BWH Launches $500M Capital Campaign

Brigham and Women’s Hospital has launched an aggressive capital campaign aimed at raising $500 million in philanthropic gifts by December 2012. The campaign was launched quietly last year, and, as of December 2007, the hospital had raised $124.4 million.

“BWH has a tremendous commitment to improving health care for underserved communities here in Boston, the United States and across the globe, and to do so, we rely on the philanthropic investment of individuals and foundations that share our mission,” BWH President Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, said during the hospital’s annual fund-raising events in Palm Beach in January.

This year’s events marked the 12th year BWH physicians, scientists and leaders have gathered with generous donors in Palm Beach. Myra and Robert Kraft hosted an event on the future of global health with Jim Kim, MD, PhD, and Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities. Beth Martignetti and her mother-in-law, Teresa Martignetti, hosted this year’s women’s health event, “Healthy Eating, Healthy Living: Bridging Science, Healthcare and the Culinary Arts.”

The annual dinner at the Breakers, hosted by Judie and Larry Schlager, focused in part on cardiovascular medicine and BWH’s new and exciting chapters on transformational impact of researchers and physicians. BWH leaders shared details about the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center.

“We’re proud to tell you about this remarkable facility and the people and programs it will support,” Gottlieb said. “And as we enter the second year of our capital campaign, the momentum will increase, as we share the funding priorities for the most promising projects and programs.”

The messaging around the campaign is built on six pillars echoing the classic façade of the Peter Bent Brigham building: expert care, pioneering research, breakthrough technologies, exceptional education, community and global outreach and superior facilities.

The capital campaign draws its inspiration from and builds support for the hospital’s five clinical Centers of Excellence: Cardiovascular, Neurosciences, Orthopedics and Arthritis, Women’s Health and Cancer Care. Specialty areas that often attract and influence donors include Allergy/Immunology, Community Health, Emergency Medicine, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, global medicine, Nursing, integrated care, patient safety and transplantation.

In addition, the BWH Biomedical Research Institute encompasses all the laboratory research aligned with the clinical Centers of Excellence.

“We’re embarking on this campaign to provide a rallying point for all of BWH and our donors and volunteers,” said Patty Hill-Callahan, interim chief Development officer. “BWH’s high quality care, groundbreaking research and focused education and training often speak for themselves, but through this campaign, we can make a powerful case for support to donors and grateful patients.”

BWH has benefited in recent years from increased philanthropy, averaging nearly 20 percent annual growth from 2000 to 2007. Each year 2000 to 2003, BWH has raised an average of $36 million. From 2004 to 2007, the annual giving to BWH averaged $60 million.

“Our goal for the remainder of the campaign is to average $90 million annually from 2008 to 2012,” said Deb Curran, senior director in Development and director of the capital campaign.

With the ultimate goal tied to building BWH’s prospect pool and donor base, the capital campaign calls for expanding the volunteer leadership groups. As the Development Office has seen its staff grow to 52, the volunteer leadership committees, including the Board of Trustees, honorary trustees and officers, the trust board and overseers, have grown from 50 members to more than 125 members.

Leadership committees are built around the hospital’s five clinical Centers of Excellence and the BRI, with groups also leading fund-raising efforts in support of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities and the Global Health Leadership Council. The Friends of BWH are actively engaged, and the year-old Physician and Scientist Fundraising Program (PSFP) has an active role in the campaign. The PSFP is led by a committee chaired by BWH cardiac surgeon Lawrence Cohn, MD.