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Even though Michael Crowley grew up in Millinocket, he considered Bangor his second hometown. “My family owned a neighborhood grocery store and deli,” says the president of Eastern Maine Healthcare Charities. “We were in Bangor monthly, if not weekly, picking up supplies. I always felt a special kinship, relationship, and familiarity with the city.”
In his adult life, he’s translated that affinity into good works for the University of Maine Alumni Association, the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, the Bangor City Council, and the alliance of healthcare charities he now heads. A cancer survivor, he’s especially proud of the recent $9.5 million campaign that will culminate in the upcoming opening of Eastern Maine Medical Center’s new cancer care and research facility in Brewer.
Since joining Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems in 1996, Crowley has overseen a strategy of fundraising for multiple healthcare entities. In those 13 years, donations have grown from $250,000 in his first year to $8.5 million in 2008. In that time, Healthcare Charities has expanded their giving options, capital campaigns, volunteer programs, and support services, as well as created more facilities in a larger area of the state. Crowley has also helped to develop a network of interconnected charities flexible enough to provide what he calls a “donor-centric approach” to philanthropy.
“My sense has always been that we’re a small community, whether you’re talking about Bangor or the whole state,” he says. “There’s a lot of common ground and common interests among the people who would like to engage in healthcare charitable missions. Over the years, we’ve put the framework in place to enable us to support multiple fundraising programs out of one office.”
Crowley’s fundraising and advocacy began while he was at the University of Maine in the 1970s, studying to become a secondary school teacher. He landed a work-study job in the alumni office that led to a full-time job after graduation. He would stay at that job, which he describes as “two parts advocacy, one part fundraising,” for 14 years, serving as director of the annual fund and vice president of alumni fundraising.
He left the University of Maine to become the executive director of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce. “It was a turning point for the organization,” he recalls. “We were moving from a fairly exclusive focus on tourism and hospitality to looking at business and economic development.” During Crowley’s tenure, the chamber expanded from 400 members to nearly 1,000.
In 1996, he accepted a position with Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems as the director of development. In 1997, he won a seat on the Bangor City Council and served two consecutive three-year terms, including a year as mayor in 2002. During his time on the council, he pushed for much-needed infrastructure improvement, including upgrades to the city’s sidewalks, which hadn’t been done for decades. He was also instrumental in bringing the American Folk Festival to the Bangor waterfront after the National Folk Festival concluded its three-year run.
“There was no shortage of naysayers about the American Folk Festival. We were putting a million-dollar event on a waterfront that only two years prior was still riddled with contamination and tanks,” he says. “But we believed strongly that the creative economy would be an engine.”
He’s still working to shape the city’s role in the new century. Along with his role at Healthcare Charities, Crowley is president of the Rotary Club, treasurer of Eastern Maine Development Corporation, and a eucharistic minister at St. John’s Catholic Church. He’s also involved in the ongoing effort to build a new auditorium and civic center. “Bangor sets the tone for the whole region,” he says. “That’s the leveraging role this community has historically played. Part of what I really like about living here is that there are calculated risk-takers with the tenacity to see things through.”
Crowley’s largest current capital campaign, Champion the Cure, has raised $9.5 million over the past two years. Thanks to Champion the Cure, the Lafayette Family Cancer Center will open its doors in December 2009.
