As a non-profit health care provider, donations are important to Northwell Health. Donations fund innovation, research, enterprise and the vital care delivered to communities, helping Northwell reach their goal of defining the health care of tomorrow. When our clients wanted to boost donations and reach their goal more quickly, they asked for our help to look inward as well as outward, to create an employee giving programme that their 72,000 employees could get behind.
As always, we started with a deep-dive into Northwell’s culture, speaking to hundreds of employees to understand what mattered most when they donated. As well as uncovering lots of information, we also discovered some critical knowledge gaps – for example, lots of employees didn’t even know Northwell was not for profit. That meant we had to start with education, as well as emotion.
In the first phase, we created our rally cry – What matters most. This was backed by a storytelling campaign to raise awareness of the incredible impact Northwell has on the patients and communities it serves. We launched with a high-impact film featuring employees and patients, plus a giant environmental timeline showcasing the stories of people who give back. We also used stories across internal channels and at roadshows, harnessing storytelling’s power to build pride and create commitment.
In phase two, when we asked employees to donate their time at a series of flagship events. Events included the Northwell Health Walk, where thousands of New Yorkers walk side by side to promote equal access to quality health care, and Casual for Cohen, where employees wear denim to work in exchange for a donation to Cohen Children’s Medical Center. By highlighting Northwell’s fantastic activity calendar, we showed What matters most in action, demonstrating that Northwell people can change lives when they come together.
The next step was to embed giving into employee touchpoints, and ask employees to contribute through one-time donations, payroll giving or the recognition scheme. We designed a large-scale yearly event to showcase causes and supporters – the What matters most Relay. The relay ran for six weeks, with a baton travelling between 12 sites to promote giving and celebrate what had been achieved, culminating in a huge celebration on December 3, National Giving Day – renamed Northwell Giving Day.
We also introduced an Ambassador network – a team of employees to advocate and drive participation and support leaders with information and events. We designed and delivered bespoke training to help them understand the causes, with practical tips for sharing stories and creating impactful events. They’re supported by an interactive toolkit, monthly calls and a dedicated buddy from the Northwell Foundation team.
In total, leaders and employees have contributed $12m, with $2million raised specifically for causes like breaking ground on the Gruppuso Family Women and Newborn Center at Staten Island University Hospital and NICU updates at Cohen Children’s Medical Center. But of course, What matters most is about more than money. It’s about uniting team members behind a common purpose and cause. We’re so proud of the giving culture we’ve helped to create and can’t wait to see What matters most in 2020 and beyond.
“We work here because we want to be part of making people’s lives better. We all do that by coming to work every day and doing our job. We can also choose to say ‘I believe in Northwell’ and support the employee giving programme.”
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