Grateful patient programs – how to cultivate donorship

Grateful patient programs are an emerging trend in healthcare fundraising and philanthropy. These programs give patients an avenue for transforming their heartfelt gratitude for life-saving care into tangible and lasting support for the institution that provided it.

Grateful patient programs have existed for decades, but their adoption and sophistication are increasing as hospitals and healthcare systems realize their enormous potential—not just for financial impact but also for fostering lifelong engagement and philanthropic relationships. 

While not every grateful patient or family member will become a donor, many can evolve into key supporters, volunteers, and advocates. This makes such programs indispensable for nonprofit healthcare organizations.

What is a grateful patient program?

A grateful patient program is a healthcare fundraising system designed to intentionally cultivate relationships with past patients who have been positively impacted by your organization and would be willing and able to support your hospital today. These people are the success stories of your hospital and are proven to have the means to make a sizable donation to further your mission.

Some patients may reach out proactively to inquire about making a donation. However, most donors are acquired through strategic grateful patient fundraising efforts. This may include personal visits from board members or fundraisers, newsletters with hospital updates, and wealth screening to create a database of grateful patients with the capacity to give, followed by contact and cultivation for a major gift.

How common are grateful patient programs?

According to a 2016 study by the Advisory Board, more than half of U.S. hospitals surveyed had implemented a grateful patient program, and this number has only grown. Over 50% of hospitals without a program have expressed interest in launching one, underscoring the increasing recognition of the value of this often-untapped donor base.

The potential of these programs is compelling. A 2007 study published by Accordant Health found that 88% of large gifts to healthcare organizations came from grateful patients and families. This statistic highlights the critical role that grateful patients play in securing major gifts. With the right strategies, healthcare institutions can significantly improve their fundraising outcomes by focusing on this potentially highly engaged group.

Benefits of grateful patient programs for healthcare institutions

Grateful patient programs offer the following benefits for healthcare facilities:

Ability to maintain a high standard of care

Grateful patient donations enable hospitals and healthcare institutions to continue to offer a high standard of care. They can also fund research, new equipment, or even a new wing.

Build a community of support

Grateful patient fundraising creates a community of loyal supporters around your healthcare organization. This group can play a significant role in enhancing future patients’ care, promoting your organization in the community, and providing a base for feasibility studies for future capital campaigns. 

Boost your institution’s reputation

Healthcare facilities with grateful patient programs demonstrate their focus on quality care. The fact that past patients would be willing to give to the hospital or clinic shows that your facility must be doing good things!

Benefits of grateful patient programs for patients

Grateful patient programs offer the following benefits for patients:

Excellent patient care

Healthcare facilities with grateful patient fundraising programs are especially motivated to facilitate a positive patient experience (and successful patient outcomes!) because the relationships formed could lead to a patient becoming a supporter in the future. 

Avenue for expressing gratitude

Grateful patients who are able and willing to give are provided with a tangible way to express their thanks. Showing gratitude, in turn, could have further physical and mental health benefits for the patient, including better sleep, improved mood, and better heart health.

Does your hospital need a grateful patient program?

As your hospital or clinic evolves with the latest healthcare trends, you’re eventually going to need some of the following:

• State-of-the-art equipment: Searching for the latest cancer treatment or imaging software?
• New employees and experts: Looking to grow your program or add a new department?
• Building expansions: Want to add a new wing or expand your grounds to help more people in the community?
• Facility renovations: Interested in upgrading to a more inviting facility with a modern design?

When you need to make a hefty purchase, one of the best ways to do so is with fundraised money. In such cases, it’s especially helpful to have a grateful patient program.

How to establish a grateful patient program

The following steps will provide a strong base for establishing a grateful patient program at your hospital or healthcare facility. It’s important to seek guidance from healthcare fundraising strategists as well as experienced legal and financial professionals along the way to safeguard your program’s effectiveness and success.

Step 1: Plan and prepare

A thorough planning and preparation phase is crucial for a successful grateful patient program. The following steps will provide clarity and help you avoid common mistakes.

