JACKSON—After raising tens of millions of dollars for various educational and charitable institutions, Jim Jeter was traversing the Texas back roads en route from College Station to Houston in 2002, when he topped a hill and found himself in the same lane with an 18-wheeler. The commercial truck was fully loaded; Jeter was in a Toyota Camry. Both were traveling 70 miles per hour.

 

“Somehow I survived that wreck,” said Jeter, who spent six weeks at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, followed by a month in rehabilitation at College Station Medical Center, where he “became very familiar with healthcare.”

 

In May 2008, Jeter joined the St. Dominic Health Services Foundation as chief development officer and executive director. Since then, he’s established a donor management system, initiated a grateful patient program, and introduced annual giving opportunities. Last year, foundation giving increased 300 percent. Last fall, St. Dominic employees contributed nearly $240,000 to a comprehensive internal campaign, representing a 50 percent jump from 2008, and a 45 percent participation rate. The foundation is now looking to launch St. Dominic’s inaugural capital campaign.

 

Mississippi Medical News chatted with Jeter about his past successes, current challenges, and vision for the future.

 

 

There’s never going to be a perfect time to start a campaign. We’ve all lived through recessions, some worse than the one we’re in now. But Mississippians are known around the country for their generosity. Even in tough economic times, individual giving typically stays strong. Corporations and foundations may pull in their wings a little out of necessity, but individuals still continue to support the things they care about. We’ll make a determination soon whether to undertake a capital campaign and if so to what extent.  

 

We conducted a feasibility study this past summer to find out two things: How does the community, its leaders and key philanthropists perceive St. Dominic’s and its ministries? Secondly, would they be willing to support a campaign effort with their gifts and time? We’ve been extremely encouraged, though not surprised, by the response.

 

 

As recently as 10 years ago, nonprofit healthcare systems began to realize if they weren’t in the philanthropy business, they needed to get in it. I saw the same thing happen in public higher education in the ‘70s. St. Dominic’s has always been the generous community citizen, and we have reached a point in our history where the help of our friends will assist us in continuing our delivery of quality healthcare, and with the same level of love and compassion we have for now over 60 years. 

 

In 2002, we established a foundation for St. Catherine’s Village (one of St. Dominic’s ministries) as a response to people wanting to give gifts memorializing and honoring spouses, friends and physicians. When Hurricane Katrina blew through in 2005, St, Dominic’s recognized recovery from this devastation was a statewide priority and it wasn’t a good time to seek the community’s financial support. So we engaged a firm to study and determine the direction of the foundation which resulted in its 2007 reorganization into a general purpose foundation, undergirding all of St. Dominic’s programs, facilities and ministries. A strategic plan was put into action, a national search for a corporate development officer was launched, and here we are.

 

 

I became intrigued about healthcare opportunities when searching for a job that eventually took me to Stephen F. Austin State University. I decided I wanted to take on one more challenge and was looking for a place to close out my career. I was in the final stages of considering some opportunities when my wife was searching online and asked, ‘What do you know about St. Dominic’s?’ I told her I knew where it was, but that was all. I’d been to Jackson many times while I was at Texas A&M to visit with the local alumni chapter. I always found the people to be really warm and hospitable. I’d watched the area slowly develop, the efforts to revitalize downtown Jackson, and saw the potential for Madison and Rankin counties. The quality of life in Central Mississippi is great, big enough to have everything you need, but not so big that you have things you don’t want.

 

Karen said, ‘Well, they’re advertising for a CDO for their new foundation. Why don’t you send a resume?’ After studying healthcare in the area for a day or two and calling some longtime Aggie friends in this area, I sent it off. The more I talked with board members and staff, the more interested I became. I actually visited one day and wandered around the hospital. At least half a dozen employees stopped me in the hallways, asking how they could help me. I’m sure I looked a bit lost, and they probably contacted security by the time I left! But I was so impressed by the genuine caring exhibited by the staff. I came to believe this would be a great place to call home, if God would bless us with the opportunity. So I interviewed, and Karen and I prayed up a storm. He answered.

 

 

 

In addition to meeting some fundamental objectives, which we’ve done, we also needed to better educate our community about our dedication to mission and our broad ministry in the community. A great example is our school nurses program in Madison County. It’s hard to find nurses in schools any more, but thanks to St. Dominic Health Services, you will in Madison County and we hope elsewhere some day. Another is our key role in the development of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation to revitalize the neighborhood and its Phoenix Initiative, where we’ve partnered with longtime Fondren residents to assist area senior citizens with homes in need of restoration and repair.

 

Our ministries are more than the large ones you see from the road–our hospital and St. Catherine’s Village. Part of my job is to tell our story better so that donors and potential donors have a keen awareness of services and community outreach we’ve rendered already, not to mention what their gifts could do to further these ministries. It’s important to point out that many believe that St. Dominic’s is financially supported by the Catholic Church, which is simply not the case. Although we have the backing of our Catholic Diocese and Mission, we make our bottom line the same way other great healthcare institutions in our area do—with hard work, fair cost and good management. 

 

 

I don’t think anyone really knows. If you find someone who does, let us know. Our leadership team has kept an eye on it as it’s evolved, but there’s been so much uncertainty. I don’t think any of the institutions in our community can really make a judgment. Now that it’s the law of the land, we’ll take a good hard look at it and plan for the future best we can. I can tell you this: We’ll not turn away from the level of service we offer at this hospital or back away from our outreach to the community. We’ve never done that, and never will. Our foundation and those that choose to support our programs, causes and ministries through it, will go a long way toward guaranteeing that into the future.