John Zeller:The Man They're Counting On

As associate vice president for development, John Zeller is charged with raising no less than $1 billion for Johns Hopkins Medicine

Not long ago, private philanthropy was like the icing on the cake: sweet, surprising and something you could live without. Now it's not the icing, it's the cake-or at least a big part of it. "Private philanthropy," says John Zeller, "has grown from a marginal component to a major piece of financial planning."
As associate vice president for development and alumni relations for Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Institutions, Zeller faces the formidable task of raising that major piece: $1 billion as part of the University's ongoing $2 billion Knowledge for the World campaign. With $580 million committed so far, he's already more than halfway there, and the campaign, which ends in 2007, isn't even halfway over.

Much is riding on what Zeller can bring in: professorships and scholarships, clinical and research programs, sophisticated technologies, and buildings like the Children's and Maternal Hospital and the Cardiovascular and Critical Care Tower. The campaign's multiplicity of needs, or what he calls its "specificity," poses Zeller's toughest test, for in the end, he could meet the overall campaign goal, but fall short on some specific priorities.

One of those priorities, the buildings, is turning out to be the biggest challenge of all. Drumming up interest in bricks and mortar is never easy, and it's harder still in a place like this, where donors, many of them former patients, want to direct their contributions to specific clinical or research programs. Programmatic support is the mainstay of Hopkins Medicine giving, and that is due in large part to Zeller.

When he joined Hopkins in 1995, fund-raising was flourishing in places like Wilmer, Brady, the cancer center, pediatrics and neuroscience. But Zeller noted that in almost every other department as well, patients were stepping forward to make gifts. Realizing that the patient's relationship to the organization is through his or her physician, he teamed development officers with department chairs and key faculty to help them better understand how they could benefit from private philanthropy and engage patients, families and friends in supporting their work. Then, says Zeller, "We created partnerships with faculty and donors to identify areas of need and mutual interest."

Those partnerships have resulted in what is probably the most successful "grateful patient" giving program in the country. Now the question is how Zeller will reach the $275 million goal for buildings while maintaining momentum for programmatic support. "It requires additional communication and consensus among the players," says Bob Lindgren, University vice president for development and alumni relations. "Faculty members need to understand the bigger picture, how the buildings, even if they're not moving into them, could improve their own situation."

The fact that 20 percent of every gift to Medicine goes to the Clinical and Academic Facilities Fund for bricks and mortar should help. Zeller's message is that capital projects are inextricably linked to programs. "If we don't do something to replenish the facilities, our faculty won't have the opportunities or space to do what they do best."

Also key to the campaign's success, says Lindgren, will be finding the really big donors. To that end, Zeller has concentrated on building a proactive, systematic approach to major gifts from individuals. Solicitations always begin with face-to-face meetings with prospects. "It's getting down to what their interest is, telling them how their funds might be used, presenting a proposal, and discussing how the gift might be funded." Then comes what's known as stewardship. "Going back every year, telling donors how their gift has been used and the difference it's made-that's stewardship. It's an immense task, but stewardship is what leads to the next possible gift."

Also important will be mitigating the effects of HIPAA, the federal privacy regulations that require patients to sign a form before they can be approached about making a gift. Zeller says it's too early to tell just how much of a stumbling block HIPAA will be, "but so far, we've encountered relatively little unwillingness to sign the authorization."

With 340 gift officers and staff, development at Johns Hopkins is a huge enterprise. Roughly one half of all fund-raising business is directed to Medicine. Since Zeller joined Hopkins, the Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine has raised over $1 billion. "I just happened to be here with great staff," he says, modestly.

Zeller says the extraordinarily wealthy are a "delight" but adds he's had some of the most fun with donors who give just a few hundred dollars. "He's very comfortable with people," says Lindgren. "He goes about what he does with such dignity and perseverance that all respect and admire him. He's a superb fund-raiser, absolutely one of the best in medicine in America today."

A recent, nationwide study revealed that charitable giving reached historic levels in 2002 despite uncertain economic times, proof positive, Zeller says, of his theory that people are inherently generous. "The experts say you can use many different vehicles to make a gift, like trusts that have tax advantages. But the fact is, people have to be fundamentally philanthropic in order to give. And that's one of the things we're seeing. People understand the importance of what we're trying to do."

- ABS