Monroe Health Sciences Foundation: Navigating Inter-Departmental Conflict Management Challenges

All figures in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

Monroe Health Sciences Foundation

Monroe Health Sciences Foundation (MHSF) was the fundraising arm of the Monroe Health Science Centre (MHSC).^[1] The Foundation’s mission and vision were to inspire excellence and invest in MHSC. With over 40 employees, there was constant communication between the hospital, departments, and donors to ensure that funds were being raised for projects, renovations, and equipment.

Most individuals began their fundraising careers in call centers or working on minor campaigns for smaller donations and, with proven success, progressed to large gift sizes and more intensive gift giving that required lengthier rapport building with donors. The MHSC would identify individuals, often currently making smaller gifts and create touchpoints with the donors. The fundraising team would send personalized letters, share success stories of what the funds given achieved, hold events and meetings to recognize their philanthropic efforts and engage with them over long periods of time to develop a connection.

The nature of the organization structure and the donation process required MHSC departments to work collaboratively to ensure that a donor’s journey went smoothly. Each step of the donation experience was engineered from the donor’s perspective and aimed to facilitate efficient internal communication and collaboration.

Several departments at the Foundation were involved in facilitating the fundraising process. See Exhibit 1 – MHSF Partial Organizational Structure. These departments were organized by the size and types of donations they sought and worked on all aspects of the fundraising process.

Juliet Stonic

Stonic began employment at MHSF in 2012 as a Major Gifts Officer. Stonic described herself as a “hard worker who could power through any challenge.” Stonic began her career in sales within the for-profit industry, then took a career turn to apply her communication, sales, and customer service skills in a way that would benefit the community. Excited to start a career with the ability to make a difference in people’s lives and collaborate with like-minded people, she quickly became a top-performing fundraiser for the MHSF cancer program, capturing seven-figure donations and building solid relationships with the clinicians involved. Following her passion for making a difference in a meaningful industry, she took on all the fundraising initiatives for the Monroe Regional Cancer Program.

In 2017, Stonic became the MHSF Director of Major Giving. Her role evolved from focusing on fundraising to coordinating interactions between her four subordinates and the rest of the MHSF organization.

Stonic was aware of the negative impact on cancer patients if the team fell short of their $8,000,000 goal for the year. Driven by this responsibility, Stonic commented that she “often worked to exceed expectations to ensure the greatest possible support for those in need.” Stonic decided early in her role that she did not want to micromanage her subordinates but rather started the open-door policy where if anyone needed her, they knew they could come to her for help. Overall, Stonic explained that her approach worked well with consistent visits from her team members about successes, updates on difficult donor situations, and requests for support when a new opportunity had arisen.

Stonic explained that she really loved what she did and felt a true calling to make a difference with her position. She further added that she believed “every donation received in the office was a cause for celebration. I set up a bell that people could ring to acknowledge a new donation, a board to write their biggest donations each month, and created door badges to share who had the most meetings, calls, and donations each month.”

MHSF’s Customer Relationship Management Software — Raiser’s Edge

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software is part of an information management system. The CRM software used at MHSF was named Raiser’s Edge, which was designed to capture and organize details on all donor interactions. CRM systems helped coordinate large organizations like MHSF with multiple company representatives who may be interacting with the same customer/donor. MHSF’s CRM system allowed detailed notes to be shared about each donor’s touchpoint. For example, if an MHSF representative called a donor and, in the discussion, the donor mentioned they were vegan, a note could be left on file so that when another representative reached out to invite them to lunch, the representative would be informed of the customer’s preferences and could plan accordingly.

CRM Challenges in MHSF’s Development Department

As the manager of the Development department, Stonic and her team were responsible for logging donor interactions in the CRM system. Stonic explained that this task was tedious and required manual entry; therefore, the data was often inputted into the CRM system late when she had time to sit and enter the information.

In her role at MHSF, Stonic was working to obtain donations for a clinical trial for Breast Cancer. The project had sparked community support, and Stonic explained that the project required her full attention, taking all her time, so some administrative tasks were neglected, such as setting up meetings and logging donor conversations into the Raiser’s Edge CRM system. Stonic added that “the CRM software was not user friendly and inputting the data could take anywhere from 10 minutes to a full day, depending on the amount!”

First Confrontation — Amanda Marlo, Director of Campaign

On a Tuesday morning in early March 2024, Stonic met with Amanda Marlo, Director of Campaign,^[2] who worked on long-term projects connecting several areas of the hospitals. As a result of her role, Marlo did not have monetary donation goals and was evaluated based on her action plan for upcoming campaigns. There was a lot of cross-over between her role and the other donor teams. Marlo’s team used Raiser’s Edge to identify donors with potential projects, and having up-to-date information was integral to her role.  Marlo excelled at coordinating, controlling, and aligning the bigger hospital needs with the smaller ones to eliminate “donor fatigue.”^[3]

Stonic and Marlo had met to discuss a donation they were working on together and to determine the steps they would take to ensure success. Stonic explained, “It was at the end of the meeting when the common ground in our discussion shifted.” Stonic was making small talk with Marlo, asking what else she had to do today. Marlo explained she “had a meeting with Dr. Lightstone to go over the main fundraising priorities for one of the donor’s estate planning.” Stonic remembered that her team had just met with Dr. Lightstone and mentioned this to Marlo. Marlo seemed flustered to learn that Stonic’s team had also met with Dr. Lightstone, and Stonic sensed that “the tone of the conversation suddenly shifted from friendly to slightly tense.” Marlo asked Stonic what was discussed with Dr. Lightstone. Stonic suggested Marlo “connect with Stonic’s team for the details” as she was not in the meeting with Dr. Lightstone and she therefore, “did not know the details yet as the meeting was fairly recent.”

