New Trend Alert: Digital Grateful Patient Programs
By Nat Philp, Content and Account Manager
January 12, 2022
It’s time to turn your grateful patient program digital. As more and more of your supporters use online channels to engage and donate, it’s critical to your fundraising efforts that you be on the leading edge of the trends that drive success and growth for your organization. Taking this step can save you time and money and cultivate your donors in a new and exciting way. And getting this started may be simpler than you’d expect. Let’s break it down:
What is a digital grateful patient program?
Turning your grateful patient program digital accomplishes everything that your existing program does — without the headache and cost of direct mail and other channels. Instead, you’ll use the power of email and automation to reach discharged patients in a timely and efficient manner, driving them to a customized web application to share their stories, honor their caregivers, and donate to your organization.
Why is it effective?
- It’s cheaper. The return on investment (ROI) for email marketing programs averages $38, while direct mail ROI is just $7. That’s because emailing your grateful patients saves you money on printing and postage, and your list can grow exponentially without your costs increasing. (Source: Marketing Profs)
- It’s where your supporters are. Online giving has increased by an average of 32.4% year over year since 2019. And 47% of donors over the age of 60 gave online in 2019. On top of that, the pandemic has fueled the shift to digital in just the past two years. Fewer households are responsive to direct mail, and more are turning to email for their day-to-day work. Your grateful patient fundraising should be following these trends, too. (Source: The Blackbaud Institute)
- It gives you the advantage of time. Discharged patients are 33% less likely to make a grateful patient donation after 30 days from their discharge. By digitizing your program, you can begin to foster relationships with potential donors before they even leave your facility, and follow up in a timely manner once they are at home. Using an automated process backed by data and statistics ensures that you’ll reach your patients at the right time. (Source: The Advisory Board)
- It builds your email list for free. Other non-profit organizations spend millions of dollars building and cultivating their supporter and donor lists. On the other hand, hospital foundations have the benefit of a steady stream of discharged patients that you can speak to and convert to loyal supporters and donors. By digitizing your grateful patient program, you can add thousands to your email list practically overnight.
What are the results?
Don’t just take our word for it. Digital grateful patient programs are driving results for non-profit hospital foundations of all sizes right now. One of our clients implemented a digital grateful patient program and grew their email list by 500% within one year. On top of that, they converted one patient into a $1 million+ donor within 6 months of receiving a grateful patient email message.
Are you ready for a digital grateful patient program? We’re here to help.
We’re experts in building digital grateful patient programs that work for our client’s specific needs. We’ve helped non-profit hospital foundations of all sizes grow their email lists, honor their caregivers, and raise more money.
Our Honor Your Caregiver℠ platform provides you with every tool you need to get this done. Within 90 days, we’ll help you launch a digital grateful patient program with customized messaging and content, a dedicated online platform for patients to share a story and make a contribution, and automated workflows to streamline the process from discharge to donation.
Ready to learn more? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out to us and our member of our team would be happy to chat!
