Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Meharry has operated with a low tuition revenue base (reflecting its mission),
subsisted with modest levels of annual gifts and a small endowment (reflecting a
historically undercapitalized research infrastructure), and supported a patient care
enterprise that required institutional subsidies rather than contributed to the financial
health of the College (reflecting both its mission and inadequate public funding support).
With small to negative operating margins, no operating reserves, and a meager
endowment, Meharry frequently found itself petitioning others for financial support in
order to survive.
The Educational Enterprise at Meharry has always operated with a low tuition
revenue base, by choice. Meharry has a very small endowment, only one-tenth the size
of the endowments of the average of all U.S. medical schools. The College receives a
modest level of annual, unrestricted gifts from its alumni and friends.
Hicks@HRDConsultingServices.com / 410-466-9023 1
THE CHALLENGES OF STRATEGIC PHILANTHROPHY
AT MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE, FY 2002
The absence of endowments for faculty positions, student financial aid, and key
infrastructure components such as the library, that are found in most private academic
health science centers put Meharry’s educational enterprise at a distinct disadvantage.
Meharry’s financial structure is actually more similar to that of a small public college,
without the usefulness of a state government appropriation. Meharry’s educational
revenue base has been and continues to be dependent on Title III funds from the U. S.
Department of Education, and Centers of Excellence funds from the U. S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
Consistent with its mission, Meharry’s Clinical Enterprise has focused primarily on
providing care to Medicaid and uninsured patients. Until recently, Meharry did not
receive public support from local or state governments to help subsidize indigent care,
nor did it have higher forms of reimbursement to cross-subsidize uninsured indigent
patients or to support education and research missions similar to that at most academic
health centers. Today, Metropolitan Nashville General Hospital is located on Meharry’s
campus. The clinical faculty of Meharry provides the physicians who are staff at MNGH.
The best strategic fundraising occurs when the importance of raised monies is
understood as one contributor to the overall financing of an institution, as opposed to
being viewed as the “icing on the cake”. Presently, Meharry has an endowment of $69
million of which $25 million is invested in marketable securities. Academic institutions
consider their restricted and unrestricted endowments as reliable sources of funds to
help finance the entire range of their operating needs. Furthermore, most academic
institutions strive to establish the level of endowed funds at 2-3 times the size of their
operating budgets. The fiscal year 2002 operating budget at Meharry is $102 million.
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THE CHALLENGES OF STRATEGIC PHILANTHROPHY
AT MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE, FY 2002
Given Meharry Medical College’s history, uniqueness, the current capability of its
three Enterprises, the promise of its overall future relied heavily upon the
leadership demonstrated through the Division of Institutional Advancement in
successfully implementing and achieving the goals of the proposed five to ten
year Strategic Philanthropic Initiative as outlined by Garvin S. Maffett, Ed.D, Vice
President of the Division of Institutional Advancement. First, since January of
2002, the Division of Institutional Advancement had undergone a reorganization
in the composition of the senior management staff, and as well, in its
organizational structure. The organizational structure and senior management
staff composition both reflected a leadership commitment and a state of
preparedness for addressing the future challenges and requirements for
implementing and achieving the goals of this Strategic Philanthropic Initiative.
Thirdly, a new set of performance indicators were identified that would be used
to monitor progress against the targets of the Strategic Philanthropic Initiative.
Those performance measures were: Return on Assets, Profitability, Sales
Revenue Generated, Market Share, Quality of Service/Products, and Employee
Satisfaction.
Fourthly, each Department would have in place an annual operating plan with
key performance indicators that would drive team and individual performance
outcomes. These plans would detail specific measurable performance indicators
that are linked with team and individual performance targets. In addition, a
parallel financial incentive system would be formulated whereby Divisional
individual and team performance standards will be integrated into Meharry’s
performance appraisal system and linked to each employee’s annual individual
performance plan. The intent of this system was to differentiate between those
performance standards that “meet expectations” from those that “exceed
expectations,” emphasizing a performance based criteria that “rewards for
results delivered” vs. the somewhat usual criteria that emphasized rewards for
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THE CHALLENGES OF STRATEGIC PHILANTHROPHY
AT MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE, FY 2002
This report provided a baseline benchmark that compares the Division with other
high performing organizations whose profiles are found in the third and fourth
quartiles. As well, it provides a diagnostic analysis of the Division’s current
capability and potentials, strategic leadership insights, identification of strengths,
the critical management levers, and the team initiatives that would provide an
opportunity for realizing the desired performance standards at the departmental,
team, and individual levels in the Division of Institutional Advancement. As such,
to date, this process has provided the leadership of the Division of IA with a
context for doing strategic and operational planning, a database for strategy
formulation and deployment, a process for energizing a cohesive team, and a
game plan for creating and managing the desired future of the Division.
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