Meet Mark Guncheon! 3837

Meet Mark Guncheon!

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Meet (and friend) one of our Summer School blog winners, Mark Guncheon, a NetCommunity, Raiser's Edge, RENXT, and Target Analytics user with Bon Secours Health System.

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Meet Mark Guncheon!
 

This week's member spotlight shines on Raiser's Edge, RENXT, Target Analytics, and NetCommunity user, Mark Guncheon, with Bon Secours Health System. He is also one of our big winners in our blog contest and will be attending bbcon 2017! Read his winning blog, "Clean Up, Clean Up. Everybody, Everywhere" in Best Practices!

Mark Guncheon's Community Profile

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Tell us about your family (fur babies count!) "My wife and I are originally from Chicago and have been married for 29 years. We work for the same health organization. She manages patient advocacy department for one of the hospitals while I manage their 9 foundations and websites. We have four wonderful children/kids (can we still call them that?) and our last, our daughter is a senior at James Madison University here in Virginia. The other three have graduated from Radford, NYU and UVA are starting their lives away from home. Best family moment was actually a five-week trip to the Northwest. We visited 22 states, ten national parks, camped in Yellowstone and truly enjoyed our country."
 
Where do you live?
"Mechanicsville, Virginia."

What do you like to do for fun? "I play tennis about three times a week throughout the year. I like to read fiction (Lee Child, C.J. Box, Michael Connelly) to relax (and escape.) I love to cook and did all the cooking for our family. Luckily, my wife likes to clean so it's a good partnership. I'd like to travel but haven't done much up to now. I listen to music as often as possible I used to be a music critic for a couple of newspapers so I saw many, many concerts and met great musicians back in my 20s."

 

What’s a life achievement you are particularly proud of? "Being married for 29 years and raising four amazing children during that time. Not to boast but I think my wife and I have made the world a better place by bringing four into it."
 
What’s one memory that always makes you smile? "When our oldest was born at a hospital in Chicago one Saturday night some 27 years ago. Holding him in my arms was the best feeling anyone could have."
 
What is one interesting fact about yourself most people don't know? "I used to watch soap operas for a living."

What are three things on your bucket list? "Visiting Italy, celebrating my 100th birthday, and writing my 2nd book."

Tell us about your organization: "The Bon Secours Health System owns numerous hospitals and health care facilities in nine markets, mostly in the east. There are foundations associated with all of them. 

Here in Virginia, our mission is to bring the highest quality, compassionate health care to those in need, including the poor and the dying, in order to alleviate human suffering caused by illness, pain and loss. As a beacon of hope in our community, Bon Secours is committed to providing good help to those in need. 

Health care for all, regardless of their ability to pay. Our community members are helping us bring this part of our mission to life by supporting and volunteering with our Care-A-Van mobile health ministries, which reaches more than 20,000 patient visits each year.

Empowering our neighbors with health education. Donors and volunteers play a vital role by supporting our prenatal and early childhood education programs for parents who are challenged with access to these services and other initiatives to teach families about the importance of good nutrition and exercise.

Progressive healing programs that help cancer patients thrive Unique programs like art and yoga for cancer patients are brought to life for our community members who share their talents, time and financial support."
 
What’s a typical day like for you?
"My work day begins early with retrieving data for a grateful patient program. I manipulate that and send it out and then attack emails. Much of what I do because of my job title (Development IT Analyst) is putting out fires, fixing problems, assisting SDOs and other RE and NXT users when they have questions or are looking for solutions. I create reports for SDOs as well as other staff members, make presentations at prospect meetings, work with our research person, our finance people and our annual giving manager as well as the gift processors at all the foundations. About a year after I was hired, I took over the management of our websites, thanks to my background in creating and managing websites for a for-profit company I created and ran for 30 years. As a side note, I enjoy making people laugh so I try to lighten up the emails and the meetings with humor.  laugh"

What’s the best part of your job? "There are two parts: 
1. I work with great people which is always interesting. 
2. I value education so I am thrilled to be learning so much." 
 
What advice would you give someone starting out in the non-profit field?
"Listen. Ask questions. Seek advice from those around you, both locally and also through this marvelous thing called the Internet. I've been online since 1984 (thanks to a business I started) and I can tell you, people all over the world are not only fascinating but knowledgeable. Also, backup your data."
 
What do you love about the Blackbaud Community?
"It's filled with people who are helping others. What a great opportunity to connect and meet new friends."
Finally, if you had a theme song, what would your theme song be? My favorite movie, I've seen almost 20 times" is 'The Long Goodbye.' It's based on a Phillip Marlowe book and features a theme song that is played all throughout the movie. I'd love to walk into a room and hear that song.
News ARCHIVED | Member Spotlight 08/09/2017 1:30pm EDT

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3 Comments
Congratulations on your win Mark and fabulous Spotlight. I hope you achieve your goals, especially seeing your 100th birthday!
Great spotlight, and congrats on your win Mark!
Great spotlight and advice Mark!

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