A Grateful Patient Program (GPP) serves as a bridge between care delivery and philanthropy, and many healthcare organizations are leaving donations on the table by not incorporating GPPs into their donor strategies. In fact, a recent benchmark study found that 86% of hospitals with digital GPPs saw more new donors, and 93% reported larger first-time gifts.
GPPs are structured fundraising initiatives that connect healthcare organizations with patients who’ve recently had positive healthcare experiences, precisely when they are more inclined to give back. Hospitals, academic medical centers, and all sorts of healthcare-related non-profit organizations use these sorts of campaigns to fundraise. What makes these campaigns so successful is that they offer a unique blend of patient gratitude and donor engagement.
Despite these types of campaigns being built around positive experiences, they still require some nuance to execute properly. Let’s take a look at some of the best practices for anyone looking to execute an effective Grateful Patient Program, along with some of the best tools and practices that separate a successful GPP from a subpar one.
Why are Grateful Patient Programs important?
Imagine you or a loved one has just come through a major surgery. Something life-altering, possibly complex, or quite serious. Most importantly, you’re home and mostly or completely recovered. But at the same time, you’re feeling more than a little changed. You’ve just experienced a major life event, and during that time, your care team brought some comfort to a vulnerable and possibly frightening time of your life. How can you give back?
The emotional moments surrounding great patient care are the foundation of Grateful Patient Programs. The best programs can turn that feeling directly into impact, not just for the sake of donations, but to support the continuation of great care and your organization’s vision.
Additionally, the people who experience these transformations are often the most willing to give back. But without a system, these people who are actively interested in ways to support your organization could be missed, leaving generosity untapped. Depriving them of an opportunity to give and yourself a chance to raise funding is a lose-lose. Thankfully, there are ways to avoid that. Strategically, the numbers show that it isn’t difficult when proper systems are in place. Grateful Patient Programs can make up significant shares of large gifts. In fact, one study by Accordant found that 88% of large gifts to healthcare come from grateful patients and families.
While revenue-driven, successful GPPs are obviously more than that. A well-run GPP centers on human stories and helps to leverage those moments into more. Let’s get into the details of what makes a successful Grateful Patient Program.
Considerations for your Grateful Patient Program
Before we launch into the specifics of what makes a GPP successful, there are a few considerations worth mentioning. While not always a reason to hesitate, they do help to set a foundation for a program that works. You can have all the software and team members to succeed, but there are critical components to a successful GPP. Without them, even the most well-intentioned GPP could fail.
1. HIPAA and its impact on healthcare fundraising
The most important consideration is unique to GPPs and healthcare fundraising, and that’s privacy. Any fundraising that involves patient information always needs to be handled in full compliance with HIPAA laws and any privacy regulations or state-specific laws. After HIPAA was enacted by Congress in 1996, only a patient’s demographic information, health insurance status, and dates of service could be used for philanthropic purposes. That, however, has changed.
In the HIPAA Omnibus Rule published on Jan 25, 2013, the laws were updated to grant greater protection of a patient’s personal data and ultimately clarified limitations and uses as they pertain to fundraising. The Provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) expanded on what hospitals could use for fundraising. Now, the information fundraising teams can leverage has expanded to include patient demographics, the treating physician’s name, and the specific area or department of care. With the caveat that prior to any outreach or fundraising, the fundraising entity must provide the individual with a copy of its Notice of Privacy Practices, which includes the statement that they may be contacted for fundraising efforts and that they may elect not to receive fundraising materials and have the option to opt out of future communications.
The latest HIPAA guidelines are instrumental in personalizing fundraising and have been a game-changer for prospect cultivation. Additionally, these provisions open up the opportunity for direct collaboration between physicians and the development team. This added relational factor can help with better identification of prospective GPP donors, and a lot more. Still, it’s important that there are systems in place to protect patients, even with these expanded provisions.
2. Timing is critical
The second consideration is timing. Patients may be open to communication and eventually giving back, but the nature of the relationship is, of course, sensitive. The window in which a patient is receptive is particular. Too early and outreach may feel invasive, too late, and the moment may have passed. In order to best optimize prospecting during the most apt window for outreach, it’s important to coordinate with clinical staff and those who are in direct contact with the patient. If a patient or their connection is ready for a conversation, the physician will know best. You must consider whether your organization has the infrastructure to enact this properly.
