Saint Louise hires full-time fund raiser, creates local
governing board
GILROY – With 2004 just around the corner, the Saint Louise Regional Hospital Foundation is poised to start its first new year with a more local focus under the direction of its full-time executive director and a larger governing board.
At the helm of the foundation is James Roosevelt, who was hired last March and single-handedly manages the hospital’s fund-raising efforts.
“We look forward to a very big 2004 for the hospital and the various things that we’re working on,” said Frank Angelino, vice chair of the foundation’s board. “A lot’s going to be happening.”
Before the foundation and Roosevelt were based at the Gilroy hospital, O’Connor Hospital in San Jose oversaw the hospital’s fund raising.
“By spending more time here in Gilroy, it greatly enhances Saint Louise,” Roosevelt said. “The focus has now shifted towards a local focus within the Gilroy and Morgan Hill areas to really build up the relationship within the community (and) between the hospital and the foundation.”
Daughters of Charity opened Saint Louise in Morgan Hill in 1989 and relocated to Gilroy in December of the following year. Daughters of Charity, an international community of Catholic women, also runs O’Connor Hospital in San Jose and six other hospitals in California.
The transfer of Saint Louise’s assets from the O’Connor Foundation to its own foundation is under way.
Angelino, station manager for radio stations KBAY and KEZR, and foundation board Chair George Chiala are both longtime members of the hospitals’ joint board.
Saint Louise’s current five-member foundation board of directors is recruiting five new members to join early next year.
“It’s going to be a new board focused on just Saint Louise and not a shared board with O’Connor,” Angelino said. “It’s a better focus for all of us to separate from them because we’re South County and they’re San Jose.”
Working with a fledgling foundation is nothing new for Roosevelt, who after graduating from Arizona State University started from scratch a foundation at a southern California high school.
“I’m very familiar with starting a foundation from the ground up; this is the second time I’ve done it,” Roosevelt said.
Roosevelt brings to Saint Louise nearly seven years of professional fund-raising experience, previously with Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center Foundation in Pomona and before that with Goodwill Industries of Orange County in Santa Ana.
Roosevelt is also a certified fund raising executive, a professional designation held by only 16 percent of the 25,000 members of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
The foundation’s goal for this fiscal year ending June 30, 2004, is to raise $650,000, mostly for equipment, Roosevelt said. New equipment is needed in the hospital’s radiology department, laboratory, operating room, breastcare center and emergency room. So far, the foundation has received about $500,000.
“With six months left, we’re on track to meet our goal,” Roosevelt said.
He recently finished up a successful month-long employee giving campaign, in which 20 percent of the hospital’s 400 associates contributed $40,000.
Last week, Roosevelt launched a community fund-raising campaign and donations have already come in, he said.
In joining Saint Louise, Roosevelt returned to his South Valley roots: he grew up in Sunnyvale and attended Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose.
Now engaged to Leah Graham, a registered nurse working at Saint Louise, Roosevelt currently lives in Santa Cruz but looks forward to making Gilroy his home, probably by February.
“I wanted to return home to the Bay Area, and this was a wonderful opportunity to help out south Santa Clara County and build up a foundation and make money for the hospital,” Roosevelt said.
He embraces the hospital’s focus on the family and the foundation’s events are always 100 percent family-oriented, he said.
“Any of the events we have, we invite the whole staff, spouses and the entire family,” he said.
Roosevelt’s dedication to the community extends beyond Saint Louise’s walls. He serves as an ambassador for the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce and graduated with Leadership Morgan Hill’s class of 2004 – a program for producing better community leaders. He also said he is currently a finalist for Bonfante Gardens’ board of directors and is applying for Gilroy Rotary.
“It’s important for me to be involved in the community,” Roosevelt said. “A big part of my business is building relationships with different parts of the community, and I feel the need to serve and give back .”
While the foundation started small, a second staff member could be hired as soon as next month, Roosevelt said.
The foundation is already looking ahead to a busy 2004. Roosevelt’s next project is to raise $1.2 million over the next 18 months for the surgery department, mother and child department and emergency room.
“Health care technology changes so quickly and every few years we need to evaluate whether we need to replace machines,” Roosevelt said. “The foundation has taken on the challenge of meeting (those) capital needs.”
For more information on donating to the Foundation, please contact 848-8628. Gifts may be general or designated to a specific department.
