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

It was a major red flag for Diana Keim, senior director of development at City of Hope, who was among the new leadership staff to come aboard in 2005. She concluded that the annual-giving department wasn’t being a good steward of City of Hope’s money and needed to find a way to “right the ship.”

The department reviewed who its partners were, what its messaging was and, ultimately, what it wanted out of its direct-mail program. City of Hope had done its first direct-mail campaign in-house as part of its annual-giving program in 1983. It continued to do so for nearly two decades until 2000, when it decided to outsource the program.