“In a survey study that included 513 members of a US national survey panel with data weighted to be representative of the US population, 47.0% responded that physicians giving patient names to hospital fundraising staff after asking patients’ permission was definitely or probably acceptable…“
Source: Public Attitudes Regarding Hospitals and Physicians Encouraging Donations From Grateful Patients
3. Physician engagement is key
There needs to be some type of relationship or trust established with the physician in question. Some physicians (understandably) are hesitant to participate in fundraising, often due to concerns about patient trust, discomfort with the topic, or skepticism about the program itself. Understanding where your physicians stand early on will help you determine how much support and communication will be needed before the program can operate effectively.
4. Assign roles at each step of your Grateful Patient Program
Finally, it’s worth talking about team alignment. Who’s responsible for identifying prospects? Outreach? Follow-up? Many of these elements may be done by a single person, but it’s still important to have everything clearly defined. Without clarity and coordination, mistakes can happen. And in healthcare settings particularly, unprofessionalism is not well-regarded. Confusion and inefficiency are the greatest obstacles for great GPPs.
After making note of these pre-considerations, it’s then easier to properly assess your organization’s circumstances. Then, assess whether it is time for your organization to launch or revamp its Grateful Patient Program. Whether you’re launching a GPP or reconsidering the effectiveness of your program in motion, the seven steps below will guide you through that process.
Seven steps to execute an effective Grateful Patient Program
Once the groundwork is in place, you can focus on executing an effective GPP. At the risk of sounding repetitive, Grateful Patient Programs are only as strong as the systems behind them. You can have intent, tools, and even a pool of willing donors, but without structure, the effort is likely to fall flat. Whether you’re starting fresh or adjusting an existing program, the focus is the same: build something that runs smoothly, fits your organization, and leads to real results. Here’s how to do it.
1. Build the team and scaffolding
There needs to be clear ownership and structure. Someone should be directly responsible for managing the program. Common titles for this role include development officers, major gifts lead, or GPP manager. Whatever you call them (or yourself), define the role clearly and who oversees each part of the funnel:
- Screening
- Outreach
- Stewardship
- Reporting
At the same time, take a moment to check your internal systems. Are you HIPAA-compliant? Is your CRM capable of managing patient data? Whatever that looks like for your team specifically, make sure that nobody is working in silos and there are tools in place to enable cross-functional awareness amongst critical stakeholders.
2. Implement wealth screening and donor segmentation
If there’s one priority element that distinguishes highly efficient, optimized, and effective GPP initiatives from the rest, it’s effective donor prospect research. This is where wealth screening and donor segmentation tools come into play. These tools are critical to prioritizing donor outreach. They supercharge healthcare fundraising by ensuring you understand your donors up front, before making the initial ask. Also, with wealth screening and donor segmentation tools, you can find more potential donors and segment them by giving propensity. Wealth screening and donor segmentation tools like Altrata use unique signals like demographics, lifestyles, and past philanthropic data to assess capacity and likelihood to give. For modern campaigning, these platforms are essential.
Not every patient (grateful or otherwise) is a major gift prospect, and that’s okay. The process of segmentation helps your team spend less time on low-fit “donor prospects” and more time on real prospects with a verified propensity to give. The best platforms can screen and link electronic health records (EHRs), automating this step from the start.
Sophisticated wealth screening and donor segmentation tools like Altrata turn a patient list into a qualified donor prospect list while at the same time giving you signals for the best results.
3. Enrich your donor database
After you’ve screened and segmented your patient lists, you’ll need to ensure your data is as holistic as possible. In the healthcare industry, many organizations are forced to work with donor records that don’t have relevant information or are just outdated. Addressing these issues can make sure there are no outreach gaps, ineffective messaging, or missed opportunities.
Altrata and other tools like it can assist in the process by pulling in other data points, namely things like wealth, career, real estate, other assets, giving history, and more. It isn’t hard to see how adding in this context while prospecting can give your team a more effective lever. Let alone the benefits down the line when your team is equipped with data that drives meaningful donor connections. The possibilities for effective outreach increase 10x when your team is given the means to personalize their outreach and make their next ask with the confidence that they truly understand their prospective donor. An enriched database with relevant and timely data makes it easier to act with precision and make better decisions. Particularly when it isn’t just “more” data, but the right data.
4. Prioritize high-value prospects
Now that we’ve segmented our prospects and enriched our database for hyper-personalized approaches, it’s time to actually start donor outreach. Specifically, knowing who to focus on first. Not everyone has the same potential, and using data to make those decisions is a big time saver.
