Grateful Patient Programs Director-Philanthropy
About The Position
The Grateful Patient Programs Director leads the strategy, implementation, and day-to-day operations of a comprehensive, relationship-based grateful patient and family fundraising program across the health system. The role partners with frontline fundraising teams, physicians, clinical leaders and staff, philanthropy colleagues, and research and prospect development teams to build a robust pipeline, accelerate major and principal gifts, and strengthen a culture of philanthropy throughout the system. The Director establishes training, marketing, program oversight, compliant data flows, and performance dashboards to support a best-in-class program aligned with HIPAA and institutional policies. Responsibilities span strategic planning, clinician and physician engagement, prospect pipeline development, operations and compliance, and cross-functional collaboration.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree required.
- Seven to ten years of progressively responsible experience in fundraising, institutional advancement, or health-system philanthropy.
- Track record of success closing major gifts.
- Deep familiarity with donor-centered operations and grateful patient giving is strongly preferred.
- Proficiency with CRM and reporting systems, online databases, and productivity tools such as MS Office.
- Exposure to medicine, healthcare, or science environments.
- Familiarity with HIPAA-compliant data practices.
- Expert knowledge of healthcare fundraising, donor relations, and applicable laws, rules, and policies.
- Strong ethical standards and ability to maintain strict confidentiality.
Nice To Haves
- Advanced degree or relevant certifications.
- Advanced PowerPoint skills.
- Demonstrated experience engaging faculty and clinicians and coordinating across complex institutions to deliver fundraising results.
- Executive presence and persuasive communication skills for diverse audiences.
- Ability to influence and collaborate across a large, matrixed health system.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, including the ability to design metrics, dashboards, and internal controls to measure program effectiveness.
Responsibilities
- Design and drive a multi-year strategy for grateful patient and family giving, supporting identification, engagement, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship that result in major and principal gifts.
- Provide long-term strategic direction, evaluate the program, report on results, and recommend enhancements.
- Establish annual goals, priorities, success measures, and program oversight, including HIPAA-compliant workflows.
- Work with philanthropy frontline leadership and team members to support local and system-wide outreach and promote physician and clinical staff engagement.
- Build trust-based partnerships with frontline philanthropy teams to support their relationships with physicians, nurses, administrators, and staff and identify prospects.
- Develop and lead tailored training and educational initiatives to help clinicians and leaders expand and operationalize consistent grateful patient referrals.
- Prepare and deliver presentations with local philanthropy leaders to increase program awareness and adoption across departments.
- Work with donor relations and local vice presidents to connect with clinicians who receive gifts made in their honor.
- Collaborate with Prospect Development and Reporting teams on patient data loads for top prospects, wealth-screening validation, and gift officer assignment workflows.
- Develop referral-tracking and program-impact systems, including dashboards and regular pipeline reviews.
- Monitor, collect, and communicate biographical and employment updates about physicians, nurses, administrators, and patients to the Data Administration team.
- Ensure strict adherence to HIPAA/PHI requirements and institutional grateful patient policies in programming and data handling.
- Collaborate with marketing, communications, and direct response teams to create materials that increase program visibility and support physician and nursing engagement.
- Foster collaboration across Development, Direct Response, Major and Principal Gifts, Planned Giving, and Corporate/Foundation Relations.
- Participate in key events and institutional meetings and model ethical conduct, integrity, and accountability consistent with health-system values.
Benefits
- Staff are required to be vaccinated against influenza as a condition of employment.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
