A stagnant annual-giving program prompted changes to how City of Hope approaches donor cultivation and acquisition that, in many ways, defy conventional fundraising wisdom.

By Abny Santicola

City of Hope realized it had a problem. In 2005, the now 95-year-old Los Angeles-based biomedical research, treatment and educational institution had been mailing an average of 11 annual appeals for about five years. But a changing of the guard that led to a fresh analysis of the development department’s overall effectiveness revealed no growth in net revenue from annual appeals since the program was first outsourced in 2000.