"I hope that it will encourage donors old and new to make this year's drive the most successful ever."

The national goal is to register 300,000 new donors by April 30, 2012.

"But a lot of the idea is to give us the visibility that we need to reach new donors."

The result is a crop of new donors that the campaign itself could not reach without them.

Along with these companies that have given in previous years are new donors.

They said there was no way to gauge whether these new donors would continue giving.

The hospital is still seeking new donors to complete the project.

Later his name was removed from the young artists program when a new donor stepped forward.

"But perhaps new donors this year will rise to the occasion," she wrote.

Through mid-December, the number of new donors was up by 8 percent.