February 19, 2012 | Read Time: 3 minutes
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has spent the last 50 years growing into one of America’s biggest charities, but its leaders have been tight-lipped about its fundraising until now. Their reticence to speak about how St. Jude raises more money than any other hospital goes back to the late Richard C. Shadyac Sr., who ran St. Jude’s fundraising arm from 1992 to 2005 and served on its board until he died, in 2009.
“He said we flew under the radar, and that was the reason for our success,” says Richard C. Shadyac Jr., his son. “But today is all about transparency and accountability. It is critically important for nonprofits.”
The younger Mr. Shadyac, 54, applied for his father’s job and was appointed to that role in 2009. He says he is determined to be more open about the charity’s operations.
Praying for Success
St. Jude has always been—and still is—something of a family affair.
The hospital was founded in 1965 by the comedian Danny Thomas. Early in his career, struggling in show business, Mr. Thomas prayed to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes. If he made it as an entertainer, he vowed, he’d build the saint a shrine.
To raise money for the hospital, Mr. Thomas decided he would mostly reach out to people who, like him, were of Lebanese descent. He created the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities, the hospital’s fundraising arm, and with his wife, Rose Marie, crisscrossed the country, speaking at Lebanese and Syrian neighborhood associations and clubs. It was at one such event in a bowling alley that the elder Mr. Shadyac, another Lebanese American, first learned about St. Jude.
In his autobiography, Make Room for Danny, Mr. Thomas wrote that he was defensive about his lack of education; he had dropped out of high school to pursue his show-business career. Yet people who knew him at St. Jude say his lack of education didn’t get in the way of building an organizational structure that has enabled St. Jude to smash medical and fundraising records.
For example, Mr. Thomas insisted that the hospital build just one cafeteria on its campus to make sure that St. Jude’s researchers, doctors, and fundraising staff routinely interacted with patients and their families. That has helped foster a culture in which the hospital achieved groundbreaking treatments for many childhood illnesses, officials at St. Jude say.
Years before the hospital was built, Mr. Thomas created an entirely separate fundraising arm for St. Jude that has its own board and staff. That way, the hospital’s medical staff can concentrate on treating patients and improving survival rates without getting pulled into efforts to find and retain donors.
Also in the fundraising arena, St. Jude officials recall, Mr. Thomas often said he’d much rather get one million people to give $1 each to St. Jude than find a single donor to contribute $1-million.
Many Small Gifts
Although it has branched out into new forms of fundraising over the years, the hospital still relies heavily on grass-roots events, direct mail, and other activities that produce modest gifts from large numbers of people. That has helped St. Jude weather downturns in the economy better than it might have otherwise, officials say,
Before Mr. Thomas died in 1991, he said he wanted to be buried on the grounds of St. Jude with Rose Marie by his side. Their three children, the actress Marlo Thomas, Terre Thomas, and Tony Thomas, a Hollywood producer, are frequent visitors. Following their parents’ example, they all continue to be strong fundraisers for St. Jude.
Marlo Thomas, for example, hosts a one-hour telethon that recruits monthly donors. And it was her idea to start Thanks and Giving, an eight-year-old corporate fundraising campaign in which companies donate a portion of their product sales or ask customers to give to St. Jude during the holiday season. Last year’s Thanks and Giving campaign raised more than $64-million.
