 Let's get going because I don't wanna give a second away because I really wanna get into the mind of today's guest. So this, we titled the show, Get to Know a Chief Development Officer. And I think it's gonna be really exciting to hear from Christy Leshinsky what is going on in her world, what she's seeing. And so buckle up, as I said, in the shitty chat chat because we got a lot cooking. Hey, Jarrah Ransom, we kicked her off this morning. We were all good to go and we were getting ready to go live and that we were just having some tech issues. And so we were like, Cia wouldn't wanna be yet. So hopefully we'll get that tech issue straightened out and we'll go forward. But I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy and Jarrah Ransom, my non-profit nerd, your non-profit nerd, the non-profit nerd, she'll be back here tomorrow. We wanna thank all of our presenting sponsors who allow us to have these amazing conversations five days a week. The nation's only live broadcast dedicated to the non-profit show. Christy, we are just going on to almost our 400 and like 30th show or something like that. So it really is. Even when I say it, it's amazing. So again, thank you to all of our sponsors. We're so grateful. Okay, Christy. Yes. You ready to delve in to all of this? In full transparency, I met Christy several years ago in a leadership program, a leadership group and she was in, we were in the same cohort and so it's been really fun to see the trajectory that your career has taken and how much you've contributed to our community and our philanthropic community specifically. Thank you. And likewise, Julia, with the non-profit show, this is, it's amazing the contributions that you are making on a regional and national level. Well, thanks. It's been a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun. Okay, talk to us about Banner and what Banner does and then what it is that you do for the organization. So Banner is a healthcare system and we function in Arizona as well as a handful of other states, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming. We have a couple of facilities in other states but we are the largest provider of healthcare services in Arizona. We're also the largest employer in the state of Arizona. So we have more than 50,000 employees statewide. Yeah, so our strongest, I would say our largest healthcare communities are Phoenix and Tucson with some ancillary services elsewhere in the state. But we focus on providing healthcare from birth all the way through the spectrum and everything in between that happens to individuals or families to challenge their healthcare or to help them stay well. So preventive medicine, diagnosis, treatment and research. So that's the bulk of what I do is support our Banner Alzheimer's institutes as well as our Banner Sun Health Research Institute and Banner Hospice. So that's just a slur of what Banner Health provides again across the full spectrum. We have three Banner Alzheimer's institutes, one in Phoenix, one in Sun City and one in Tucson and I support all three of those. And then the Banner Sun Health Research Institute is in Sun City and then Banner Hospice is primarily serving Phoenix and Tucson and that's primarily home and hospital based. So I service the, I steward the donors that are already in the system for those three entities as well as a couple of other ancillary programs and services that pop up and then solicit new contributions and steward those donors as well. You know, I'm so curious because this is such a specific thing and I would imagine and correct me if I'm wrong that a lot of your donors come to you once they have had this issue impact their lives. That's exactly right. And the typical model that we use at the Banner Health Foundation, we actually have two foundations, Banner Health Foundation, Banner Alzheimer's Foundation under the same umbrella. And the typical situation is, I should say the majority of our contributions come from grateful patients. A lot of healthcare systems use the grateful patient model of fundraising and that's very effective for us. So those are patients who have a positive experience that the provider, whether it's with, they have a back surgery and their quality of life is vastly improved. Or in the case of take Alzheimer's for instance, it's usually the adult child or the spouse of an Alzheimer's or dementia patient who would like to give back to support the work of their provider, whether it's for the care that he or she provides or the research that that provider is engaged in. And so that's the grateful patient model but it makes it so much, I mean, I wanna say easier but it also makes it so much more impactful and powerful to reach a family and connect with a family who's experienced the care that we provide. So it's not soliciting donors off the street who believe in healthcare, which is fabulous but we're not really approaching anyone cold. These are all inherently warm introductions. Wow, okay. So I love this and I think it's natural, it's a natural piece, so many of us and I can't imagine that there are too many people in this on this planet who haven't been introduced to a concept or service because of the need, right? To your point, they don't just walk down the street and say, oh wow, that would sounds good or see something on TV or read something in a magazine. It's generally a personal situation that has driven them to this. Right. I'm really, really curious. Do you see your donors separating out