Some of the best tools right now in this space are lead scoring and lookalike modeling. Go here to see it in action. These tools can help find individuals who resemble your ideal donors, even if they haven’t donated before. The benefit of using these tools, as opposed to solely using intuition, is that they are able to pick up on signals that may otherwise go ignored. Someone may look good on paper, for example, but could be unlikely to convert.
Chasing every lead equally is akin to everyone chasing the ball in kids’ soccer. Be strategic, use tools, and create ranked lists backed by data. It can literally save hours and increase the possibility of meaningful gifts.
5. Know when to reach out to potential grateful patients
As we’ve mentioned already, timing is important when it comes to reaching out to a potentially grateful patient. Otherwise, you risk souring the relationship. Clinical teams are usually the first to know when a patient is open to a conversation, and just as importantly, when they are not.
Developing the networks and communication lines between your team and the clinical staff is the place to start. Once those lines are in place, use them to get context so you can time your outreach. That makes your outreach more effective. A physician will know a patient’s recovery period best. They will also best understand the challenging times that may be ahead. Research recommends reaching out within 30 days of discharge. However, your physician will understand whether additional time is needed depending on the patient’s time for recovery and other outcomes of a respective procedure. When shared appropriately and within HIPAA guidelines, this information helps you tailor your approach so it lands at the right time and in the right way.
6. Personalize donor outreach and stewardship
Once you know who to contact and when, the focus shifts to how. Generic outreach is rarely effective, especially in a GPP where the donor’s connection to your organization is deeply personal. Just think about how many ads you ignore without even realizing it on a daily basis. We mentioned earlier that you should equip your team with tools to personalize their outreach. This is where having that capability pays its dividends. Tailoring your message to reflect the patient’s experience, the department they interacted with, or their interests can make the difference between outreach going ignored and a long-term partnership.
Out-of-the-box data, that goes beyond simple contact and career details enables impactful outreach. Outreach that not only ensures your message reaches your prospect, but that they meaningfully engage with it. Knowing a prospect’s giving history, professional background, or community involvement can help you craft messaging that feels like a billboard with their name on it—nearly impossible to ignore. It shows you have done your homework and that you see them as more than a name on a list.
Additionally, personalized outreach is powerful at all steps of the donor journey. Lasting stewardship through thank-you calls, updates on projects, and even invitations to events can help maintain the connection and encourage future giving.
7. Maintain compliance and training
We’ve already mentioned the importance of HIPAA laws, but it’s also worth noting that compliance is a legal requirement for dealing with Grateful Patient Programs. Everyone on the team needs to understand what information can and can’t be used for fundraising and how to handle patients properly.
This process also extends to paperwork and documentation. How prospects are being documented, how information from clinical teams is recorded, and donor interactions should all be tracked within your CRM. Systemizing this upfront keeps things flowing and prevents issues arising down the line.
The Grateful Patient Program delta: what sets great programs apart
Strong execution is the foundation. Our seven steps above will help you get started but even after implementing those steps there will always be room to optimize an existing campaign. The real delta between a good GPP and a great one is found in the details. Data flows in and is processed in a way that leads to quick action and capitalizes on positive care experiences, first points of contact are short, records are complete and accessible, and continued personalized outreach and engagement strategies follow, enabled by actionable data.
If you aspire to a Grateful Patient Program that meets the criteria to be deemed “great” communication really needs to feel personal from the start. This is the real superweapon that sets GPPs apart. A patient who hears from someone who understands their story is more likely to connect to a meaningful opportunity to give. Generic attempts to connect get generic results.
On top of that, there’s a rhythm required to establish meaningful, long-term connections. First gifts from patients are acknowledged fast. That first gift moment can really set the tone for a lifetime of meaningful impact from that individual. It ultimately shows intention and true care, and over time, that turns into trust. When you layer in physician participation here, you have a great recipe for quality connection. Insights and introductions between clinical workers and your fundraising and development team set the groundwork here.
How to jump the Grateful Patient Program gap (and make your program great)
So, now it’s time to optimize that pipeline, process data effectively, and leverage hyper-personalization in your prospecting efforts. Altrata provides the tools to get started, and the tools for repeated, long-term success.
The gap between good and great comes down to how well you can identify, prioritize, and connect with the right donors. The secret sauce here is combining wealth intelligence with donor insights to drive results in what would otherwise be an unqualified donor prospect list.
Understanding capacity and propensity to give
When you can see someone’s ability and willingness to give, you can stop guessing and start focusing on the prospects with potential. As far as time-savers go, this is among the top. Spending hours reaching out to poorly optimized lists is a drain on the entire team.
