By: Stephen H. Bariteau
Chief Development Officer
Executive Vice President, Philanthropy 
Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare 

When I returned to a member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals in December 2021 after nearly an eleven-year hiatus, there were several aspects of the partnership with the national CMN Hospitals team that I enjoyed coming back to. The relationship between the local hospital and the CMN Hospitals’ business development team is an excellent opportunity to extend the reach, influence, and eventual impact on both local and national programs. Bottom line—if this relationship is strong there is a larger impact to be made on the lives of the children and families we serve.  

For Gillette Children’s, some key benefits of a close partnership with business development are listed below. 

• Creating More Attractive Offerings for Corporate Partners: Do you have a large corporation in your market who is not that excited supporting your gala or golf tournament? Have you explored offering the prospective corporate partner the benefits of a local hospital and a regional or national presence? Collaborating with your business development partner to determine options—both within your market and beyond—can be an excellent way to provide value and a higher ROI for the prospective corporate partner. Coupling local hospital and regional/national exposure for the corporate partner often will set your proposal for marketing and charitable dollars apart from the competition. 

• Extending Your Connections: Do you and your team have access to every prospective corporate partner in your market? One of the greatest benefits of the relationship is the prospecting exercise of who knows who and determining shared approaches. This is an easy way to collaborate and can be an opportunity to enhance getting an open door at a prospective corporate partner.  
  
  
• Thought Collaboration: Do you have a need to enhance revenue within one or more of your CMN Hospitals programs? In exploring ways to enhance local revenue from Extra Life, our business development partner and I determined a need to create a broader range of sellable assets in order to attract new and additional corporate partner investment. The conversation grew to include CMN Hospitals leadership about a collaboration with local, regional, and national impact. The potential exists to transform Gillette’s local Extra Life impact and to create broader sponsorship assets that appeal to national and international corporate sponsors for the comprehensive Extra Life program. While it is too early to determine if this proof of concept is successful, the example is an excellent portrayal of the kind of thinking and solutions that can result when the local hospital and the CMN Hospitals national team get in the trenches together. More to come on this potential impact to Extra Life.  

The benefits of this collaboration are not only geared toward the local hospital. Our local contacts offered to the CMN Hospitals business development team will help them build corporate fundraising programs that will benefit many or all CMN hospitals. This potential national engagement is additive to your current, local fundraising relationship. The goal is to maximize value for the partner, your hospital and CMN Hospitals. If this “triple aim” is not achieved, then it is likely not the right opportunity.  

At the root of a productive collaboration is trust and an undying spirit of creating a win-win. The perception of “us (local) versus them (CMNH national)” needs to go away. In order for all of us to thrive in fulfilling our respective missions, additional collaboration between local hospitals and the national CMN Hospitals business development team is an important consideration. 

Let me know if you want to discuss how Gillette Children’s and CMN Hospitals business development team collaborate to drive higher value to partners and increased revenue to help our patients and their families. I’m confident you, too, can launch a successful partnership.