Interview Story - Overcame a Challenge

During my first year at the Heart Association, I was looking for a Corporate leader to be our Heart of Philadelphia Honoree at our next Heart Ball Gala. Finding the right person to honor is critical to the success of the Heart Ball Campaign.

There are so many aspects to consider when choosing an honoree: would they be a good honoree, do they have gravitas, would they engage in the mission, do they have a good reputation, would they help with fundraising, who could they recruit to Chair it or put on the committee? Have they been honored before? The criteria can be overwhelming.

I had developed a list of possibilities, I did background research, reached out to old colleagues around town, spoke to the committee and board members who could help weigh in on the list.

After gathering the research, the AHA Board Chair and I prioritized the list. We made our first ask – our top pick – in late May. The ask went well but we did not get an immediate answer. After repeated follow-up - we were getting put off. A few months went by and still no answer, until finally in late July he said no.

This was a mistake. I should have read the signs and realized he was going to say no. I should have continued down the list to make more asks. Worse, we lost time in our campaign, and it made it more stressful, once we finally got someone else on board. The fundraising timeline became very compressed. The campaign got back on track. I realized this approach was not optimal, nor best practice.

In subsequent years, I made it the norm for all of our initiatives to have 3 years of chairpeople/honorees lined up for future campaigns, making campaigns less stressful and more successful. I also learned there is no risk in asking multiple people at once. You can always slot them in a future year.

The Board of Directors eventually created a Leadership subcommittee whose work was devoted to help our fundraising campaigns identify Campaign Chairs and Honorees. Having the right chair/honoree is critical to the success of a fundraising campaign. This was a huge help to me and other senior staff leading campaigns.