logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
    • Glossary
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Nonprofit Newswire | Hospital Fund-Raisers Join Doctors In Checking Patients’ Vital Signs

Bruce S Trachtenberg
May 17, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

May 16, 2010; Source: Wall Street Journal | The next time you stay in a nonprofit hospital, your vital signs aren’t the only thing that might be undergoing a scan. According to the Wall Street Journal, some hospitals routinely check the assets of patients to see which might be good prospects to hit up for donations. The practice of taking a closer peek at who’s who isn’t limited to hospitals. Rather, thanks to a combination of improvements in technology and drops in costs, charities have many more ways to find out everything about you. As the newspaper notes, charities can “survey your salary history, scan your LinkedIn connections or use satellite images to eyeball the size of your swimming pool. If it’s really on the ball, the charity can even get an email alert when your stock holdings double.”

While the availability of donor research tools are no secret, certainly not to the fund-raising community, charities don’t go out of their way to advertise their data mining abilities. Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute for Philanthropy, says charities keep these practices to themselves because it “creeps a lot of people out.”

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Privacy and comfort issues aside, some are troubled by another practice of hospitals. By knowing who their most well-heeled or biggest donor prospects are, medical institutions can single these individuals out for preferential treatment. For example, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, allows donors and volunteers priority for appointments with specialists. San Diego’s Sharp HealthCare provides major donors with a card that has pager numbers for staffers. Among those who worry about currying favors with wealthy patients is Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He says that donors who bypass waiting lists are likely to find it hard to resist a funding solicitation during treatment and recovery.—Bruce Trachtenberg

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

summer_sidebar_subscribe
You might also like
What is Climate Psychology? An Interview with Climate Psychology Alliance’s Rebecca Weston
Rebecca Weston and Iris M. Crawford
Ruling on Affirmative Action Could Affect Hiring
Isaiah Thompson
The Great Integration Question
Saphia Suarez
Preserving Places of Belonging in Asian America: The Value of Community Voice
Seema Agnani
Economic Justice: Nonprofit Leaders Speak Out
Dr. Akilah Watkins, Nelson I. Colón, Jon Pratt, Marla Bilonick, Clara Miller, Seema Agnani and Gary L. Cunningham
What Can a COVID Outbreak at a Writing Conference Teach Us about Community Care?
Alison Stine

NPQ Webinars

Oct 5th and 6th, 2:00 PM ET

Mastering QuickBooks 2023

Advanced QuickBooks for Nonprofits for Online Users

Register Now
Oct 26th, 2:00 PM ET

Becoming A Great Manager

How to Conspire and Align with the People You Lead

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Summer 2023 issue

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Funders
  • Magazine Art

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.