Leadership Advice for CDOs in Rapidly Changing Times

Today at the Leading Forward Executive Summit at the 2023 AHP Convene Canada conference, foundation executives from across Canada got advice for captaining their shops through this time of unprecedented change.?Read on for just a few of the insights they heard.

Show Corporate Partners Your Impact

The way that corporations evaluate charitable partners is changing, according to Brad Offman , founder and managing partner at Spire Philanthropy. Companies used to look at reputation, output, board credibility, and expenses when choosing which charities and nonprofit organizations to support. These factors are still important, but new criteria have emerged. The bar is now not just the strength of your organization's reputation in community, but whether you are serving your entire community, including the underserved and marginalized. Corporations are looking for boards and executive teams that are not just high-performing but also diverse. It's not enough to show impact through numbers of patients served, storytelling, and equipment and capital bought; companies want to see how are people’s lives affected, measured through data.

Keep Your Board's Expectations in Check

Longtime UHN foundation board chair Raj Kothari, FCPA, FCA, MBA counsels not to let your Board get over-involved to the point of interfering with your priorities. Board members don't always realize when their requests will require a lot of staff time, and you need to be sure to balance their excitement with reality. Remember that their heart is in the right place, and be respectful, but also be firm. There is only so much the foundation staff can do, and you need to prioritize the efforts with the highest potential return.

Use Your Brand As a Guide

The world is changing rapidly, but you have a built-in strategic rudder to see you through the change we are currently experiencing according to David Kincaid , founder of Level5 Strategy: your brand. Good brands inspire growth and profit, reduce risk, and engage loyalty and sustainability. Your brand is not your website. It’s not just great advertising. It is the value [impact] of a promise [what we deliver to meet stakeholders' needs] consistently kept. Don't try to do everything, especially in a rapidly changing world. Instead, stick to what your brand calls for you to do. Ask yourself: what is the emotional benefit of your work? That is the basis for your brand. Figure out what that thing is and then help people realize it.

Start Paying Attention to ESG

ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) has largely escaped public notice in healthcare, but that is changing. Funds are beginning to flow away from organizations who do not tackle environmental and social issues, and you need to be paying attention to your performance in this area when you create your strategy, says Alexander Dyck , professor of finance and economic analysis at the University of Toronto. Becoming more attuned to ESG requires a multi-pronged approach. First, expand your view of your stakeholders to include social activists, the media, and others who have the ability to exert pressure on your organization in this area. Second, figure out what these stakeholders care about and use third-party metrics like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to measure your organization's impact. Be sure to choose goals that your organization can materially impact. Recruit board members who understand, are sensitive to, and are committed to improving ESG issues. Finally, don't despair. Getting ahead of ESG is a risk management strategy, but it's also an opportunity to recruit younger employees who are themselves passionate about environmental and social causes.

Revise and Reenergize Your DEI Efforts

In a recent WebMD survey, 62% of workers felt that DEI programs were ineffective, and 42% said they had been personally failed by them. It's no wonder such programs are being received with indifference and malaise, but there is a way forward, according to Hugh Lawson (he/him) , chief development officer at The Hugh and Ilene Lawson Charitable Organization: add two more "I's" to the mix. The first "I" is intentionality. Revisit existing DEI program with your leadership team and ask yourselves: is it working? If you can't demonstrate measurable success, you are likely hurting instead of helping. "Feel good" programs alienate both the people who don't understand the importance of DEI and those that the programs are supposed to support, who see the efforts as performative box-checking. The second "I" stands for intersectionality. Humans are pack animals and gravitate toward others like themselves, even those who think they are open-minded. We need to challenge ourselves to overcome our implicit biases, identify our own blind spots, and actively seek the counsel of those who are not like us.

Keep Abreast of Digital Privacy Changes

Digital marketing is increasingly important in healthcare fundraising, so it is critical to keep on top of the rapidly changing rules governing online privacy. Two years ago, Apple significantly hampered the performance of paid social media campaigns by requiring apps to start asking users' permission before tracking their data across apps or websites owned by other companies--and most users opted out. Starting in late 2024, Google will begin phasing out use of third-party cookies, further impacting marketers' ability to target their campaigns, raising their cost and reducing their performance. There are strategies to bounce back, say Heather Clark , chief marketing officer, and Rebecca Shrimpton , digital marketing manager, both from SickKids Foundation, but it's imperative to stay informed on both the changes and their impact in order to sustain the profitability of digital marketing efforts.

Prepare Yourself for More Change to Come

The healthcare system is under significant stress, more stress than Tim Rutledge, CEO of Unity Health, has ever seen it in 35 years. Unprecedented staff vacancy, stress, and burnout rates. Clinicians expressing moral distress because of limited access and inequities. Vast disparities in outcomes. Financial pressures related to escalating inflation, increased complexity, and the cost of new technologies. Hospital closures creating capacity issues. Because of all these factors, concerns about the sustainability of healthcare are justified. But there is also reason for hope, particularly in the form of automation and digital transformation. There is no question now that machine use of data and AI will transform every facet of healthcare. Machines have the potential to keep up with all the medical literature and patient data to help aid clinicians to make more accurate diagnoses and precision treatments, improving outcomes, quality, safety, access, efficiency, and (done right) equity. Healthcare is late to the game because it’s a complicated industry with privacy, legal, and regulatory issues. Some people will resist the change. There will be privacy concerns. But Rutledge insists that it's going to happen, and the result will be better, cheaper, and more humane healthcare for all.