How does one go from being a chaplain in Vietnam to raising an average of more than $2 million per month? Call Jerry Mapp. Everyone else has.

The California Pacific Medical Center Foundation, under Mapp's leadership, has beco me the most successful private hospital philanthropic foundation north of Los Angeles and one of the most successful in the West, creating a $100 million endow ment over the last decade. In 2005, the foundation raised nearly $30 million for the current needs of the California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC). Is Mapp stopping there? Of course not. As one of the most successful hospital philanthropic leaders, he is getting ready to undertake the largest fundraising effort for a hospital in San Francisco . And anyone who knows his background should not be terribly surprised.

Mapp was born in Mississippi but considers himself a Texan, as he moved there when he was only nine months old. Mapp's mother always wanted him to be a minister. The only problem was that Mapp did not. He actually did go to graduate school for a short time to become a minister, but in 1969, he was questioning his own faith and didn't feel comfortable ministering to others, so he dropped out. He was promptly drafted and wound up spending fourteen months in chaplaincy in Vietnam.

Upon his return, he knew that being a chaplain was not his calling, but he still wanted to provide what he calls "social ministry." Social work was a logical fit, and he quickly found someone to work for - Good Samaritan Children's Home. The good news was that he immediately knew he had found his life's work. The bad news was that the home needed money.

He was twenty-six years old. He was new to the business. He was new to fundraising. But his boss thought his chaplaincy background would make him good at asking for money. Little did the boss know how right he would turn out to be. Mapp raised plenty of money for Good Samaritan Children's Home. What he remembers today was not the amount of money he raised, but everything that money bought - from the new carpet to school supplies, clothing, and scholarships. And he discovered the value of building relationships.

In 1974, friends in the industry who knew Mapp wanted to be trained by the best in the field helped him out. And the best was Jim Josoff. Josoff, now deceased, was a legendary ad man who also worked in development and public relations. As part of his development work, Josoff worked in hospital fundraising and had an open position. He hired Mapp on the spot for $14,500 a year. Mapp thought he was worth more. On the drive home he stopped to call Josoff from a pay phone - which cost him a whopping five cents - proceeded to ask for $17,500 a year, and got it. Then Josoff told him they would have given him $20,000 a year.

He still had lots to learn.

He worked for three years on events for grateful patients and physicians, and he learned what he calls the "three Ps of fundraising":

People give to people;

Peers give to peers; and

Patients give to physicians.

After three years, a new boss came along who told Mapp his new job was "to make me look good to others." Mapp disagreed and thought his job was to raise money, so he left. He didn't want to work for someone who couldn't teach anything, so he became a househusband while he carefully examined his next step. After three months, he decided he wanted to be a teacher. Since he had no teaching credentials, and going back to school was not an option, he worked for a while on the behavioral side of teaching in Los Angeles.

But he couldn't get away from his true calling. Before he knew it, he'd accepted a job in Anaheim Memorial Hospital as the associate director of development and was once again in a hospital. One day in his first week of work, he heard his name paged for a phone call. It was Josoff. He was now living in Monterey. He told Mapp to move to Carmel and come raise money for a school. He quit his job, and his wife quit her job as a nurse. In hindsight, he says, it was the best career decision he could have made. All the responsibility for bringing in the school's money was on his shoulders. He was good at it. He raised the largest single gift on the Monterey Bay peninsula at the time - $1.3 million.

In 1983, Mapp got another big call. This time it was from Glen Essex, a consultant who needed Mapp to come to San Francisco to help raise money for a hospital. Mapp wound up raising $6.5 million in short order. Then another friend called about a job with Presbyterian Hospital, now CPMC. At the time, they had seven board members and a staff of four, they raised around a million dollars a year, and they had $1 million in the bank. Now California Pacific Medical Center Foundation, a non-profit, community based affiliate of Sutter Health, it has $200 million in the bank and raised $30 million last year with a staff that has grown to thirty. Mapp works to develop major gifts - over $25,000 - from grateful patients for whatever the need: equipment, program needs, or capital. He gets his annual priorities from physicians and coordinates with them, as he believes they know the hospital's needs best.

When Jerry Mapp stands at a door he's about to enter to ask for yet more money, he still remembers the most personal part of the job: Be donor-centric. Connect with their experience at the medical center. Was it the physician or the nurse who touched their heart?

How does the potential donor want to say "thank-you?" Mapp always has ideas, but he always has to ask himself, what does the donor want? "The more we can match what you want to do with what we need, the better off we all are," he says to the donor.

Each need is treated as a mini-campaign, and Mapp uses what he calls a "champion model," which includes a physician, the grateful patient, a board member, and a hospital staff member. He believes that the most important element is keeping the donor informed. Mapp is on call around the clock for major donors and board members. He is quick to add that the point of being always available is not for the donor or board member to receive better or favorable treatment from him, but for him to have more opportunities to thank them personally.

Mapp believes fundraising is a science and also an art. His advice: "always remember that people are giving their time and their money." Grateful patients are, in fact, alumni who want the opportunity to say "thank-you." The only difference is that they thank the professors at their alma mater, and in a hospital they thank their physicians. In his thirty years in this business, with twenty-three of them at CPMC, he has never been turned down when the patient and the physician are in the same room together. Admittedly, he might not always get the amount he wants, but he never hears "no." His does his research. He knows his donors and cultivates them, informing and involving them, assessing their ability to give. He asks himself, What would this person give if they were to give the best gift possible? He finds out what that gift is, goes for it, and often gets it.

Mapp often runs into people on the street who mention that their mothers, wives, or sons are coming to the hospital. He attends one charity event a month. He spends most of his time and attention on his board members, doing the "caring and feeding" that is part of the job. He feels that the board of directors and access to their time, talents, and connections are vital. Having the right staff, mission, and employer doesn't hurt, but it is the board that makes the crucial difference when it comes time to raise money. His close relationship with Martin Brotman, MD, the president and CEO of the hospital, is essential. Donors want to meet the man who spends the money. And donors want to see their money in action.

What is Mapp's advice for future fundraisers? Get educated via the traditional route, such as an undergrad or graduate degree in fundraising, or a master's program in non-profit management, such as that offered by UC Berkeley or University of San Francisco.

Seek out a local fundraising specialty school, such as the University of Indiana, which has training classes in the Bay Area on major gifts, planned giving, and annual giving. TheFoundation Center offers free classes on grant writing. Volunteer for a charity. Be a fundraising or development intern.