Residents Raise the Bar on Giving
by Sean Higginson
Shortly after starting my internship, I met a professional fund-raiser at a social event. I couldn't resist asking how physicians were viewed in the fund-raising community as potential "demographic targets." After having a good laugh, he said it was not worth the cost of postage (bulk rate) to send an MD a solicitation letter asking for a check— the return was too low. Fortunately, I discovered just the opposite reaction during the American College of Radiology's (ACR) annual leadership conference in Washington, DC, last spring.
Since its inception in 1999, RADPAC, the political action committee charged with advancing the interests of radiology in the federal government, has doubled its number of donors, and is now among the top 5 health specialty PACS in the nation. Because RADPAC relies solely on contributions from ACRa members, getting more people involved is crucial to its mission, which is exactly what happened at this year's ACR annual meeting.
In fact, a certain group of radiologists and radiation-oncologists did more than just double their participation; they increased their number of donations by 788% over the past 2 years. Such growth is cause for any professional fund-raiser to celebrate, but when the folks at the ACR realized that all of these physicians belonged to the traditionally lower income bracket of residents, more than just celebration occurred. Arl Van Moore, MD, chairman of RADPAC, and Sanjay Shetty, MD, a resident from Massachusetts and president of the ACR Resident and Fellow section, saw the potential implications of this new trend, and their discussion resulted in the creation of a new position on the RADPAC board of directors. This position had only 1 requirement—the person who fills it must be a resident or fellow-in-training.
Each resident who serves the 2-year term on the RADPAC board of directors shall be responsible for "spreading the word" about RADPAC to other members-in-training. This will include outlining exactly what RADPAC does, and more importantly, why supporting it is so crucial to the future of our profession. Since residents' efforts will focus on the number of contributors to RADPAC from this group, rather than the total monetary amount they give, 100 residents contributing $10 is more beneficial than 10 residents contributing $100. Doing so will allow RADPAC to forge relationships with many radiologists still in training, with the hopes that they will "get in the habit of giving" and continue to participate in the organization throughout their career. Since these residents will be part of RADPAC's database and will receive publications such as the Advocate, residents may also become more involved politically in their local grassroots chapters of the ACR.
As soon as I agreed to serve as the first resident on the RADPAC board, I immediately realized that building on a 788% growth rate would be a tough act to follow. But working with the ACR's government relations department last fall as part of their J.T. Rutherford fellowship program led me to realize something: the more residents learn about the issues RADPAC faces, the more involved they will become. This was validated at the ACR annual meeting. The 788% growth was no accident. It occurred because residents were concerned about issues such as overutilization of imaging and medical liability reform. More important, they were eager to be part of the solution. I believe the future of RADPAC has never been brighter. By allowing residents to be engaged in the debate on issues that affect us all, and providing them with the opportunity to participate in the solution, I know we'll be successful in communicating the importance of RADPAC to the next generation of radiologists.
And if my fund-raising friend is reading this, please don't give up on MDs just yet. My check to the Boys and Girls Club of America is in the mail.
Sean Higginson is a diagnostic radiology resident at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis. He is the first resident member of the RADPAC Board of Directors.