AHP International Conference 2026
Meet the DHS philanthropy team in Nashville!
We’re exhibiting and speaking at the AHP International Conference. Stop by our booth, hear from our clients on October 8th, or book time with our team to talk about turning grateful patients into lifelong donors.
Hear From Our Clients on October 8th
Join our team and partners on stage for a case study from Inova Health System and a conversation about building a culture of curiosity.
October 8
3:00–3:45 PM CT
Filling Inova’s Missing Middle: How Gratitude, Data and AI Fuels a Mid-Level Pipeline
Inova’s progress towards their $500M comprehensive campaign has been anchored by transformational gifts and a robust annual fund. But their donor pyramid faced a common challenge: a “missing middle.” To bridge this gap, Inova built an integrated mid-level to leadership annual giving program designed to identify and convert high-value prospects through coordinated pathways.
In this session, learn how Inova fuels its pipeline using a gratitude-driven strategy powered by AI and predictive analytics. By leveraging machine learning and CRM-driven business rules, they leveraged automated digital outreach to identify high-propensity patient prospects, allowing fundraisers to focus on deepening high-value relationships. Participants will walk away with a roadmap for aligning staffing, data infrastructure, and marketing automation to build a foundation-wide strategy that scales engagement and maximizes ROI.
Learning format and outcomes
Format: Case study
- How to build a qualified mid-level audience, including data inputs, audience attributes and tracking.
- Define the elements needed for a successful mid-level program, including workflows, content, roles and responsibilities and KPIs.
- Establish technical requirements to scale a mid-level program using automation.
Speakers
-
Alex Tauscher
Director of Philanthropy
Inova Health System
-
Jonathan Sills
SVP, Philanthropy Activation
Digital Health Strategies
-
Jessica Bartlett
Senior Account Director
Digital Health Strategies
-
Marlies Bronner
Philanthropy Officer
Inova Health System
October 8
4:00–4:45 PM CT
The Other Nonprofit Cultures: Curiosity, Experimentation, and Innovation
How do we create a culture where asking questions, discussing new ideas, welcoming different perspectives, and learning from mistakes are encouraged?
This session explores how curiosity leads to a culture of experimentation, where ideas and expectations shape how donor research is done, and where creativity and new ideas are embedded in daily work with every stakeholder.
Learning outcomes
- How to build a culture that values asking “why” and “what if,” where listening is valued and new ideas and different perspectives are embraced.
- How to build a culture of experimentation where failures are seen as learning opportunities and all team members are encouraged to try new things.
- How to build a culture of innovation that sees challenges as learning opportunities, bringing team members together to try new techniques that advance the organization’s mission and its work with donors, beneficiaries, and clients.
- How to test new techniques and, when they succeed, implement them and recognize their value.
Speakers
-
Jack Alotto
Senior Trainer
Sanford Institute of Philanthropy at National University
-
Bree Muehlbauer
AVP, Philanthropy Activation
Digital Health Strategies
Grateful patient programs that earn trust + gifts.
We identify and activate high-value patient donors across annual, mid-level, and major gift levels, powered by clinical intelligence your wealth screener will never see.
Our clinically-intelligent philanthropy model activates the full enterprise — clinicians, gift officers, patient experience, and frontline staff — around the patients most ready to give at the moment most likely to convert.
- Understand the care journey Cancer, cardiac, maternity: each care experience creates a different path to gratitude and giving. We map them all.
- Identify giving readiness earlier Clinical signals, gratitude expressions, and engagement data tell us who is ready, long before a wealth screen would find them.
- Personalize by patient-donor phenotype Not segments. Living profiles built from each patient’s actual care experience, giving history, and expressed gratitude.
- Activate the full enterprise Gift officers, clinicians, patient experience, and frontline staff, all coordinated around the right patient at the right moment.
- $1.4B Donor dollars raised across DHS programs
- 88% Increase in new donors in year one
- 55% YOY increase in annual giving revenue at Inova Health System
- $300K In new major gifts from first-time patient donors in 4 months
Clinically-Intelligent Philanthropy: The New Model for Accelerating Patient-to-Donor Conversion
Three out of four donors begin as patients, and 70% of major gifts trace back to an early care experience. Yet most foundations still see net worth before they see the patient. This report lays out the operating model that changes that, grounded in first-year results at a $4.5B health system with a $200M philanthropy program.
What’s inside
- Why traditional patient-to-donor conversion breaks down, and the legacy practices that cause foundations to miss 63% of their high-value donors.
- How care journey intelligence, patient-donor phenotypes, and enterprise-wide engagement identify giving readiness earlier and personalize outreach at scale.
- The Inova case study: a 55% annual giving lift, $300K in new major gifts within 4 months, and 514 new physician champions in under a year.
Download the report
Complete the form to get your copy.
All fields are mandatory. By submitting this form you consent that we may contact you via the email address you provide. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Privacy notice.
Let’s find time to talk in Nashville.
Book a meeting with our philanthropy team during the conference, and we’ll walk through how clinically-intelligent philanthropy could work for your foundation.
Book a time to meet (opens in a new tab)