Success is making every relationship count
AT THE LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY, INNOVATION COMES FROM BUILDING STRONG CONNECTIONS
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) racked up some eye-popping fundraising numbers in its 2021 fiscal year. It raised $484 million, which allowed the organization to increase its total grants awarded to more than $241 million—a 70% year-over-year increase. Those numbers are great news, but for Troy Dunmire, the organization’s chief operating officer, the real bottom line is a smaller figure unadorned by a dollar sign: 42,000. That’s how many patients received support through LLS’S patient financial aid programs during the year.
“One person who actually survives their cancer and then ultimately thrives in society today—that is an incredible measure of success,” Dunmire says. “And that’s ultimately how you make the largest change in the world: one person at a time.”
Supporting that metric can be both more rewarding and more challenging than maximizing profits. It also requires an intentional approach to innovation. It’s LLS’S approach to innovation that has earned them a spot on this year’s Fast Company list of Brands That Matter.
BUILDING NETWORKS
Ultimately, social impact organizations operate as conduits to route funding to the places where it will do the most to achieve their goals. In the case of LLS, the goal is eradicating blood cancers. That means supporting researchers, patients, and healthcare providers via a network of volunteers and philanthropists. “Raising money is important,” Dunmire says. “But it’s the translation of that money into research, fighting the disease, and creating greater access to more affordable care that makes an impact.”
To make that translation as effective as possible, the organization has an internal team tasked with innovation.
Their job is to think differently about what the organization could be doing. To do that, each member of the team relies on the experts in their extensive networks.
For instance, some networks engage researchers who help guide grant awards. One such effort led directly to the Beat AML Master Clinical Trial, the first collaborative precision medicine trial for blood cancer. In its six-year history, Beat AML has reported better patient survival rates by matching patients to gentler, targeted therapies, as opposed to the standard treatment they would have gotten historically.
“We are changemakers because we convene experts with incredible knowledge and use their experience to inform our actions in every area,” Dunmire says.
HARNESSING THE POWER OF COLLABORATION
Most of the organization’s largest fundraising successes have evolved from ideas that originally came from volunteers or philanthropists. The team uses a growth mindset to improve their impact over time. The annual “Light the Night” fundraiser began more than 20 years ago with a handful of events. Today, it has grown to include more than 115 separate events involving roughly a million people across America.
Producing tangible results raises the profile of the organization—and people’s attention—while nurturing the trust and goodwill that lead to even greater impact over time. Focusing innovation on providing patients, volunteers, doctors, and researchers with the tools they need to do their work attracts philanthropists because they see a path to making a difference.
“We need to engage people to be successful, and the way you engage people has to evolve with time,” Dunmire says. “Our team’s job is to create those connections and nurture them to grow those relationships, because the people who work with us over time ultimately have a significantly greater impact on our outcomes.”