1.1 Set clear goals

Define your goal in creating a grateful patient program. Do you want to increase the amount of funds raised by identifying prospects on your patient lists, cultivate a systemic culture of philanthropy, or raise the quality of care across the entire institution?

1.2 Identify the required resources

Grateful patient programs require funds as well as human resources to run.

• Determine your human resource requirements. You will need one or more paid gift officers, a prospect research manager, internal or external marketing services, and external fundraising or technology consulting services—especially at the beginning. Work out how many gift officers your program will need, whether your gift officers should also focus on annual giving, and whether your program will involve volunteers (and how many).
• Get quotes for tools and training if needed. Your team will need wealth screening tools, a donor CRM, and specialized training to get your program off the ground effectively.
• Create a budget. Develop a budget for your GPP which includes the aforementioned human resources or tools. This will help you calculate the ROI for the program. 

1.3 Reach out to internal stakeholders

A successful grateful patient program requires support from all of the relevant parties: medical staff, administrative staff, board members, the fundraising team, and the hospital’s CEO. Present the idea to all stakeholders with data-based projections demonstrating the potential impact of a grateful patient program, and explain what each person’s role would be. 

Hospital executives will need to consider the hospital division that will be affected by the program, what the staff can do to make it a success, and who will support the program and convince others of its importance. 

Adoption of the program can come in increments. Start with engaging the stakeholders (this could be practitioners, for example) who are the most enthusiastic and able to participate. Once you have had some initial success, other stakeholders will come on board. Work with leadership to establish a rollout plan and timeline for the program.

1.4 Research and plan for compliance with privacy laws

Healthcare organizations must comply with national and state legislation concerning donor privacy, including HIPAA and PIPEDA. Your team needs to become familiar with the relevant guidelines—as well as your institution’s in-house policies regarding patient privacy—and build safeguards to ensure they are followed. This includes policies about: 

• The people in your foundation’s office who will have access to patient information
• What types of protected health information can and cannot be used in the process of fundraising without the patient’s written authorization
• Documents patients and personnel will need to sign, and when

Tip: Many major donors would like to stay anonymous to the public to avoid unwanted solicitations. Make sure your team has solid privacy guidelines in place so that donors feel comfortable with their contributions.

1.5 Build an in-hospital recruitment team with designated staff and clear roles

From meeting with prospective donors to balancing your fundraising books, you will need a reliable and trustworthy team by your side. Take the time to carefully vet every role that’s needed and assign the right staff members to the position that best works with their strengths.

Gift officers engage in prospect research, keep donor data organized, and cultivate relationships with specific donors. They also coordinate with the wider fundraising team (including fundraisers, development officers, and advancement officers) to plan events and optimize the outreach strategies used. 

It generally works best to allocate certain donors to the gift officers who can cultivate the best prospects. These donors may be:

• Patients who are already major donors
• Patients who could be more philanthropic than they currently are
• Patients with the ability to give who have not yet supported a cause

Your gift officers will also provide valuable feedback on the solicitation and stewardship strategies that are and aren’t working, answering questions such as:

• Why does a prospect provide small philanthropic gifts despite a larger capacity to give?
• Has a prospect been correctly approached about making a contribution?
• Has a prospect found the right cause to support?
• Has a prospect been shown the value of a donation?

Prospect research manager: It’s a good idea to designate one person to be in charge of managing the program you use for uncovering potential donors.

Board members: Board members provide resources, organizational support, and help with activity planning. They also play an important role in promoting the program.

Hospital staff: Medical and administrative staff refer interested patients and promote the program when appropriate. It should be made clear that the hospital staff’s first priority is patient care and they should bring in a fundraiser or gift officer to provide patients with more information when needed.

