Background:
Columbia St. Mary’s is a hospital system in southeastern, Wisconsin, nationally anchored by its parent company Ascension Health, and co-sponsored by Columbia Health Systems. The system is comprised of 4 hospitals, 26 primary care clinics and a network of nearly 10,000 staff and medical professionals. Columbia St. Mary’s Foundations is comprised of four organizations that exist to support the system, its individual hospital locations, and its overall mission of service.
Objective:
Columbia St. Mary’s was looking for a firm to work in concert with leadership to develop a strategy and communications platform to support an important strategic initiative — the impending public announcement of a billion dollar, five-year building project to construct the “hospital of the future.” The CSM Foundations required the development and implementation of a strategy to support the creation of an exclusive group of prospective donors to satisfy a short-term, $35 million capital campaign linked to the new hospital project.