When Jennifer Molloy arrived as CEO of the Royal University Hospital Foundation four years ago, the organization was running a fundraising program built around events – a black-tie gala with a 24-year history, a radiothon, a golf tournament. Well-attended and community-facing but not converting attendees into donors.

The shift she led was not subtle. All three events were cut. The board was nervous – not opposed, but genuinely worried about visibility. Were people still going to know who they were?

The answer was a different kind of visibility: storytelling. Rather than replacing events with other events, the foundation shifted its energy toward mission-based communication: sharing patient stories, building relationships, and asking people who cared about healthcare in Saskatoon to give at a level that reflected what it meant to them.

The investments that made this possible were structural. Jennifer reorganized the org chart, assigning new titles and portfolios that signalled, unmistakably, that major gifts were now the priority. She introduced activity-based KPIs – not revenue targets, but metrics around discovery meetings, cultivation touchpoints, and solicitation activity – developed with an external consultant who also ran major gift workshops with both the fundraising team and the board. A new database became genuinely indispensable once the organization started tracking activity systematically. And critically, no one was replaced. The same team, refocused, with a different framework and different expectations.