Partners In Health raises $1.6 million
Faculty and staff at Vanderbilt Medical Center gave more than $1.6 million to the 2009 Partners In Health Campaign, a year-long internal fundraising effort to support VMC's academic mission.
The final tally came to $1,658,977, with 43 percent faculty participation. Although this did not meet the $1.9 million goal, it did exceed the 40 percent participation goal. Thirteen departments had 50 percent or greater participation.
“What is most striking about this year's results is the increase in participation percentage. Even though the economy put stresses on individuals' finances, this is evidence that faculty and staff are loyal to Vanderbilt and want to support it,” said Susan Wente, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for Research and one of this year's campaign co-chairs along with Carol Etherington, M.S.N., R.N., assistant professor at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and Corey Slovis, M.D., chair of Emergency Medicine.
The co-chairs noted that despite the economic downtown, this year's campaign was successful in many ways:
• Participation has increased 10 percent since 2007.
• There were 163 new donors since last year.
• 295 designated funds within VMC received support, which is 50 more than in 2008.
“I'm incredibly heartened by the continued support of this campaign and would like to thank all of our donors,” Wente said.
For more information on Partners In Health, visit www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/partnersinhealth.
Top departments in campaign participation included: Thoracic Surgery (100%); Emergency Medicine (85%); Molecular Physiology and Biophysics (79%); Cell and Developmental Biology (77%); Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (68%); Plastic Surgery (67%); Biostatistics (66%); Neurology (61%); Medical Education and Administration (59%); Otolaryngology (58%); Biomedical Informatics (57%); Psychiatry (55%); and Cardiac Surgery (50%).