Hospital Foundation Seeks to Bolster Donor Pride

Hoping to motivate its community to become more active in donating to its foundation, Welland Hospital this week launched an advertising campaign featuring patient experiences and how the hospital has affected patient lives. The Welland, Canada hospital, which is just over the New York border, is trying to raise $561,000 this year to buy new equipment. The ad campaign emphasizes how much equipment helps patients reach positive outcomes.

"We have to get people in the community thinking about what donation means," Heather Scott, executive director of the foundation, told Niagra This Week. "There is a shortage of equipment all the time."

Scott said she hopes the campaign will help people better understand the hospital foundation's importance and how it benefits patient care. It also aims to increase donor pride.

The marketing team decided the best way to do this was to put a human face to the subject, but it was not easy to find people willing to be featured.

"To get people to put their face out there is really tough," she said.

Nonetheless, Welland Hospital Foundation did find patient spokespeople willing to tell their stories. One of them, Doug Mann, is a 78-year-old man who had battled multiple sclerosis for 17 years and said the hospital saved his life when they treated him in 2008 for pace-maker complications.

"[The hospital staff] were good to me when I was there," he told the newspaper. "I couldn't have asked for better care."