1.6 Draft a wealth screening and solicitation plan

Establish a clear wealth screening and solicitation process which includes the following steps:

• Have a staff member preemptively run wealth screenings on patients as they are admitted to the hospital. Ideally, this would happen daily. Weekly or monthly screenings could work well for small or specialty organizations. Patient health is the top priority, so always consider the sensitivity of their treatment before next considering your program. Ensure they are stable and then send a representative from the hospital to ensure they’re having a pleasant stay.
• Establish internal communication channels for referrals from physicians, nurses, support staff, administrative staff, and volunteers. Make sure that medical staff only provide information about the program to patients who express an interest (and are able to call in a fundraising representative quickly and easily) to ensure they can focus exclusively on patient care.
• Have the same representative schedule a personal meeting with the patient following discharge to check up on their health. Do not solicit them during this time. Establishing a personal relationship will make patients more likely to become grateful donors in the future. Be judicious with the use of in-person meetings (as opposed to mail and phone contact) to ensure your team is making the most of its time and resources.
• Send a letter or schedule a phone call from the hospital’s CEO to check in on the patient and start the discussion about donation.
• Invite prospects to social and online events.
• Thank donors for their past support and encourage them to continue to donate.
• Send regular emails to continue attracting the attention of donors in meaningful ways.

Solicitation doesn’t start once your patient leaves your hospital. Make sure you and your team are establishing a solid solicitation plan that begins with cultivating a strong relationship while they are still in your hospital or clinic.

Tip: Ensure your entire team is on the same page as far as how you will reach out to past or current patients to include them in this program. If team members are following different strategies, you may find yourself over-contacting individuals at the risk of destroying a potentially valuable relationship.

Maximizing donations from grateful patients

Make sure you reach out to donors with high philanthropic indicators who don’t meet their full giving potential. Answer the following questions before taking time to contact them:

• Have they been approached correctly in the past?
• Has the cause for their lack of support been identified?
• Have they been shown the value of their donations?

By answering these questions, you’re ensuring your team receives a maximum donation that can support your hospital for years to come.

1.7 Establish clear policies and protocols

Your grateful patient program will need specific policies and protocols in addition to your solicitation workflow. It is best to get input from experts at this stage to ensure best-practice protocols from the beginning. The following are a few areas to consider and address:

• How will donations be recorded and where will that data be stored? Consider using a HIPAA-compliant donor CRM with a grateful patient module to centralize and secure donor data from the outset.
• How will your team manage donated funds and ensure transparency as to how they are used?
• Can patients choose which department or staff member to recognize with their donation? How will this work?
• When and how may major gift officers approach a patient?
• What information can (and can’t) gift officers request from patients’ physicians?
• When and how may physicians and staff advocate for the grateful patient program?
• What will be the lines of communication for raising and addressing concerns?

1.8 Establish KPIs for measuring your grateful patient program’s progress

Building a stellar grateful patient program requires tracking specific key performance indicators (KPIs) from the beginning and making progressive adjustments based on feedback and observations.

Track and measure your grateful patient program’s progress using KPIs such as:

Solicitations	Donors	Donations
Number of solicitations made (the total and the percentage that were successful) Response rate to different kinds of solicitations Feedback from patients regarding the fundraising practices used	Total number of donors Number of new prospects uncovered vs. how many new donors have been acquired Time to convert a prospect into a grateful patient donor Average time lapse between patient discharge and donation	Average gift size Total gifts Repeat donations Number of donors increasing their annual gifts Number of patients visiting the hospital vs. the total amount of money donated to the hospital Other kinds of donations, such as planned giving and donor-advised funds (DAF) donations
Donor stewardship	Budgeting	Software & communication
Response to grateful patient stewardship techniques How often you are thanking your donors and following up Retention rate Patient satisfaction scores	Return on investment (ROI) Cost per Dollar Raised (CPDR) – ideally under 35 cents	Feedback from internal stakeholders regarding what is and isn’t working Usefulness of your chosen healthcare fundraising tools Information gaps

Set aside time to review these KPIs regularly and work out the reasons behind the relative success (or lack thereof) shown by each metric. For example, a high rate of unsuccessful solicitations indicates that your patient screening parameters may need adjustment in order to reflect your patient base, via internal and external giving scores. It could also indicate a poor-quality wealth-screening tool. You will then be able to adjust your strategy accordingly.

Step 2: Perform wealth screenings and validate prospects

Now it’s time to start making the planned investments and identify your first potential donors through wealth screening.

