 60 percent, the same as in 2005.
Giving in Canada
Businesses, including corporate foundations, chipped in about 20 percent of the gifts, while foundations made grants representing 12 percent of the money raised. Other sources, such as hospital auxiliaries, accounted for the rest.
In Canada, where the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy’s survey looked at 44 charities, giving last year was stagnant, up 1.3 percent, to $1.23-billion. In 2005, giving rose by 7.6 percent. In that year, gifts from individuals made up about 60 percent of all donations. Last year, that share dropped to a little more than half.
For the first time, the association included in its survey questions about direct mail. Among U.S. respondents, the median value of gifts received per dollar spent on direct mail was $4.38. The median value of gifts received per dollar spent on fund-raising efforts overall was less, at $4.17.
Among the survey’s other findings:
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Money raised through capital campaigns represented the largest single source of contributions, or 21 percent. Annual giving accounted for 16.6 percent, major gifts 14.9 percent, and special events 14.3 percent.
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Nearly half of all individuals had an affiliation with the institution they supported. Employees, including physicians, accounted for 28.8 percent of donations, patients gave 14.8 percent; and board members 5.1 percent.
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Special events (25.9 percent) and annual giving (20.6) accounted for nearly half of all fund-raising expenditures in 2006. Capital campaigns represented 13.7 percent of all expenses, while planned-giving efforts, which produced 9.5 percent of the contributions, accounted for 5.9 percent of the spending.
A summary of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy’s 2006 “Report on Giving” in the United States and Canada is available free to association members on the association’s Web site; and a CD-ROM of the full report is free to members who participated in the survey. Additional copies cost members $100. Nonmembers may purchase the CD-ROM for $150.
To order the report or get more information, go to the association’s Web site or call (703) 532-6343.
