A Giving Community

The average household in Claiborne Parish makes $27,859 a year — far below the $44,334 for the nation, according to 2004 census figures.

But talk to leaders of the fledgling Claiborne Healthcare Foundation, which raises money for capital projects at theparish’s only hospital, Homer Memorial, and you’d think the place was populated with Rockefellers, Gateses and Buffetts. The foundation has set an ambitious, first-campaign goal of raising $1 million by June 30, 2011, to renovate the hospital’s intensive care unit. In only six months, the foundation — incorporated in 2007 — has raised $341,617 in cash and pledges.

If the giving continues at this rate, the ICU project will get under way sooner than later.

 Homer Memorial Hospitall CEO, Doug Efferson

“It is humbling. It is exciting. It is amazing,” gushes Doug Efferson, administrator for the 60-bed Homer Memorial. “We feel like the community supports this hospital. When we go out and ask folks after they pay their bill to also consider making donations to the hospital, you really find out if you have support or not.” Alice Gandy, the foundation’s coordinator and formerly Efferson’s administrative assistant, said not even all of the foundation volunteers have hit the streets yet, but “people come to us and say ‘We want to help.’”

Homer Hospital unique

Homer Memorial, established in 1949, is owned by the town of Homer — Efferson believes it is the only one in the state. No corporate owner; no tax subsidies. And by law, because the hospital is government owned, it cannot use profits for things like roads and bridges. “Every dollar we get is put back into the hospital,” Efferson said. “Right now the hospital is lucky to be net positive.” The profit margin for such hospitals is typically 1 percent or less, leaving little for capital improvements. A previous administrator judiciously saved over seven years to renovate Homer’s emergency department, which opened in April and was the catalyst for the foundation’s ICU effort. Efferson said that without the foundation, it would probably take 12 years to save enough money to update the aging ICU.

Pride steps in

Efferson formerly worked for a hospital system that had an active, growing foundation. More hospitals, including rural ones, are setting up foundations to fund capital projects. Efferson admits he knew little about fundraising, so with the hospital board’s blessing he looked to Pride Philanthropy. Based in Alpharetta, Ga., Pride focuses on health care fundraisingand customizes programs for clients, offering seminars, retreats, training on how to ask for money, feasibility studies and ongoing consultation. Joni King, Pride executive vice president, said the Claiborne foundation is “an outstanding example for having passion.” She explained: “It has really caught on. I think the key part there is they’ve got people who are making an investment in their health care. It takes that community support to make that hospital the best it can be.”

In the case of Homer Memorial, Pride uses a model of committees and volunteers who talk positively about the hospital, Gandy said. “It’s like witnessing,” she said. “It made sense to me.”

The Pride model required that before the foundation went to the community, it had to seek support from hospital employees, managers, doctors and board members. Meetings for employees focused on how renovating the ICU would impact the cafeteria, so employees banded together in their own committee — Developing and Nurturing Caring Employees or DANCE — to raise $80,000 to remodel the cafeteria. Many signed up for payroll deductions. So far, $78,588.73 has been raised in cash and pledges. “They gave,” said Efferson. “Their names are posted in the cafeteria. It’s all about education. It gave them a sense of ownership. Then we went out to the community and said, ‘This is what we have done.’” To drum up support, there were civic club talks, roundtables for business leaders with Efferson, hospital tours, hometown newspaper articles and a foundation newsletter. “It took about a year and a half of prep work to educate the community,” Efferson said. “It has been paying off in all the ways it should.”

‘Point person’ was needed

 Alice Gandy, Claiborne Healthcare Foundation

Her roots run deep in Claiborne. Gandy and her husband, Duffy, live in Athens. Gandy’s step-grandmother was a licensed practical nurse in the hospital that was once in Haynesville. Duffy’s grandfather was one of the parish’s first dairy farmers.“I feel like I have a mission and a purpose that God has for me to work on this,” Gandy said. “This is onething I think can pull this parish together and do something beneficial for residents and tourists. People are not going to move here if you cannot provide health care.” Said Efferson of Gandy, “It never would have gotten off the ground in the community without her.” Gandy has been tireless in promoting thefoundation, sending out 2,300 annual appeal letters, and in particular has been sensitive to the longtime Homer-Haynesville rivalry, making sure that Haynesville was fully represented in the hospital too. “I’ve been able to break down some of those barriers,” she said. Gandy may open her mail one day and finda donation of $100 or $27,000. Many of these large donors are humble; in a place like Claiborne Parish, you do not flaunt wealth. Soliciting these donors requires trust. “Alice,” said Efferson, “is the foundation because she has the connections, and people have respect and confidence in her.”

One man’s story

Sometimes it takes a personal revelation to push an individual to make a commitment. Ronald Day is a good example. Day lives in Homer and is an inspector for the Department of Natural Resources. He doesn’t have a medical background. He does have personal experience. In late 2002, Day went to the Homer Memorial emergency department with symptoms of a heart attack. As he was undergoing tests, his sister came in with a crushed ankle. Both were eventually moved to medical centers in Shreveport, but Day is convinced he might not have made it that far without the Homer emergency department. “I realized how important it is and the need of it,” he said.

In 2004, his mother was on dialysis and would often have to be rushed to Homer Memorial to get stabilized before goingto Shreveport. “I credited that with one of the reasons I had her four more years because of the emergency care she got,” Day said of his late mother. Without the Homer emergency department, “she would have never lived through that day.”Day went to the foundation and expressed his opinions about the hospital. Today, he is chairman of the foundation.

“I just knew the need of it.”