Grateful patient wealth screening is the process of identifying potential donors within a pool of current or former patients or their families. Patient screening works by rating and segmenting patients according to propensity (or inclination) to give to charity, affinity (or linkage) to healthcare, and capacity (or ability) to give major gifts considering factors like real estate ownership, stock transactions, luxury asset ownership, and the prospect’s spousal information.

It can also be helpful to look at factors including age, area of care, distance traveled, patient satisfaction score, and the length of time the patient has been part of the community. These markers indicate how emotionally connected the patient feels to your institution and hence how likely they might be to donate to your healthcare nonprofit as opposed to another institution.

Effective and efficient patient screening helps you identify which patients fit your major gift donor profile while helping you establish positive relationships to encourage charitable donations. Once these individuals are identified, your development team can begin to cultivate those prospects into major gift donors.

Create an ideal donor profile (IDP)

Create an ideal donor profile (IDP) to determine the markers you’ll need to look for and prioritize. How often do they donate? How much do they have to give? Where does their affinity or linkage lie? 

This will vary according to the organization. For example, a research hospital may focus more on a prospective donor’s capacity while a community clinic could look at their affinity. Likewise, the research hospital may feel a major gift is anything over $150,000 while the community clinic would feel anything over $10,000 is a major gift! 

Choose a wealth screening approach

It’s important to designate how you would like to conduct wealth screenings—whether manually, through a third-party consultant, or using paid software tools. Using an intelligent prospect research software will not only save your team hours upon hours of time but will also ensure the information you find is up-to-date and accurate to maximize gifts.

A wealth screening or prospect research tool for a grateful patient program ideally needs the following features:

• HIPAA compliant
• Stays up to date with CCPA guidelines to ensure donors’ privacy
• Multi-factor authentication
• Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) instead of general uploads
• Quick turnaround to ensure timely and up-to-date information about your patients
• Ability to segment donors and customize wealth or patient screening to the nature and goals of your nonprofit

Upload patient lists

If you decide to go with a software tool for wealth screening, follow these steps:

1. Download the screening template.
2. Populate it with patient data from your database. Screen immediate family members of patients as well. Include as much information from your donor database in the screening file as possible, including any available internal giving data. 
3. Upload the list to the wealth screening tool. Within hours or even minutes (depending on the wealth screening tool you use), you will receive internal and external scores for each prospect.

a. Internal giving data will give you a recency-frequency-monetary (RFM) score, based on the patient’s

 i. Total gift count

ii. Total gift amount

iii. Last gift date

b. External giving data will generally provide information about the patient’s propensity, affinity, and capacity to give based on publicly available data records.

When you cross-reference both internal (your database) and external (PRO database) views, you will identify the best prospects and be able to act on those opportunities faster and with increased confidence.1

Segment prospects

Strategically sort your database with donor segmentation—grouping donors by commonalities such as their age, connection with the hospital, philanthropic history, affinity, or capacity to give. This will enable your healthcare organization to make gift asks to patients with expert precision.

Manually sort and validate the results

Looking at your screening results, sort and prioritize according to the fields included in your input template. Maybe you want to sort the list by the primary caregiver, or you want to see if any patients are known VIPs. Once you have segmented the list, create profiles for each prospect. Within these profiles, you can view all the records that generated that prospect’s unique RFM and external giving score. 

Manually verify the records for accuracy and relevance to your prospect (very important!). As research and fundraising professionals, you understand your own prospects and donors more than any software tool can. 

Add and delete records where required. We recommend this as a best practice. Even the best screening solution can include false positives, but not every screening solution allows you to easily remove them and then refresh scores. Make sure you find a tool that does!

Prepare a report

After receiving your wealth screening results, you’ll want to prepare a report. This report will then go out to gift officers who will decide how to approach the patients. Whether you’re meeting in person or reaching out after they return home, you won’t want to wait more than three months to contact a potential donor.

With these tools in hand, it is easy to make progress with your grateful patient program. As patients move through your healthcare organization, you’re able to monitor their giving potential as a donor, specific to your assigned parameters. This is a great reminder to review your nonprofit organization’s moves management program and adjust as necessary.

