Maeve O’Byrne, whose leadership helped grow Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation into a multimillion-dollar fundraiser for health care, will step aside for a new visionary this June.
O’Byrne resigns June 30 after more than two decades at the helm of the hospital foundation, a non-profit that raises millions of dollars for health-care equipment and capital projects in central Vancouver Island.
A good leader knows when it’s time to step aside, said O’Byrne, who has taken the organization as far as she knows she can.
“It’s time for someone else to take the organization and grow it further,” she said.
The foundation launched its first capital campaign in 1991 to raise $2 million for a new emergency room when O’Byrne was hired as its director. Previously it was more of a conduit for donations than an active fundraiser and lacked dedicated employees, according to O’Byrne, who said it raised between $50,000 and $100,000 annually prior to the campaign.
Now it pulls in average of $4 million a year, with a philanthropic arm and two social enterprise businesses and has a total 52 part-time and full-time employees.
“I don’t think we ever dreamed it’d become as large and complex as it has, but I don’t think we dreamed that there would be such a need for fundraising either,” she said.
The organization has raised money for the renal and maternity units, new operating rooms and medical equipment.
Its work fills the gap between what government can give and what the community needs and wants to see, said O’Byrne, who feels the groundwork is now laid for further growth and the biggest task ahead is to grow the foundation and provide a new vision along with the board.
Greg Scott, chairman of the foundation board, said the non-profit is successful, strong and well-respected and has had a great impact on health care in the central Island. While a team of individuals brought the foundation to this point, he said it’s O’Byrne who was their dynamic leader.
“It’s always sad to see a great leader go,” he said.
The foundation board is searching for a new president with the help of recruiting firm Davies Park.
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