One Nonprofit Looks to Service Recipients as Potential Donors

February 26, 2015 | Read Time: 2 minutes

HealthWell Foundation, a nonprofit that helps people struggling to pay medical bills, launched its first direct-mail campaign at an inauspicious time: right as the economy collapsed in late 2008.

Predictably, that initial campaign inspired little giving.

And so with the 2009 holiday season approaching, the Maryland-based group tried a different approach.

Since its founding in 2003, HealthWell has received regular thank-you notes from the people it serves. After some deliberation, the organization decided to send one of those notes to the rest of its client list with a modest request for donations.

The response was overwhelming. About 5 percent of recipients donated—a response rate far higher than normal direct-mail campaigns.

Since then, HealthWell has converted 17,000 beneficiaries into donors, according to Shela Halper, the organization’s director of strategic development and marketing. The average gift from these donors is $20 to $25, and about 54 percent give a second time.

HealthWell solicits donations only from its beneficiaries, eschewing broader campaigns entirely after its 2008 letdown.

“Looking at our beneficiaries and their responses, it made sense to focus our resources there,” says Ms. Halper.

She concedes, however, that the thought of asking clients for money was unpalatable at first.

“These are people who are struggling,” she says. “They are coming to us for financial support. We were very sensitive to the fact.”

But the enthusiastic response and the fact that HealthWell hasn’t received any complaints about the fundraising tactic emboldened the organization to continue. Often, Ms. Halper says, the donations come from former beneficiaries who have recovered from their money woes or relatives of those who received aid.

HealthWell’s success poses a dilemma for social-service nonprofits: When, if ever, is it OK to ask clients for financial support? And does that contradict the organization’s mission?

Ms. Halper notes that her organization used to receive unsolicited notes and money from clients who wanted to “pay it forward.” She believes HealthWell simply developed an official channel for that impulse.

“We discovered that the best audience of our message was right here,” says Ms. Halper.