Location
Indianapolis, IN
Sector
Health

In 2017, Indiana University Health (IU Health), the largest and most comprehensive healthcare system in Indiana, was in a transformative period and ready to realize some of its long-term plans. Among those plans was integrating the 12 separate foundations/development offices across the system into a single IU Health Foundation. The Foundation team knew that transitioning from a decentralized operating model to a centralized structure would require both critical planning and detailed preparation to realize its long-term strategic goals.

The initial project involved completing a regional site analysis to inventory the nuanced operations practices across the various foundations/development offices. The results of the analysis then informed the strategic planning activities necessary to develop the right structure, determine the right priorities, and designate the right resources to achieve centralized operations that support premier donor services.

“Because of our long-term partnership, we have a consolidated foundation, with streamlined staff and business processes. We are now able to capitalize on grateful patient initiatives and offer donor-centric and effective best practices. We are now a well-running machine.”
Heather Perdue
Vice President, Campaigns and Philanthropy • IU Health Foundation

Subsequent phases of work built on that framework and included conducting site and primary database assessments; aggregating all regional data into the centralized Raiser’s Edge NXT database; establishing best practices related to policy, grateful patient practices, GL setup, and campaign preparation; and strategic planning for data governance, report dashboards, and long-term database needs. IU Health Foundation continues to partner with BWF in the creation and deployment of executive dashboards to leverage the organization’s centralized data.

In the end, IU Health was successful in merging multiple regional foundation databases, creating a long-term grateful patient fundraising data management strategy, conducting statistical data analysis related to capacity planning for campaign goals, and establishing its first data governance initiatives.

IU Health utilized the Business Process Optimization service offered by BWF to improve their foundation operations. To learn more about this solution, click here.