Get the Moves Management cheat sheet.

Step 3: Create materials for your grateful patient program

You will need to create digital and print materials to create awareness about your new grateful patient program and create a point of connection between interested patients and your recruitment team. 

When it comes to fundraising for nonprofit hospitals, the biggest hurdle to overcome is often the lack of public awareness of a financial need. Communicate to your audience via your website and in fundraising brochures that you rely on their funding and how they can get involved.

The materials you will need include (but are not limited to):

• A dedicated page on your organization’s website. This should include online donation tools that can facilitate one-off donations, recurring giving, corporate gifts, donor-advised fund gifts, planned gifts, and merchandise sales for fundraising events.
• An email newsletter
• Social media posts
• Educational videos
• Physical pamphlets to place in easy-to-see locations in your facility
• Physical newsletters to send out to prospective and current donors

Tips:

• Follow accessibility best practices for physical and digital materials, including the use of high-contrast colors, captions for videos, and alt text for digital images.
• Save your team time and avoid embarrassing blunders like typos using a purpose-built generative AI tool for nonprofits for content creation.
• Include patient testimonials and stories wherever possible. Be sure to obtain written authorization from patients before sharing their stories or details that fall under the umbrella of protected health information (PHI).

Step 4: Manage your prospects and steward new donors

Once you have validated screening results and generated donor profiles, pass them on to fundraisers or gift officers. Ensure follow-up occurs within three months of the patient’s last visit. This could involve an in-person visit from the representative or a board member, one or more phone calls, a three-part email series, or a series of social media ads. 

Whichever communication channels you choose, first connect with the patient. Then start to raise awareness of how philanthropy changes lives in your organization before eventually working up to an ask (whether that be inviting the patient to volunteer, attend an event, or donate).

When the fundraiser gets a win, build a good-news story around it. Steward new donors by inviting them to volunteer with the organization and join the culture of philanthropy. Your grateful patient just became a one-time donor. Now it’s time to develop a lifelong donor relationship with them.

Tip: Wait 12 weeks after a first-time donor’s initial gift before making a second ask.

After identifying the right supporters for your hospital, you’ll then want to stay organized to guarantee you’re on target to meet your goals. 

• Track proposals in a donor database: Create a proposal for each prospect and assign them a gift officer. Each proposal should include the ask amount, the anticipated gift date, and the fund or purpose of the gift. Proposals should be updated throughout each stage of solicitation, reach, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. All of the information in your grateful patient donor CRM must comply with patient privacy laws and be kept secure.
• File contact reports: All correspondence and interactions with prospects should be reported to your donor database. Development officers will handle the reporting of these contacts.
• Conduct frequent prospect management meetings: Front-line fundraisers and the advancement services staff should be meeting to ensure prospects are moving through the solicitation pipeline. In these meetings, gift officers should report the need for further research, and prospect researchers can present new prospects to guarantee your hospital continues to grow.

Grateful patient fundraising best practices

Keep the following best practices in mind when planning and implementing a grateful patient program.

Put patient care first

Keep in mind at all times that the patient experience is your healthcare organization’s number one priority. We know you’re eager to grow your hospital’s programs and start fundraising for your organization’s future. However, don’t lose sight of the here and now. 

Always prioritize your patients as regular people in need and put their well-being and healthcare first. A great bedside manner is something patients will later remember about your hospital and their time there—a factor that may sway their inclination to donate down the line.

Cultivate goodwill with patients’ family members

Cultivate positive relationships with patients’ family members throughout the entire journey from admission through treatment and discharge. Prospects’ parents, spouses, or children may form a strong opinion of the care received and either support or discourage the patient’s decision to donate. Immediate family members who are happy with the care provided may also become donors themselves.

