April 29, 2004

Jodi Swan

AT HALIFAX DINNER
Jodi Swan presented Rising Star Award
by Darrell Cole, Amherst Daily News

AMHERST - Since he appointment as the managing director of the Cumberland Health Care Foundation in September 2002 Jodi Swan has managed to accomplish so much in so little time.

That effort was recognized by her peers last week when she was presented with the Rising Star Award at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Atlantic Regional Philanthropy Awards dinner in Halifax.

"It's very nice to be recognized for the hard work. It's nice to think people think that highly of my work here," Swan said, "But this is just as much a recognition for the foundation. We have a very dedicated group of volunteers here all dinging from the same song sheet and working toward the same goal: providing the best quality health care possible for the residents of this area."

Swan, who admitted she was thrilled to receive the award, said she was equally surprised when foundation chair Phyllis Cameron and board member Morris Haugg told her of her nomination. "It's just an honour to be nominated and you never think of wining," she said. Every nominee could have won this award."

A native of Charlottetown, P.E.I. and graduate of Mount Allison and Mount St. Vincent universities, Swan joined the foundation during a time of tremendous transition and within days was overseeing the move of the foundation office from the former Highland View hospital to the new Cumberland County Regional Health Care Centre in October 2002.

She oversaw the installation of a donor wall at the new hospital and has continued to work towards developing an ongoing donor recognition program while also coordinating all the foundation's fundraising and development activities.

As much as she has accomplished, it hasn't always been an easy job. One of the biggest challenges she faced was replacing an outdated database of donors with a new, more efficient system at the same time as working to address and develop policies and procedures for the foundation and reaffirming pledges made to the Above & Beyond Campaign that raised the community's share of the funds for the new hospital.

"I am amazed at the continued generosity of this community," Swan said. "Of the pledges made during that campaign, only one percent haven't been honoured. Generally in a project of this size, you're looking at a much higher percentage of uncollected pledges. People made pledges to this campaign and they followed up on them. That speaks volumes about the level of commitment in this community toward supporting health care and good causes. There's such a sense of civic pride and responsibility here."

Another one of her goals has been to increase public awareness and participation in the foundation and supporting the hospital. She has accomplished this by developing a foundation and supporting the hospital.

She has accomplished this by developing a foundation web site and regular newsletter while also speaking to numerous local groups and organizations. "We have to maintain a presence in the community, people have to see that we're still here and the need still exists to raise money to purchase equipment for the the hospital," she said. " Some people were under the impression that once the Above & Beyond Campaign wrapped up there would be no need to have a foundation. Part of our job is to remind the community that the need didn't end with the new hospital."

She also implemented a volunteer recognition program and established an annual outstanding volunteer award. She also encouraged the foundation board to embrace the CCP Ethical Fundraising and Financial Accountability Code while also coordinating and encouraging participation in the foundation's three major fundraisers including Light the Way at Christmas, the annual foundation dinner in April and the Highland Classic Charity Golf Tournament in August.

Other accomplishments include encouraging the board to participate in the strategic planning process and the development and hiring of volunteer services coordinator. The foundation has also developed the Holly Spicer Healing Garden and worked in conjunction with the hospital auxiliary to establish an art gallery.

Another recent project, an annual fund mailer, has already netted more than $3,000 of a $20,000 goal in just a few weeks. Swan began her fundraising career as the alumni volunteer coordinator at the Mount Allison. In this role, she was responsible for recruiting and training alumni volunteers, who established projects for each of their class years and addressed a number of campaign priorities including bursary and scholarship programs, summer student programs, summer student programs and building priorities.

She was personally responsible for the development of strategies and goal of these projects, designing solicitation documents and recognizing top supporters. At any one time she was handling 20-22 projects with more than 80 volunteers. These projects raised more than $1 million over a 30-month period.

She was also responsible for prospect research, proposal writing and was involved with the Kresge challenge that saw alumni from 1989-99 more than triple their participation. In doing this, the university was able to secure a large gift from the Kresge Foundation.