Fighting the Curse of "We've Always Done it This Way"

Krystina Wales
Director of Donor Relations & Stewardship
GMBC Healthcare

GBMC HealthCare revamped our Donor Recognition Event last year with a host of new changes to try and increase attendance. It was a change some liked and some didn't. But what we learned through the process is that sometimes it's more effective to flip an event on its head, rather than to try to patch all its perceived holes.

Like most organizations, our Donor Recognition Event is our annual way to bring donors of a certain level together to thank them for their gifts and communicate impact. Six years ago, that event looked like a sit-down dinner hosted by a donor or physician at their home. Our staff would spend months planning out a new location each year: Can we tent the tennis court? How will we valet in this cul-de-sac? Oh, it's calling for rain? Let's add a covered walkway from the driveway to the patio out back. Where can we place the portable restrooms? To wit.

Anywhere from 125-175 people would join us on a Monday evening in the spring for a cocktail hour, sit-down dinner and presentation that included patients sharing stories and the President & CEO addressing the crowd to thank them. Very little in the way of creativity or individuality separated one year from the next.

During our 50th anniversary, we had the opportunity to switch up the venue to accommodate a larger-than-standard crowd. This was our chance to make changes.

For three years, we held the event at the same venue but switched up the program. We had a famous football player as a keynote once; we invested in large-scale banners with patient quotes at another; we asked nurses and other clinical staff to serve as ambassadors at each table and more. We tried everything to convey impact on multiple mediums, yet nothing seemed to resonate. Attendance was dwindling, and those who were present left content but not wowed.

As the Director of Donor Relations & Stewardship, my discouraged heart sank at the conclusion of each event. As the details I had so lovingly crafted went unnoticed by guest after guest, I thought, “what am I doing wrong?”

In 2018, I stopped trying to patch the holes on this sinking ship.

I moved the event on campus to bring donors “closer to the action.” I picked a Thursday evening, so we weren't trying to stress people out at the outset of their busy weeks with a fun event. We moved the event out a month and under a tent.

And I scrapped the entire program.

Before making any significant change, I reflected on the true purpose for the event: to thank donors. This event was designed to be meaningful for them, to feel appreciated and as if their gifts matter. In the previous years, to me, we hadn't accomplished that goal.

I pivoted. I wanted to make the new iteration fun and exciting for donors. I contracted a caterer and worked on building a menu with unique and fresh food choices to be paired with high-end wines in an upscale wine tasting. We contracted an expert sommelier who broke down each wine and the region it came from. Each food pairing was untraditional, so if a guest didn't care for wine, there was still a unique aspect of the evening for them to enjoy.

Between each flight, as the caterer turned over to the next course, we displayed one-minute animated videos detailing our newest programs and the impact they were making on our community.

Leading up to the event, I ran an email campaign where each month I sent prospective attendees details on the event and how we were doing it differently. And that evening, there were no assigned seats.

I would love to end this article telling you this event was a massive success, that we had record attendance and it's been the talk of Baltimore since May. In reality, it monsooned as guests were arriving, flooding the tent to the point where our logistics team and tent installers were running industrial shop-vacs during cocktail hour. No one seemed to pay any attention to the videos and our sommelier recovered after the first flight when she realized people only wanted to listen to her for about three minutes in between each flight.

I know most of you are laughing because this scenario is completely relatable. But despite those obvious setbacks, donors are asking when the event is next year. Word is getting around that this event was different. They loved the wine. They loved choosing to sit with friends and just have an evening of socializing with great food and expensive wine.

Our team learned some valuable lessons from the experience, and we are making slight adjustments this year. But the biggest thing I learned is doing something they least expect is often the most memorable.