their interests between research and in the case of hospice or whatever those direct services are? So for example, you know, let's say my mother or father has been part of your program and then we wanna support that. Would we, chances being, would we only really support that that we know or would we be inclined to support research when we haven't really seen it, I guess is what I'm asking. It really depends on the individual and the family. We have, I'm trying to think anecdotally, we have some donors who have made a legacy gift in the name of, you know, a plant gift in the name of a family member who was treated, received fabulous care and their quality of life was improved and that family member since passed on. So they made a legacy gift to the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in honor of that family member for care. Now, 10 years later, they may be interested in making a gift toward research. So it depends, you know, the stage of life that that family is in or that family member. I'm working with another donor in Tucson and similar situation they've supported not necessarily because of a family member who was a grateful patient but because their lives were touched by Alzheimer's earlier on. So they made a gift for programs and services which I would love to expand on in a few minutes but made a gift to programs and services but really their interest now is in research. So to me, I find the research is so hopeful and optimistic and encouraging and exciting that if I, and I am a donor, but if I were to make a major gift, I think research is, it's just so encouraging and it's just taking off, you used the word trajectory before but that's exactly what it is. Alzheimer's research in particular is taking off at lightning speed right now. So this is the time in the next three to five years when just milestone discoveries will be made. So let me ask you this question and how do you as a fundraising professional and somebody who is a chief development officer, how do you educate yourself and learn so that you can then be that conduit for sharing some probably pretty technical information to donor investors? It's a constant evolution. It's a constant learning process and that's part of what keeps me so engaged in the work. Now I should preface that with saying I've only been in this role for four months. So my learning curve is steep but I also have to compliment the Banner Health Foundation and Banner Alzheimer's Foundation because the infrastructure was really there when I started to help me take in as much of that information as possible. Some of that entails meeting with the researchers and most of that has been virtual for the time being. So meeting with them one-on-one, learning about their work, reading articles that reference their work, pouring through the website, participating in support groups, participating in some of the online classes that we offer which are, it's quite extensive, the menu of services available. So participating in as much as I can. I also had the opportunity to shadow one of our nurse practitioners as she met with patients. And that was fascinating to hear the types of questions that she asks, the type of follow up, the specificity with which she inquires about eating habits, daily care, how much time a day do you spend watching TV? How much time do you spend interacting with other family members or whatnot? I am scheduled to shadow one of our providers as well, but of course COVID has thrown some obstacles in the course of this. So as much learning as I possibly can. And we actually have, I love podcasts personally and I have for probably since pre-COVID. But when I first accepted this role, I searched for as many podcasts as I could and I happened to be on a road trip at the time. So I had the opportunity to listen to as many podcasts as I can about dementia and related concerns. That being said, honestly, the best podcast that I found was actually produced by the Banner Alzheimer's Institute and it's called Dementia Untangle. So I've had the opportunity, I think there are two or three seasons in to listen to interviews of some of our primary researchers and the work that they're doing in the community as well as some patients who are interviewed, community stakeholders, partnerships that we have. So I would definitely recommend to somebody who wants to immerse themselves in the work listening to the podcast. But again, personally, it's meeting with the researchers and just taking in as much as I possibly can and asking as many questions as I possibly can. Now, so let's explore that a little bit further because think about if you had come into this group without COVID, would you have delft into that podcast? Would Banner even be doing the podcast, investing in that? And I'm wondering like how that ecosystem has translated into how you work with your donors, how you have engagement practices, what does that all look like? Sure. Again, constantly evolving because it hasn't been a linear evolution of COVID as we all know. So it's been a lot of stop, go, stop, go. But all I know with the Banner system so far is during COVID. So I try to pick up as much as I can about what it was like pre COVID and some of the changes that we have instituted as a result. Now, I believe that the podcast actually began prior to COVID, just prior. So I would like to think that would still be a tool that we would be using a vehicle for communicating about the work and the research. But in terms of COVID