
Bill Littlejohn, Sharp HealthCare Foundation response to C19, part 3
Thank you to Bill Littlejohn for providing the communications package from Sharp HealthCare Foundation.
Sharp Philanthropy Update
Date: April 17, 2020
To: SHF Board of Directors
Sharp Philanthropy Team
From:Bill Littlejohn, SVP and CEO
Subject: Sharp Philanthropy Update
Today’s update is mostly a virtual tour and links to Sharp’s leadership in the fight against COVID-19.
We’ll begin with the front page story from both the LA Times and San Diego Union Tribune of the incredible images from Sharp Memorial and Sharp Chula Vista. Be sure to check them out – searing and powerful and a reminder of the power of philanthropy to provide for our caregivers and the patients we serve.
We are exceedingly pleased with the response to the Sharp COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund; now with nearly $3 million in contributions, including two $1 million anonymous gifts. We recently received two gifts of $100,00 each to fully fund the purchase of new disinfecting robots at Sharp Coronado Hospital and Sharp Memorial Hospital. The fund has received a $50,000 grant from the Bank of America Foundation, and numerous gifts of $5,000 or more; meeting the requirements of the $350,000 Prebys challenge grant in less than a week (although we are continuing to use the Prebys challenge in our communication as it is indeed inspiring others to give).
Thank you to everyone who has made gifts to the fund.
Last week the Foundations created a special COVID-19 Sharp Employee Emergency Assistance Fund, which will provide emergency cash grants as a safety net for those employees at significant financial risk from this state of emergency. The fund is through gifts of Paid Time Off (PTO) donated by Sharp Team Members. In just the first four days of the campaign, more than 4,000 hours of PTO has been donated. The generosity of Sharp Team Members is an inspiration to everyone in the community.
The Campaign for the Sharp COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund
Through a great partnership with the Marketing and Digital Strategies teams we are implementing a community-wide campaign for our fund and Sharp’s response to COVID-19, beginning with a link to the fund on the Homepage of www.sharp.com.
Campaign Elements:
Contextual ads – Contextual display ads will drive conversions by reaching consumers who are already engaging with COVID-19 content online.
Native ads – we can quickly leverage our wealth of COVID-related Sharp Health News content (including the challenge) for these display ads.
Twitter – Twitter has lifted their previous ban on COVID-19 messaging. Social is by far our strongest direct response converter and Twitter should be able to provide us great reach and site traffic.
OTT – OTT (or “over the top” advertising) is a great way to reach people who are now at home streaming content from their internet-connected devices (TV, laptop, tablet, etc). We are targeting Adults 25+ in San Diego County.
Television – Provides great flexibility to create awareness and response via the frequency of :15 messages, which we are using and extending to digital.
Schedule and Reach:
Platform | Start | End | Potential Reach |
Contextual (Display) | 4/13 | 5/15 | 1,150,748 impressions |
Native Advertising | 4/13 | 5/22 | 1,138,952 impressions |
4/13 | 5/22 | 6,667 Link Clicks | |
OTT | 4/13 | 5/22 | 487,804 Impressions |
TV | 4/13 | 4/26 | Reach 56.8% Frequency 6.0 |
Big month for online giving with more than 600 gifts and $72,000 in revenue – includes both Doctors’ Day and our first round of gifts for our COVID-19 fund. We will be sending email messages and links to the fund over the next month to more than 300,000 donors, patients and community members.
Online Giving
MO | # of Gifts | Revenue | ||
FY19 | FY20 | FY19 | FY20 | |
O | 54 | 73 | $16,474 | $24,056 |
N | 134 | 112 | 22,698 | 20,660 |
D | 342 | 283 | 81,537 | 89,619 |
J | 79 | 123 | 30,620 | 23,002 |
F | 124 | 83 | 22,373 | 37,970 |
M | 489 | 607 | 52,245 | 72,728 |
TOT | 1222 | 1281 | 225,947 | 268,035 |
Share these links with donors and friends:
COVID-19: A Message the Foundations of Sharp HealthCare
COVID-19 Funding Needs Infographic
Stay safe and be well and continue to check for updates from Sharp and San Diego County regarding COVID-19. Contact me with questions, etc. bill.littlejohn@sharp.com or cell 858-699-7214.