Spotting donors where you didn’t before
Good programs talk to their donors and the people they know. Great programs find people they should know. Using the right analytics, you can spot prospects who share the same key traits as your best donors or are connected to them but haven’t given yet.
Starting warm
Direct connections are always better than cold intros. Being able to connect with someone through a mutual connection you weren’t aware of is key to driving successful outreach across industries, not just donor outreach. It is one of the most successful tools to drive more donor connections around. People like talking to people they’ve been recommended by someone they trust, not strangers.
Personalize, personalize, personalize
For the final time, we’re going to hammer home the power of personalization. Detailed and curated profiles on the world’s wealthy individuals give you the tools to connect the dots between your program’s vision or mission and the interests of the prospect. Reinforcing that connection through repetition and hyper-personalization is the way to succeed in the modern gifting landscape. Personalization is not limited to your messaging. It can also impact your outreach and engagement strategies. Do most of your donors share an interest in cancer research? Plan an event centered around showcasing your organization’s work in that regard. Consider sending a mailer with a comprehensive update on the funds your organization is allocating to cancer outreach. Personalization not only drives successful engagement. It also expands the possibilities for engagement.
Do your homework
A complete profile also keeps your program on solid ground. It makes sure every approach is thoughtful, appropriate, and aligned with your values.
This is not just theory, either. One healthcare organization used Altrata’s solutions to identify patients with the highest propensity and capacity to give. With the ability to assess their patients’ giving capabilities with data, they increased their gifts to their GPP by 150% for a total of $47M total funds raised. Read the full case study here.
The right intelligence will not replace the human side of your GPP. It will make it stronger. The better you are at finding qualified donors and speaking to them in a way that resonates, the faster you’ll move from good to great.
Bringing it all together
Grateful Patient Programs are some of the most powerful tools in healthcare philanthropy. They’re meaningful, are built on genuine gratitude, and center patients as their driving force. It’s one of the best combinations of relationship and revenue out there.
The most successful programs are intentional, respect patient relationships, operate on great data, and use personalized approaches. They also fine-tune their funnels as they move forward.
Whether you’re looking to start a new program or revitalize your current tone, the opportunity is the same: connect with the right people at the right time while giving them a reason to care about your mission. That gratitude can turn into genuine, lasting partnerships to help deliver even more exceptional care in the future.
Ready to supercharge your Grateful Patient Program? Connect with our team for a customized demo.
Grateful Patient Program and healthcare fundraising FAQs
What is a Grateful Patient Program?
A Grateful Patient Program (GPP) is a fundraising initiative where healthcare organizations reach out to patients who have had positive experiences and could be inclined to give back. They are a combination of patient relationship management and targeted prospecting strategies that can be highly successful.
What does HIPAA mean for grateful patient fundraising?
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is legislation that regulates what patient information can be used for fundraising. Under HIPAA, hospitals can use limited patient information — name, contact details, date of care, department of care, etc. — to identify donors. They can’t use diagnosis or treatment details without direct and explicit permission from the patient.
What is healthcare fundraising?
Healthcare fundraising is the process of raising money, primarily through donations, to support healthcare organizations like hospitals, clinics, and research facilities. It usually occurs through some form of campaign, like an annual initiative or capital drive, planning (recurring) giving, and Grateful Patient Programs. These funds can be used for regular upkeep, new buildings, medical research, and more.
What are healthcare philanthropy best practices?
The best healthcare philanthropy programs are structured, use data well, and personalize their outreach. The important things to remember are:
- Set clear goals
- Keep donor data clean and current
- Segment your donor base based on giving potential and interest
- Maintain great relationships with clinicians
- Steward existing donors well
- Refine campaign performance
The best way to accomplish this is to maintain optimized CRMs, paired with a data and relationship platform.
What are physician engagement best practices for healthcare fundraising?
The best way to engage clinicians and physicians in the context of Grateful Patient Programs is to keep the role simple, comfortable, and clear. Give them clear guidelines on what they can share, offer training on how to identify potential donors, and make sure that participation is always voluntary. Your goal isn’t to turn them into fundraisers, but partners who can help connect grateful patients to opportunities as they come up.
Here is a quick checklist to make sure you’re engaging with your clinicians well in Grateful Patient Programs or healthcare fundraising generally:
- Provide HIPAA-compliant training
- Use opt-in participation
- Integrate referral workflows
- Share patient success stories to show impact
- Protect clinical time and keep fundraising conversations in correct settings
- Update clinicians when there are wins to close the loop and generate excitement