and how our organizations have transitioned, I think it's just trial and error. We did transition some of our in-person events to virtual. And I will say that I think that has been beneficial for the organization and the donors. So that format that I'm referring to is an education series that we offered and it was in-person. I think it was done four or possibly more times per year pre COVID. And now we have transitioned to offering those virtually. And I think the value in that is that we are attracting participants from outside of the Phoenix area. We're attracting, we can have presenters who don't have to commute to offer the presentation. Participants don't have to commute. They can sign in and sign off if it's something that is, you know, they're finding value in it. The other incredibly valuable aspect of this is that we record the presentation. And now we have a whole library of these virtual engagement sessions. Each one has a different topic. So we recently recorded one on legacy giving. Prior to that, we had a topic and we had a financial advisor who facilitated that presentation. We shared a family story. We shared our chief medical officer talked about her legacy gift. So that's a valuable resource that I can now send onto perspective and current donors. The virtual engagement prior to that was on Lewy body dementia. So Lewy body disease. So that's been a valuable resource to send to families who are interested in learning about the diagnosis and the symptoms and the treatment options. So I feel like that transition has been effective for us. Now, in the future, if we could do a hybrid and offer some in-person, that would obviously be the most desirable outcome. But I would like to see us continue offering a virtual tool for those who don't want to drive in or want to view it at a later date. Yeah. So you mentioned that when you were doing these things live, you did for a year. Did you speed that up when you went to the virtual? I mean, have you stuck to that same schedule or have you added more of these interactions? I think it's ebbed and flowed. So within the last year, there have been, I think we did about four to six over the last year. So now planning for next year, we're talking about quarterly. So just to make them more, to maximize the effect of the programs and not flood the market with these vehicles, but offer them as needed and making sure that they are topics that are of interest to our donors. Now, oncology is always a topic of interest to donors, heart health and dementia. Those are always going to be topics. So revolving the speakers and the presentations to meet the community's needs and match the latest research and be able to discuss the latest research. Do your question though, Julia, about COVID and other changes that we've had to enact? Events, of course. I think a lot of nonprofits talk about that. And we have recently held, even in the four months that I've been on staff, we've held three outdoor events. I wanna say it was about 600 to 700 people. And it was fabulous. And I'm sure you were hearing that there's a lot of pent up demand for events. There are folks who are vaccinated and feel comfortable getting out. There are folks who are unvaccinated and still want to get out. Whatever the situation is, we as a healthcare organization require proof of vaccine to attend our events, even if they are outdoors. But again, so much pent up demand. I had a friend, another contact through our leadership program who attended our event and was just gushing with, this is the most beautiful event I've ever attended, the attention to detail, the content. And while I would love to accept that and be grateful for that feedback, I think some of that is because we are starving to get out, those of us who enjoy events are starving to get out there and enjoy the camaraderie and download that content and participate in that group setting. Sure, sure. You know, it's so interesting too that you have a population, I would imagine, because they are more science related and healthcare related. They're probably even more stressed out about doing a public event than let's say a cultural group or an animal welfare group or something else because they're, I mean, this is the center point of COVID. I mean, it's the hospital situation, it's the medical scientific community. I would imagine you probably had folks that were like, oh, you know. Sure, and I think in any organization, any group setting, you're going to have people across the spectrum from comfort, fully comfortable to not at all. And we want to, just as with any development operation, you wanna meet donors where they are. So if I have a donor who doesn't wanna meet in person, that's fine, or doesn't wanna attend events, perfectly fine, we can meet virtually, we can talk on the phone, we can email. But if there are folks who want to get back out into the event setting, then fabulous. We would love to put on an event in a safe manner for all of the guests. Now, I think our guests can be reassured because 100% of our employees are vaccinated. And when we have our chief medical officer attending an event and speaking about how great it is to be back in this community, I think that's equally reassuring. But I think the bulk of, outside of events, the bulk of the interactions that we have right now are one-on-one or small group meetings with donors where they are comfortable, whether it's outside or getting coffee in a comfortably spaced environment, really just