By GREGORY ZELLER //
Well, that worked.
Four years since it launched, and straight through the teeth of an economy-rocking pandemic, Northwell Health’s multilayered Outpacing the Impossible campaign – a comprehensive fundraising package with an ambitious agenda of programmatic and capital goals – has surpassed the $1 billion fundraising mark.
Officially titled Outpacing the Impossible: The Northwell Campaign, the multifaceted support system has raised approximately $1.02 billion from 170,000 donors, the New Hyde Park-based health system said Thursday, with $422 million earmarked for new programs, $412 million gifted for capital-improvement efforts and another $186 million in fresh endowments.
Money has flowed to big-ticket projects across Long Island, including the creation of the Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital and the Sandra Atlas Bass Center for Liver Diseases in Manhasset; the opening of the Linda and John Bohlsen Neurosciences Center at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore; and the rise of the Katz Women’s Surgical Center at Glen Cove Hospital, among several others.
Heart felt: Open-heart surgery in progress at the Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital inside North Shore University Hospital.
Off-Island Northwell facilities and programs have also benefitted from multiple Outpacing the Impossible fundraising efforts, including the Friedman Transgender Health and Wellness Program at Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital and Staten Island University Hospital’s Florina Cancer Center, among others.
Whether donors were supporting bioelectronic medicine clinical trials at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research or the health system’s flourishing endowment program – which sustains key leadership and faculty positions and promote programmatic advances – they certainly came through in spades over the four-year Outpacing the Impossible effort, according to Northwell Health President and CEO Michael Dowling.
“The extraordinary generosity from our donors has significantly boosted advancements in research, education, prevention and treatment,” Dowling said Thursday. “Philanthropy is an investment in one another, in our community and in the future, and it saves and improves people’s lives.”
Brian Lally: Brisk pace.
Of those roughly 170,000 donors, 11,600 were Northwell employees – and the $15 million they’ve volunteered in support of dozens of different facilities and research programs speaks volumes about the health system’s leadership and direction, according to Northwell Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer Brian Lally.
“Our communities and employees have come together to support the philanthropic needs of our organization,” Lally said in a statement. “When donors support us, they are affirming their belief in Northwell and their commitment to raising health in our communities.”
With physical infrastructure across the massive health system and programs focused on everything from cancer to behavioral health earning slices of the billion-dollar pie, nonprofit Northwell is extending the Outpacing the Impossible campaign through December 2024, with a new slate of fundraising events expected to funnel funds – up to an additional $400 million, organizers hope – toward numerous wellness and community-care initiatives.
“We’re using this momentum to extend our campaign and provide additional support in critical areas where the need is great,” Lally added. “In order to Outpace the Impossible, our work is never done.”
