Arkansas Children’s CEO describes $50M historic gift origins, goals

Arkansas Children’s announced Monday (Dec. 29) it received the largest single philanthropic gift in its history — $50 million from Paychex founder and philanthropist B. Thomas Golisano.

Later that day, Marcy Doderer, Arkansas Children’s CEO, spoke with Talk Business & Politics to share details of how the gift came to fruition and how it folds into the long-term plans for the state’s only children’s healthcare system.

The origins of the Golisano gift are a nod to old school communication – it started with a letter.

“He personally, through a letter, reached out to Arkansas Children’s back in the very early summer,” said Doderer. “He reached out to a number of children’s hospitals at that time across the country with a letter offering to engage in a conversation about the work we do, the opportunity for him to potentially make a significant transformative gift if he were to find our work admirable, and the earning of such a gift. That’s how it started, literally a letter, a real letter in my mailbox at work.”

Initially, Doderer was not sure what the magnitude of a potential gift could be. The hospital pitched three different options and quickly discovered it might be historically enormous.

“We didn’t know that it could be as big as $50 million. We put together a couple of different opportunities for him to consider when it comes to investing in child health in Arkansas and put together a $15 million, a $30 million and a $50 million proposal to him,” she said.

“By the time we had the opportunity to visit with his foundation folks here in Little Rock, we knew that he was only considering a $50 million gift for us. That’s an extraordinary gift, the largest philanthropic gift in the history of Arkansas Children’s, and certainly personally the largest one I’ve ever shepherded in my career as a healthcare executive. So it was a little anxiety provoking. However, when we got to sit with him in person, he’s a smart, prudent businessman. He’s also warm and gracious, has a genuine interest in improving child health across our country.”

Doderer said the Golisano gift will come in phases. She sees part of the money folding into the current $370 million expansion effort and a portion laying the foundation for future initiatives.

“The initial investment will be supporting our existing construction that’s happening on the campus in Little Rock. We have $370 million in total construction happening across our health system,” said Doderer. “I have a number of other initiatives we will use that money for in the coming years… One of our strategies that I believe this gift will help us fund is considering how we take care of complex chronic kids in rural Arkansas. We’ve looked at the statistics deeply and the number of children who drive significant distances to get to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock for routine care of very complex issues. It’s a big number, and that’s a burden on families that we wish to alleviate.”

“Our next kind of thinking on the gift from the Golisano Foundation would be to build out that virtual hub, allowing us to take care of these kids remotely,” she added. “But I have a number of other ideas we’ll work through in the coming months as we understand how the gift will be received. Our strategic plan calls for major initiatives and revolutionizing medicine, regionalizing care, and then realizing our promise of a better tomorrow for the kids of Arkansas through improved child health statistics. And I think we’ll be able to use that money to advance all three of those big aims of our strategic plan.”

You can listen to Doderer’s full interview at this link.