meeting where they are. Have you suspended in hospital or in research facility tours? That's a great question. So not completely suspended, but we obviously have to be much more careful. Even though 100% of the staff are vaccinated, it doesn't necessarily mean that 100% of the patients or their caregivers. Yeah. So we've had to be more intentional with tours. And I'm thinking in particular of the Banner Alzheimer's Institute, and we had a group that wanted to schedule a tour and we would have to take them in smaller subgroups in order to give comfort to the patients and do that in a safe manner. So some of those things will have to be pushed out a couple of months until we have a little bit more clarity on what the COVID situation might look like come 2022. But on the flip side, it is, like you said, it's much more intentional and you can provide a very personal, more impactful tour when it's one-on-one or smaller groups. So there's benefit there too. Yeah. You know, it's so interesting too. I would say knowing you as I do, I would say you probably have the spirit in just part of your personality of looking at something and saying, well, how do we make lemonade out of lemons? You take a natural approach to finding a better solution, which is gonna serve you well. And it kind of leads me into my next question is, what's your average day like and how do you manage it? I mean, A, I know you're, you know this world and this ecosystem of working with donors and working with funders. And so this is not new to you, but you are in a relatively new position during an incredibly bizarre time, this COVID. What is your day looking like? It varies of course. Yeah. I would say I crave structure personally, but that's because I know that there are times that I will have to adapt and be flexible to meet a donor's needs or a colleague's needs. So I live by my schedule and we have a lot of internal meetings that are held virtually. So I appreciate getting something on the calendar as soon as I can. If I know it's going to happen like with today, I appreciate that we scheduled this two or three months out, that was helpful so that I can reverse engineer and prep for it ahead of time and block time out as needed. I would say that my schedule is fairly packed. So I am blocking off time on a daily basis for research, my own research about donors or if I need to learn about a specific disease process or condition and then recording in our database. So that's critical because even though I have, I think a fairly decent memory, if I talk to a donor today and I find them fascinating and they share their background and their passions and then tomorrow I talk with another donor and then I might get them, I don't want to risk confusing details. So I have to get it down in the database as soon as possible. And also because one of my colleagues might need to access that information, the very next day. So I want to be able to upload that information as soon as possible. So blocking time off, any sort of writing that needs to be accomplished, whether it's a report for a donor or a proposal for a donor, emails that will take significant time. So definitely blocking time out for those and then scheduling time with donors because if I'm not meeting with donors then I'm not doing my job. So contacting donors on a regular schedule to make sure that I'm getting those penciled in. I also spend about one, I probably average one day a week in Tucson providing support to our center in Tucson. So that's even easier because then I contact the Tucson donors and I know exactly what day and I'm limited to what I can accomplish while I'm there. So providing that day or days and getting that as tight in my schedule as I can. But let me ask you a couple of follow-up questions. About how many donor investors do you have in your portfolio? You personally that you're managing? I haven't counted lately but I would say about 100 to 125. And do you feel like that's where it's gonna be or it's gonna go up or what does Banner do about that? I think it will grow and I want it to grow. I think some of those donors are in what we call discovery where we have just connected. They may have made a small gift at some point but it's really just filling out that relationship and building it. We have some who have already made a gift and so we're sturdy those donors. There are some where we've already solicited a gift and we're working out the finer details or waiting to hear back. So we need to have donors in every piece of that pie. Yes, the cycle keeps on growing. So yes, I think it will definitely grow and that's the intent and some will fall off of the portfolio because they either tell us that they are not interested or perhaps they move on to being interested in a different aspect of the Banner system. Sure, sure. Fabulous. What systems are you using if you don't mind disclosing that? What's the platform that you use? Razor's Edge. Oh, you do use Razor's Edge. Yes, so prior to working at Banner I used Salesforce. I think in my last two development roles but I had used Razor's Edge once before and it really, I think it meets our needs. My understanding is that we're upgrading next year. So there will be some tweaks improvements to the system but it works for us. Close, are you able to work with your marketing team or folks within the marketing team so that you can get the messages or the communications that you feel are going to best suit your donors? The reason why I asked this, Christie, is