Chris Wilder gave this presentation at the monthly meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals on July 20, 2010. People seemed to enjoy it, asked great questions, and maybe best of all, shared their own social media victories and ideas. AFP ROCKS!
1. Valley Medical Center – Saving our public hospital with social media E. Chris Wilder, Executive Director Valley Medical Center Foundation www.vmcfoundation.org
6. “Dedicated to the health of the whole community” VMC is the best hospital on earth. - Nelson Mandela No, really – it totally is. - Captain James T. Kirk
7. The VMC Foundation A separate 501(c)(3) corporation founded in 1988 Raising private money for the public hospital…an unusual idea in 1988, not unusual today Created not just by VMC, but Silicon Valley leaders and elected officials
8. Let’s have a party Special events keep VMC Foundation donors involved, bring in new donors, and help raise “unrestricted money” – the hardest to raise. (the original “Social Media”)
33. Social media cannot exist on its own… 50 presentations in 30 days to department meetings, staff gatherings, Q n’ A… Lots of 1:1 communication using the “telephone” or “face to face” (different than Facebook)
44. Thank you for your kind attention! [email_address] @chriswilder (twitter) www.vmcfoundation.org www.wildersideofhealth.blogspot.com 408-885-5201
Notas del editor
Greetings, folks…most of my presentation will be done “oral history” format, with slides simply supplementing or visually exemplifying what I’m talking about. These first four slides are here merely to demonstrate the history and growth of Silicon Valley’s busiest hospital.
When the “new VMC” opened ten years ago, giving us 574 beds, we were seeing maybe 140,000 patients a year (unduplicated, inpatient and outpatient). That number is 240K today, amid our ninth year of consecutive budget cuts.
VMC is nationally known for its spinal cord and brain injury programs, regional burn center, and the only Level 1 Trauma Center in San Jose (the nation’s 10 th largest city). Public opinion polling last year confirmed our guess: Most folks in San Jose didn’t know any of those things.
Turning Wheels, a program started by a VMC nurse manager, is now part of the VMC Foundation. Last year Turning Wheels’ volunteers built 2300 bikes in one day, to be given to needy families. Without this program, many kids would have nothing new for the holidays, and too many have too few recreation options. 25% of the Latino population in San Jose has diabetes. Way too many are kids.
The Northridge Earthquake in 1994 resulted in 14 hospitals being evacuated, and many could not open again. Later that year, the Governor signed a law that still stands as California’s largest “unfunded mandate”. VMC went to work immediately to comply – but the economy by 2000 was NOT helping.
VMC is the public hospital for Silicon Valley – with virtually no marketing or advertising budget. Social media, it seemed to us at the VMC Foundation, might be the catalyst to bring the kind of vital info out to the public that had always been lacking. That dynamic made our chances of victory slim – and as the economy got worse all summer, and as the ballot grew to record-setting size (we were at the bottom), many wrote Measure A off: “You can’t win, and shouldn’t try.”
An old adage in fund raising is “people don’t give to organizations; people give to people.” Same is true for blogs. You have to insert your personality, and if you don’t have one of those, have creative funny people help you invent one. Be a little wacky and funny, and don’t be afraid to be personal. I often write about my efforts to lose weight, or my doctor lacing my coffee with blood pressure med’s…it keeps people reading, no matter what I’m writing about.
Here’s an example of what might have worked in 1998, but not anymore. Great info, and I love Guidestar to pieces, but seriously…the next FOUR slides are continuing shots of the same email! People read novels at bedtime or on the subway…not at their desks at work. How many worthy agencies’ newsletters do you delete without reading? And then you feel guilty. So unfair.
Also, look at the distracting stuff all down the right side…your eye doesn’t know where to go! Maybe it’s just me, but when I’m bombarded with too much info, I tune out or go pet the dog.
Keep It Short.
The important thing is to blog – or film – about things that are really interesting to you…and then let your interest be apparent to the audience. That interest will reinforce your main message, but it has to be more than “we are a great medical center that deserves your support”.
What I like is short, relevant blasts of info every few days…and if you’re making enough noise in your community, you should be able to do that. Not everyone will read every post or email blast, but they’ll get a short, tiny reminder: “We are here!” Remember Horton and the Whos.
“ No one reads the paper anymore.”…so, if that’s true, it’s crucial to use your blog, website, twitter, Facebook and constant contact to ensure the message is not missed.
Appeal to emotion. It will never stop working. People will forget what you said. They will even forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel. Thanks, Maya Angelou.
By the time November 4 rolled around, the ballot in Santa Clara County was at record length, with dozens of candidates, measures, and decisions for voters to wade through…and we were near the bottom. The economy had, over the course of the summer, collapsed. Yet, we won in a landslide with 78.12% - the top vote getter on the ballot. More than Barack Obama.
Measure A was a shot in the arm for an increasingly frustrated staff of doctors, nurses, technicians and everyone. The message was clear: The community values what we do, and are willing to step up for us.
With 6,000 employees, VMC was a largely untapped potential resource for donations. The question was had to ask ourselves: If we build a social media component, and try to make it a fun campaign, will VMC’s staff – stretched the limit and facing more layoffs – embrace this or rebel against it?
By July 2009, the “Give a Booster Shot” campaign had raised more than twice the goal we set originally.
We’re just scratching the surface on some of these products, but there seems to be an idea floating around that “if you build it, they will come.” I don’t buy that. If you build it, and it’s fun or engaging, and interesting, and has a personality, and you DO THE WORK, then they might come! The VMC Foundation built this page a couple weeks ago, and we have only 240+ “fans” so far…but it’s interesting to see that of the six fans shown on this screen, four are elected officials in Silicon Valley. The story about our Congressman is getting massive buzz, and is helping us in a variety of ways.
