SGIM, our professional home, is fueled by financial support from various sources.1 Most of our operational revenue comes from member dues and registration fees for our annual meeting, which we were not able to hold in Birmingham this year. As we navigate this challenging year together, we recognize that special initiatives require additional funding to be successful. Therefore, SGIM now needs your support for a new, special initiative—the Future Leaders of GIM Fund.
New Future Leaders of GIM Campaign (2019-21)
SGIM’s mission is to cultivate innovative educators, researchers, and clinicians in academic general internal medicine, leading the way to better health for everyone. To succeed in this mission, it is critical that we build SGIM’s community to ensure a robust pipeline of future general internists. SGIM has a small fund to support trainees to attend our annual meeting or become year-long members, but it is time that we deepen our commitment to nurturing our associate members.
Therefore, we have initiated a new campaign to raise money for the Future Leaders of GIM Fund. This will expand our successful Young Scholars in GIM Scholarship2 (for medical students and residents), and our Investing in GIM Scholarship3 (for GIM fellows) programs that provide scholarships for SGIM membership and annual meeting registration for associate members. These scholarships build our membership pipeline by engaging people entering, or considering entering, the field of academic general internal medicine. Over the last five years, these scholarship programs have funded more than 200 medical students, residents and fellows.
We appreciate the strong initial response to the Future Leaders of GIM Fund. As this goes to press, the campaign has raised over $35,000, with 100% participation by SGIM’s Council members. This has already enabled us to extend our scholarships for 2020 to increase the number of recipients and build this program going forward. Our goal is to raise at least $100,000 over the next two years, which would allow us to double the number of scholarships for trainees for at least the next four years.
The Investing in GIM Scholarship has introduced me to a new specialty society that brings something to my professional life that other societies have yet to bring. It has also made it more affordable for a junior physician to attend the national SGIM meeting. Furthermore, this inspired me to submit multiple scholarly projects to the meeting and I can’t wait to attend and present!
— Benjamin Vipler, MD
The Young Scholars program allowed me to attend SGIM and present my work to a national audience, and in so doing not only share the findings of my research, but it allowed me to connect with a national community of scholars and field experts that has helped shape future directions in our research. This opportunity allowed me to grow as a trainee, and to better understand the broader context of the community that I was joining and that my work could contribute to. It was an honor to participate in SGIM as one of the Young Scholars and through the program’s support, I feel that I gained an additional opportunity to move my career forward and envision what the future may hold.
— Alexandra Rojek, MD
No Margin, No Mission!
Only a sustained financial commitment to the organization by our members will let us thrive into the future in these uncertain times. SGIM is enacting new strategies for financial growth including innovative membership recruitment and retention efforts, philanthropy, grants, and meeting exhibits and sponsorship, all of which will meet the high ethical standards of our external funding policy. However, to be successful, we must each challenge ourselves as members to create a broader culture of giving at SGIM. If most members commit to giving annually, no matter the amount, SGIM will be a stronger, more sustainable organization with a powerful voice. Will you join us in creating this culture?
Donate at: https://www.sgim.org/donate