When Mattel Inc. recently donated $25 million to the UCLA Children's Hospital - the largest corporate donation ever given to a children's hospital - the gift resulted in a prominent branding coup. The hospital was renamed the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA.
From a marketing standpoint, the new memorable name will also give the hospital a marketable point of difference. But it remains to be seen how well the close corporate affililiation will be received by the community.
The name change, along with the sizable corporate gift is an industry oddity, but the hospital's leadership is confident that the new name will reflect both organizations' quality reputations, says Roger Meyer, director of development for medical sciences at UCLA. "Corporations don't do this very often. This [gift] should raise the sights of donors and those in fundraising."
In addition to being included in the hospital's name, Mattel will get hospital board participation and an opportunity to help design the lobby of the new state-of-the-art facility to be designed by well-known architect I.M. Pei.
The money will support the existing Children's Hospital and Child Life Program and the new facility to be completed by 2004.
The donation provides "recognition for something big in our home town and an opportunity to help children worldwide," says Glenn Bozarth, Mattel's senior VP of corporate communications.
What If We Double?
When discussions started at least a year ago between Mattel and UCLA, the hospital anticipated a donation of between $1 million and $5 million, says Meyer. At that level, Mattel could have a department or room named for the company. Then Mattel chairman and CEO Jill E. Barad, a long-time board member of UCLA's school of medicine, began posing "What if?" questions. She asked what the result would be if the company doubled or tripled their original intended gift.
"We wanted to do something different from [the type of corporate giving] we'd been doing," says Bozarth. Previous donations included installing computer labs in schools, establishing preventive health clinics for Head Start programs and supporting a public awareness campaign called "Take Our Parents to School Week."
The corporate gift exceeded the $5 million typically given to charitable initiatives by the company's philanthropic arm, the Mattel Foundation, and required approval from its executive board, says Bozarth. The executive board quickly endorsed the donation. "UCLA didn't really have to sell us on why we should donate. Their [international] reputation for research and teaching helps children around the world, and the executive leadership saw how they could contribute to the great work the hospital does," says Bozarth.
When the donation grew to $25 million (to be paid in increments through 2004) and Mattel expressed an interest in providing additional programmatic support to raise an additional $175 million for the new facility and services, UCLA felt the support warranted a name change, says Meyer.
'Playland' Generates Local Press
The pledge was announced at a press conference Nov. 12 in the hospital's entrance which had been converted into a Mattel "playland." A banner announcing the new hospital name hung over the entrance.
The press, including four local TV stations, a national ABC network reporter, three radio stations and The Los Angeles Times, were greeted by live Barbie models, Cabbage Patch Kids and patients playing with several Mattel toys.
"We really wanted to make [the press conference] a fun day," says Roxanne Yamaguchi Moster, UCLA's assistant director of media relations.
A Mattel playroom was also set up on the children's floor of the hospital for patients too ill to play in the lobby's play land.
Mattel volunteers set up both areas and got a kick out of making rounds throughout the hospital distributing toys, says Moster.
Leading up to the press conference, the media were pitched on heartwarming stories about patients who were successfully treated at the hospital using its new name, like a little Chinese boy with a severe heart defect and a seven-year-old who needed a heart transplant.
(Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, Robert Meyer, Roxanne Yamaguchi Moster, 310/206-3611; Mattel, Glenn Bozarth, 310/252-3521)