As we approach the year’s midpoint, checking in on healthcare philanthropy tech and how it’s specifically shaping fundraising technology can be a much-needed boost of inspiration.
Whether you’re seeing specific examples of these industry trends in your hospital fundraising or not, uncovering tools for responding to lapses in donor retention, the impact of AI, and the need for diversified funding will strengthen your organization. In this guide, we’ll explore how software solutions are advancing the field and revisit foundational tech practices that remain relevant.
Evergreen tech best practices for hospital philanthropy
Before exploring new trends, your development team should have a solid foundation in tried-and-true fundraising tech skills. Grounding your operations in stable, non-negotiable best practices prevents security breaches and maintains donor trust, serving as the foundation for any future digital expansion.
Ensure your hospital fundraising adheres to these core standards:
- Strict HIPAA compliance. Since your team is specifically working within a healthcare context and you may have some patient-donor overlap, it’s vital to confirm that any platforms you use to manage donor and patient data natively support HIPAA regulations to protect sensitive health information. Executing Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with every software vendor is necessary to legally shield your institution from compliance violations.
- Removing data silos. Your tech tools will only be as good as the data management you practice. Disconnected databases lead to fragmented donor profiles and missed cultivation opportunities. Establishing seamless, bidirectional API integrations between the hospital’s Electronic Health Records (EHR) and the fundraising Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system syncs data universally.
- Data transparency. Donors expect complete clarity regarding how your institution stores and utilizes their personal information. Building clear, jargon-free opt-in and opt-out communication preferences directly into digital donation forms builds immediate trust.
- Mitigating tech debt. Legacy systems slow down operations and create vulnerabilities. Regularly-scheduled software updates maintain high-level security protocols and enables your team to access the latest functionality.
Conducting a routine audit of your software ecosystem helps identify integration gaps before they impact donor outreach. Prioritizing these routine checks ensures your technology stack remains an asset rather than an administrative liability.
3 tech trends for 2026
1. Prioritizing donor retention
Healthcare fundraising already struggles with a lower-than-average donor retention rate compared with other development sectors. We’re seeing that number drop, even compared to the healthcare industry in years past, from 40% of organizations retaining 45% or more of new donors to only 34% of organizations.
While winning new supporters is exciting, it’s important to maintain momentum with the donors you’ve already built relationships with. To combat declines in retention, your development team should turn to technology that actively nurtures existing donor relationships and keeps your hospital top of mind.
Implement these digital retention strategies to build lasting loyalty:
- Assess existing patients: While you may want to jump into bolstering existing donor relationships first, it’s important to get the full picture of your donor journey, which often starts with the individual as a patient. Establish your organization as a proactive, transparent communicator by implementing digital patient engagement best practices (such as two-way messaging, personalized outreach, and post-visit follow-ups) from the outset.
- Behavioral segmentation: Understanding your donors’ mindset requires mapping their specific interactions with your facility. Shifting from broad, generic hospital newsletters to hyper-targeted impact reports based on the specific hospital wing or research initiative the donor previously supported significantly increases read rates and future gifts.
Evaluating engagement metrics specifically among your mid-level donors often reveals the highest potential for lifetime value growth. Tailoring automated stewardship tracks for this specific segment prevents them from lapsing into inactivity.
2. Adopting AI across multiple use cases
AI tools typically fall into two categories: generative or predictive AI. Your hospital’s development team can use both to further your fundraising efforts.
Use cases for predictive AI tools typically include donor screening and prospect research, which is a major breakthrough in what was previously a very time-consuming task. As you implement this for your team, connecting predictive scoring directly to your gift officers’ daily dashboards helps them prioritize the highest-value outreach each morning. This alignment translates raw data into immediate, revenue-generating action.
For generative AI tools, DonorSearch cites personalizing donor communications, creating promotional content, evaluating previous campaigns, and writing grant proposals. In each of these cases, but especially for personalization, the ability to quickly scale your efforts gives you more time to build relationships.
For the content you use AI to create, maintain a human-in-the-loop approach. AI might draft the skeleton of bulk stewardship emails or annual appeals, but the human staff should review and refine the tone to guarantee genuine institutional empathy remains intact.
Establishing an institutional approach to implementing new AI tools help you mitigate risk and prioritize rollout. Promptly recommends this framework for implementing AI healthcare technology:
- Standardize AI policies
- Identify high-friction bottlenecks
- Ensure bidirectional system integrations
- Establish a governance policy with human oversight
- Launch a pilot phase
As with any use of AI, it’s important to be intentional (especially given HIPAA regulations in healthcare). Vet any AI tech vendors to prevent patient and donor information from entering public training models and train your staff on AI best practices.
3. Enabling non-cash gifts
This tech trend is a response to recent economic market fluctuations and disruptions to traditional grant funding. While healthcare organizations shouldn’t wait for funding gaps to diversify their revenue, it’s often a motivating incentive.
That’s where offering non-cash options becomes useful. With these new revenue streams, you widen your donor base and remove caps on your fundraising income, since you’ll likely secure larger commitments from high-net-worth individuals. Many of these donors see stock transfers, DAFs, and cryptocurrency as attractive ways to show their generosity.
Modernizing your digital donation pathways minimizes the friction of what would otherwise be complex transactions. Your team can add widgets for stock and DAF donations directly on primary donation forms, and you can even automatically liquidate these assets, turning them into cash your nonprofit can use immediately.
Once you’ve successfully set up your hospital’s donation tech on the backend to accept these gifts, it’s important to educate donors about the new options. Prominently featuring non-cash giving options on your landing page normalizes these transaction types for your audience. You can also include educational content covering the tax benefits of asset transfers. With that information, what might have initially been a modest cash gift can become a major contribution.
Modern software and robust data management play a critical role in establishing sustainable healthcare fundraising. Embracing these technological advancements ensures medical institutions remain well-funded, highly resilient, and fully equipped to serve their communities well into the future.
About the Author
Shaun Priest, Promptly Sr. Vice President of Growth
Shaun Priest is responsible for Promptly’s sales, sales operations, marketing, lead generation, and partnership activities. With 25 years of experience in healthcare IT, Shaun has previously held executive positions at BEKhealth, ReportingMD, Clearwave, and Streamline Health; sales leadership roles at WebMD and Altera; and project management roles at Oracle Health and Meditech.