The goal of the Sampson Regional Medical Center’s annual giving campaign is to raise $50,000 for various hospital needs.
Courtesy photo | Sampson RMC
Sampson Regional Medical Center is something of an anomaly in the healthcare field these days. Not affiliated with any university or regional conglomerate, it is instead an independent nonprofit. And as a nonprofit, fundraising makes up part of the hospital’s revenue each year.
“There’s $150 million from the state you can give to rural hospitals, but only if they’re ECU Health or Vidant, not nonprofit,” SRMC CEO Dr. Shawn Howerton explained to Congressman Greg Murphy last week. “From a taxpayer perspective, for Sampson Regional, other than the fact that we’re not-for-profit and we don’t pay tax on the land, every dollar that we spend on our business is … you see a patient, you file the insurance and you pay your bills with that. We receive no funding from the county, we receive no funding from the state.”
Oftentimes, he pointed out, the hospital doesn’t receive any money from seeing patients, as self-pay often means the patients do not pay anything to the hospital. Medicaid and Medicare also don’t provide the reimbursements the public may expect.
That’s where the SRMC Foundation comes in. Every year since 2021, the foundation has hosted an annual giving campaign in order to raise money for hospital equipment, programs and other needs.
“The main goal of the foundation is to really engage in the community and build the funds to provide services to the patients, whether it’s new equipment, new healthcare programs, if we’re wanting to expand our service, but also, expand the hospital,” said Madison Harbin, director of business development for the hospital. “If we’re wanting to open a new clinic, remodel floors that we already have.”
The unique aspect of the annual giving campaign is that donors can choose where the money goes. “It’s divided up into patient care, imaging, facility operations, medical devices and information security,” Harbin explained. “The community has the ability to actually have a say in where they want the money to go, which is huge. Because it could be an area that’s more passionate to someone, and that they may already work in and they’re familiar with. It allows them to donate what’s meaningful to them.”
Previous campaigns have generated funds that allowed SRMC to purchase equipment for orthopedic surgery, and most recently, the new mobile blood donor center.
“The hospital, at any given time, needs $3-5 million in capital needs to address medical devices and such,” Harbin stated. “That’s a lot of money, but if you think about one campaign, that’s an opportunity for us to have more growth.”
For the annual giving campaign, Harbin said the foundation board will break up into two separate groups: one aims to reach individuals in the community and small businesses, while the other focuses on corporate businesses and the medical community. “They’re building relationships with the community and with donors,” she said. “I’m proud to say we have a lot of donors that consistently give to the hospital. They’ve had family that’s been in our hospital or they have family relationships with people that work in our hospital, so it has been meaningful.”
The campaign kicked off on May 26 and will end on July 14, giving the foundation about seven weeks of campaigning. “If you think about it, if 50 people donate $100, that’s $5,000,” Harbin said. “Imagine if we had 100 people who donated $100, that can go a long way. Our goal is $50,000, and we actually exceeded that last year.”
For those who may wonder why a hospital needs to do fundraising, she explained it like this. “Imagine you’re a mechanic and you need tools to fix a car every day. And it’s the same for a hospital. When you’re using the same equipment, it starts to have wear and tear, so you have to make sure you’re staying up to date, updating it, just like you’re fixing a car. So we look at that, and see where that need is.”
Depending on their donation amount, those who give to the annual giving campaign will receive mention on the SRMC website, a place on the hospital’s donor wall, a thank-you gift, a collectible holiday ornament and possibly invitations to special events.
To donate online, visit www.SampsonRMC.org/give.