that we worked with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption all last week and we had one of our nonprofit power weeks and it was riveting. One of the things that we learned was that the Dave Thompson Foundation for Adoption has realized that the head of development should be the same person as the head of marketing which is like a concept. But they felt that marketing was doing their thing and then development was doing their thing and sometimes they needed to come together more to share the message. And I ask you this question because your messages are changing so fast. I mean, because of research and technology. So how do you all marry that path with the people providing the communications and yet you're the ones kind of stewarding it or engaging with it? Great question and I've seen it both ways. And I know from a prior experience where there was a philosophical difference, a philosophical difference in the approach to marketing between the head of marketing and the head of philanthropy. Yeah. But I would say at Banner, I have been thrilled with the infrastructure that is in place and the head of our Banner Health Foundation marketing is fabulous and completely super sharp and understands the language and can turn out whether it's proposals or opportunity statements, other documents on a dime. And she has a team that supports her but I would say it's all about the collaboration and the partnership between staff. So the marketing team will assign a specific individual for instance, we are revising an opportunity giving opportunity document for the Banner Hospice. And so I worked earlier this week with one of the senior members of the marketing team to talk about, to plan out strategically what that will look like. And it's a load off for me to not to get into the details of that document but they understand how the Banner system works what's the template language that we use and how can we work with the clinical staff to obtain quotes or stories, other narratives to insert in that type of a document. And I would say, I think it's really important that the head of our Banner Foundation's marketing team is one of the senior leadership members a member of the senior leadership team for Banner Health Foundation because I think you absolutely have to have that person at the leadership table in order to accomplish the mission. Absolutely. Well, it's hard to believe that our time is almost up. I mean, we literally only have a couple of minutes but I got to ask this question and I asked this to everybody in development at this time of year and it's a little stressful and it's a little personal how is the year end looking? Are you on track with your goals? Yes, I'm happy to report that I am personally and I think the team is as it's entirety. So it's easy for me to say because I came in late oh, we're doing great, we're on track but that's in very small part to my work but the team is strong. Most of the team members have been on staff for I wanna say five or more years. So there's a lot of longevity there and there's a lot of longevity with our donors. So we have several donors who come back from time and time again to support the same or a different initiative under the Banner's banner. And we raise about 20 to 25 million a year. So very successful. I know that just like several other human service providers especially healthcare providers during COVID, our donations were plentiful and rightfully so for COVID relief and PPE and now that has transitioned a little bit more toward healthcare provider relief because we have so many healthcare providers who are experiencing burnout, right? So some of the donations, some of the gifts have transitioned to those areas but I would definitely say we are absolutely on track and things like Alzheimer's and dementia and hospice those don't go away in the middle of a pandemic. So I think that families and providers alike realize, recognize the need to continue supporting those endeavors. Wow, well, this has been a treat. I mean, for me personally to see you excel in this journey in your career, you are a wonderful, wonderful part of our community and of our leadership brain trust. And so I'm so proud of you and for all these things that you've been able to do you've been with some very high profile very important organizations and Banner is part of that journey. And so I say, I hope I don't meet you in the halls of a Banner institution at some point. But, you know, I'm really proud of you, Christy. Here's Christy Leshinsky's information. Check out Banner Health Foundation. It really is a marvelous portal to the types of work they do and how they voice their work across a lot of different topics and really important discussions. So Christy, wow, this is great. I think what we should do is at some point like a year from now, have you come back and then reflect on even more of these changes and what you've learned as a development officer because it's just been a fascinating discussion. Again, I'm Julia Patrick. We'll be rejoined with Jarrett Ransom tomorrow. We wanna thank all of our presenting sponsors for being here, allowing us to have such amazing conversations like today. So Christy, thank you so much. Thank you, Julia. It was a pleasure to see you again. It's been wonderful. Hey, as we like to end every episode of the nonprofit or the nonprofit show, we want to remind you to stay well, so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow, everyone. Thanks, Christy.