Marlo immediately left the office. The next day, Stonic explained that she noticed Marlo was avoiding her, claiming that “Marlo left the room as I entered and would not make any direct eye contact.” The following day, Stonic requested a call with Marlo to resolve the issue. Stonic explained to Marlo that she was “sorry the comment about Dr. Lightstone had upset her, and she had intended the comment to be helpful to share that other people in the organization had also been meeting with the same clinician.”

Marlo expressed that she felt left out of the important conversation and was concerned important information was missed.  Marlo asked for more details about the project again; however, Stonic had not yet debriefed with her team and could not provide any further updates.

Over the next couple of weeks, Stonic explained that “her strained relationship with Marlo began to interfere with her work.” Marlo never acknowledged Stonic’s apology, and their meetings were tense and kept short. Stonic added that she “felt stressed by the situation, but I had already confronted Marlo and attempted to mend the relationship. I do not know how many more times I should apologize and explain my position if Marlo simply refuses to listen to my perspective.”

Second Confrontation — Bradley Gibson, Director, Mid-level Giving

On May 2, 2024, Stonic and her team met with Bradley Gibson, Director of Mid-level Giving. Gibson was a new leader at MHSF who motivated his subordinates to reach their goal of $1,000,000 by placing regular phone call reminders and mailing letters. Gibson and his team regularly communicated with all donors in the hope that they would maintain their donations for the following year. Although not commissioned, Gibson and his employees’ performance was measured based on their ability to reach these donation goals and thus impacted a percentage of their annual raise. Gibson’s Mid-level Giving department status allowed him to work with over four hundred donors, whereas a Major Gift Officer worked with one hundred donors.

When Stonic and Gibson were discussing recent donations at the end of their meeting, Gibson mentioned booking “a $25,000 gift the other day for the Cancer Program.” Gibson further explained that the value of the gift was on the cusp of where Mid-level donations ended and represented a great achievement for his department. Stonic was excited and asked, “Who is the donor?” Gibson responded, “A kind woman by the name of Lesly Orlowski called with all the details of what she would be funding and donated over the phone.”

Stonic replied that she had been working with Lesly Orlowski for months. Gibson responded that “the donor had not mentioned Stonic and that he did not see any details in the Raiser’s Edge CRM system.” Stonic responded that she “had all the details and would gladly show him, but she had been busy with a few major projects and not entered the details into the system.” Stonic added that she and Lesly Orlowski “had become close over the past month, but Lesly had a habit of calling the front desk versus calling her extension.” Gibson abruptly announced, “I have a call scheduled that I need to prepare for,” and exited the office. Stonic explained that after the meeting, she was worried as she knew she “should have taken the time to input more updates into the Raiser’s Edge CRM system.” She also knew that “meeting donation goals was important to Gibson.”

Background

Stonic described feeling a “social coldness from Gibson for some time as he would either be distant or leave quickly after meetings together.” One day, in early February 2024, Stonic and Gibson were in the community kitchen together, and Stonic decided to ask him about the situation.

Gibson responded, “Well, honestly, Juliet (Stonic), I find your excitement and presence to be a bit too much sometimes. I get you’re happy about what you’re doing, but as soon as we finish meetings, I find I have to decompress and leave.”

Stonic was shocked, indicating that she “had never received a comment like that from a colleague,” and though she thanked Gibson for the honesty, she admitted she “felt unsettled by the whole situation.”

Stonic explained that the tension between her and Gibson “became worse after their meeting in late May 2024 when she realized that Lesly Orlowski had called MHSF to make a donation but had mistakenly spoken to Gibson.”

Going Forward

Walking back to her office, Stonic wondered how best to resolve the donation dispute and what strategy she should use to confront Gibson to gain the best result. She knew that if the situation were not resolved, the issue would escalate to the VP of MHSF. Stonic felt confident that once her notes were added to the CRM system documenting the timing of her interaction with the donor Lesly Orlowski, the donation would be rightfully attributed to her team. However, she was worried about how her colleagues or managers would perceive this late entry into the CRM, as she was concerned about her broader reputation at MHSF. She and Marlo were still on rocky waters, and she did not want a secondary conflict with Gibson, a leadership peer at MHSF, to boost inter-departmental tensions. But still, she wanted credit for what she and her team had worked so hard for. Stonic exclaimed, “How did things evolve to this point?” and wondered where to start to work toward a resolution.

Exhibits

Exhibit 1 – Partial Organizational Chart, MHSF

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Image Description

Exhibit 1 – Partial Organizational Chart, MHSF

The image is an organizational chart in a hierarchical structure. At the top, there is a box labeled “Dale Manchester, CEO & President.” Below are two boxes: “Carla Grant, Chief of HR” on the left and “Mark Sanchez, Vice President” on the right. They branch out to five directors below: “Amanda Marlo, Director of Campaigns,” “Bradley Gibson, Director of Mid-Level Giving,” “Juliet Stonic, Director of Development,” “Kate Lawson, Director of Legacy Giving,” and “Wanda Li, Director of Donor Stewardship.” Each director has a specified number of subordinates listed beneath their names. The chart shows lines connecting the CEO to each of the executives and directors. At the bottom right, an arrow labeled “Larger & Longer Donation Paths” points rightward.

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How to cite this case: Miller, A.J. & Da Silva, J. (2025). Monroe Health Sciences Foundation: Navigating inter-departmental conflict management challenges. Open Access Teaching Case Journal, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.58067/vvr5-ms11

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