WakeMed’s Fundraising Advantage
“Previsualized” Virtual Tour Supports Hospital’s Major Capital Campaign
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When it comes to fundraising for a construction project, giving potential donors the ability to visualize the final project is worth millions – literally. That is why when WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, NC commissioned their fundraising organization – known as the WakeMed Foundation – with raising $8.5 million to build Wake County’s first Children’s Hospital, the Foundation turned to the preVision Company to transform vision into reality. Three-dimensional previsualization of the project would help potential donors truly see what they were supporting in perfect detail. |
The Project:
In 2009, the WakeMed Foundation set out to achieve a seemingly impossible feat in a down economy – they were charged with raising enough money to build WakeMed’s entire Children’s Hospital before the doors ever opened. With charitable dollars tighter than ever due to the economy, Foundation executives quickly learned that donors were looking for more information and details than ever before. In particular, they wanted to know exactly what the facility would look like, what features it would include and how it would help serve more children in the community. Other potential donors wanted to understand specifically how their donation would transition into recognition or naming rights in the new facility once it was fully constructed.
Characteristically, the Foundation’s two-dimensional floor plans couldn’t provide enough detail for discerning donors – they just couldn’t imagine how it would all look when completed, or which areas of the hospital they preferred to direct their funds to support. What better way to explain the specifics of the completed facility to new donors than to take them on a virtual tour?
Traditional two dimensional plans of the Children’s Hospital could not completely describe the design to prospective donors.
The WakeMed Foundation engaged preVision Company to develop an interactive, online virtual tour that could be incorporated into the organization’s fundraising Web site. This strategy supported the Foundation’s social media and provided the online fundraising campaign with a unique and creative twist that gave donors just what they were looking for.
Virtually Building a Hospital
What would take years to build with bricks and mortar took less than two months to build digitally – in perfect detail. What surprised the Foundation team the most was the “unbelievable accuracy” of the preVision Company’s virtual tour, down to the furniture, fixtures, finishes and equipment. preVision Company worked diligently with the WakeMed’s Construction & Design Team and architects to learn everything about the proposed facility. This hands-on approach allowed preVision Company to create every detail digitally to ensure that prospective donors could see exactly what the finished facility would look like and with no surprises.
Every detail of the design was included in the 3D renderings of select locations of the Children’s Hospital.
A photograph of the completed Nurses Station.
Major Gifts
As with most capital fundraising campaigns, major gifts represent an important part of the campaign. For the Foundation, preVision Company’s virtual tour gave Foundation leaders a new set of tools to use when meeting with donors. The virtual tour allowed donors to see individual rooms, ‘recognition opportunities’ and specific areas of the hospital that their funds could support. Understanding how their dollars would translate into specific recognition opportunities definitely helped major donors make important decisions regarding their donations.
Prospective donors had the opportunity to see their name in its future location with custom-made 3D signage.
“preVision Company took what we had been talking about with prospective donors for months and made it real,” explains Jack Radford, executive director, WakeMed Foundation. “Talking about a Children’s Hospital will tug at anyone’s heart strings, but showing donors the magnitude of our vision and the significance of this facility for our community with a virtual tour really helped us exemplify the true importance of our project.”
Unanticipated Benefits
In an era of social media, Twitter, Facebook and the like, the virtual tour instantly provided numerous other important benefits. In addition to helping generate monetary support, the virtual tour helped the WakeMed Foundation drive community support and awareness by allowing Wake County families to see the facility before it was built through the WakeMed Foundation’s Web site, childrencantwait.org. WakeMed’s Public Relations team also featured the virtual tour on the hospital’s Web site, blog and other promotional materials.
Conclusion
By the time the Children’s Hospital opened in May 2010, the WakeMed Foundation had raised just over $8.6 million, exceeding their $8.5 million goal. Working with preVision Company, the WakeMed Foundation was able to transition concepts into specifics, providing donors with a unique understanding of the WakeMed Children’s Hospital – long before it was built. Foundation executives had the tools they needed to work closely with donors at all levels and supporters had the specific information they needed to make important fundraising decisions.
“From an ROI perspective, we looked at this program as an important investment, particularly in a down economy,” explains Radford.
A 3D rendered view of the entrance to a treatment room in the WakeMed Children’s Hospital.
A photograph of the completed treatment room entrance.
In: 360 Degree Virtual Tours, 3D Animations, 3D Floor Plans and Site Plans, 3D Interior Views
