Five Questions With Shannon Fisher
Shannon Fisher has combined her love for community and passion for health care through a career in health care fundraising. While pursuing her master’s degree in health care administration, she interned with Presbyterian Healthcare Foundation (now Texas Health Resources Foundation) and worked as a patient care technician at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital HEB, beginning her service in 2003. After receiving her degree and a brief stint at another foundation, she returned to the Texas Health Resources Foundation and health care in 2006 as director of annual giving.
Shannon has been blessed with many opportunities to grow in her career at Texas Health Resources Foundation. She ran the Associates campaign, led fundraising events and grateful patient fundraising programs, then progressed into major gifts. She now serves as the senior director of Foundation Relations & Grants, where she manages a team of gift officers with fundraising responsibilities for Texas Health Community Impact and several wholly owned hospitals.
What did you want to be as a kid, and how did you ultimately choose your career?
As a child I always wanted to be a dentist. I was obsessed with pulling teeth and performed this volunteer service on myself, my siblings and friends. But it was my mother and grandmother’s careers in nursing that ultimately drew me into health care. My mother, a nurse at Texas Health HEB, dragged us along to every charity event in which the hospital participated. My early exposure to these events helped lead me down a path into health care fundraising.
What is a typical workday like for you?
There are no typical days in my profession, which is what I love most about it! I start my day off with my first job as wife and mother — packing lunches, serving breakfast and getting the kids off to school. I then quickly switch gears, check email and hop on a conference call for the Junior League. Then it’s off to a coffee meeting with one of our donors, followed by meetings with my team in Arlington. While driving to a community luncheon, I’ll take hands-free calls from a donor looking for a new physician or needing assistance with an upcoming hospital visit.
After lunch, I’ll speak with the executive director of a community foundation about potential support for one of our programs, review scheduling and planning for the next day, and then head to a meeting with one of our physicians to discuss donor strategy or program planning for a new fundraising project. The day’s last work event is typically an evening reception and ribbon-cutting or post-event wrap-up with donors and community volunteers. I’ll finally head home, or to the baseball field, ideally in time for dinner with the family, baths and bedtime.
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
The relationships. Fundraising is a relationship business. We have the privilege of working with individuals across the Texas Health system. This includes board members, Community Impact Councils, hospital and system leadership, physicians and caregivers, community volunteers and leaders, and, most importantly, grateful patients and families Texas Health serves.
The first seven-figure gift I closed for Texas Health was from a grateful patient family from the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas NICU. It was amazing to see how philanthropy played such a big role in the healing process for this family. Their gift led to the creation of on-site sleep rooms for parents and the first NICU web cameras. This would never have happened without their support or their vision to reduce the anxiety that many NICU moms experience after delivery. As a result, philanthropy has played a lead role in placing NICU cameras in many of our hospitals. It is a privilege to work with families and community foundations alike to align the strategic priorities of Texas Health with their own philanthropic priorities to advance God’s kingdom and, ultimately, the Mission of Texas Health.
What do you do when you’re not at work?
I spend a lot of time working in and volunteering for the community. I serve on the boards of 6 Stones Mission Network, an HEB-area community-focused nonprofit charity, and the Junior League of Dallas, and am currently the co-chair of the Community Cabinet for the United Way of Tarrant County. And with three young boys, Brooks (11), Kingsley (8) and Preston (5), my husband, Roger, and I spend lots of time at the baseball fields. We also enjoy spending time at our family’s home on Cedar Creek Lake, where we boat, fish, wakeboard and surf.
What is something unique about you that most people don’t know?
I have a twin, Amy. People always ask what it’s like to be a twin. The truth is, I don’t know life any other way. I’ve been lucky to have a built-in best friend, roommate, confidant and someone who knew exactly what I was going through in each stage of life. Although we didn’t follow the same career path, we were both called to work in health care as Amy started her career as a registered nurse, following in my mother’s and grandmother’s footsteps.
By Andy Wilson • Posted April 30, 2019