Maintain patient privacy

We have already said this but we’ll say it again: Respect patients’ privacy in all communications and the handling of patient data. This is paramount for ethical and successful fundraising. You may not “filter, target, use, or disclose” the following protected health information (PHI) for fundraising without a patient’s consent:

• Diagnosis
• Nature of service
• Treatment 

Since 2013, fundraisers can use certain types of PHI without the patient’s written authorization (page 2). However, the patient must be given a Notice of Privacy Practices upon admission to the hospital and be given the option to opt out of fundraising communications if they wish.

Take the cue from patients’ expressed interest

Successful grateful patient programs respond to prospects’ expressed desire to show their gratitude with a gift—giving “best-fit” donors the opportunity to align their existing philanthropic efforts with your facility’s mission. Allow grateful patients to direct their support to a specific wing, program, or staff member; this will often be the staff member or program from which they benefitted personally.

Cultivate strong physician relationships

Randall Hallett, CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, outlines three essential pillars for success with grateful patient programs: WHO, WHEN, and WHAT. Each plays a critical role in fostering long-term donor relationships.

One of the most significant factors in the success of a grateful patient program (Hallett prefers “grateful patient and family program”) is the involvement of the physician (the “who”). Patients trust their healthcare providers deeply, and a referral from a physician is the most effective way to introduce them to the fundraising team. 

Hallett encourages physicians to view the fundraising team as another referral—like ordering an MRI or blood test—but one centered on gratitude. It’s equally important for them to understand that fundraisers share their commitment to patient well-being, fostering genuine relationships rather than pressuring patients to give. To keep physicians engaged, their involvement should be simple and unobtrusive, requiring minimal time commitment.

Timing is everything

Timing (the “when”) is critical to successful grateful patient and family outreach efforts. Research by the Advisory Board shows that the most effective outreach occurs within 30 days following a life-changing medical event, such as surgery, cancer treatment, or a significant recovery. 

Reaching out too soon—such as in the hospital room—may overwhelm patients, while waiting too long can diminish enthusiasm for engaging in a conversation or giving. If contact isn’t made within 60 days, the chances of engagement drop dramatically. Consider 90 days an absolute maximum. This window ensures that patients’ gratitude is still fresh, while also giving them enough time to recover physically and emotionally.

Focus on major gifts

The fundraising focus of any successful grateful patient program should be on major gifts (the “what”), which account for the vast majority of funds raised, says Hallett. Citing the book The Generosity Crisis, he notes that fewer than 47% of U.S. households donate to any nonprofit (down from 66% in 2000), making it essential to cultivate deep relationships with high-impact donors. While broad-based giving options (digital, email, mail, etc.) should be available, the greatest ROI comes from major gifts, which contribute to long-term fundraising sustainability.

Take a personalized approach

Not all grateful patients or their family members will be ready to give immediately. For some, the idea of giving may feel overwhelming or premature. Others may lack the financial capacity to contribute. In these cases, healthcare organizations should focus on education and advocacy rather than immediate giving.

For example, inviting patients to share their stories as part of an annual giving campaign or asking them to provide testimonials to inspire others can be a valuable first step. This approach allows grateful patients to contribute to the hospital’s mission in a way that feels comfortable, while also building a foundation for potential future support.

Build lasting relationships and transform healthcare

Grateful patient programs provide a powerful opportunity for healthcare fundraisers to build meaningful, long-term relationships with patients and their families. It’s essential to plan and prepare carefully, start small, ensure full compliance with patient security and privacy guidelines, and adjust to feedback as you go. Following these best practices will ensure the program strengthens relationships with patients and internal stakeholders and the effectiveness of care overall.

By screening and approaching patients strategically and nurturing relationships before making financial requests, grateful patients and their families can potentially turn into lifelong supporters. As the landscape of healthcare philanthropy evolves, a personalized, data-driven approach that respects and aligns with patients’ journeys will be vital in deepening these connections and maximizing their impact.

Contributor:
Bre Alexander

Special contributions by:
Scott Nelson

Further reading:

How ascend’s CRM supports Grateful Patient Programs

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Jill Mccarville

Jill Mccarville is a marketing leader and content creator. She's been working with nonprofits, healthcare and higher education for 10 years, helping to share their stories and tactics for more effective and efficient fundraising.