The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is one of the world’s most respected centers devoted exclusively to cancer patient care, research, education, and prevention. Its mission is focused on eliminating cancer in Texas, the nation, and the world – it is Making Cancer History®.
Located within the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, MD Anderson has been working to eliminate cancer for nearly eight decades. It has been ranked as one of the top two hospitals in cancer care every year since U.S. News & World Report began its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey in 1990. MD Anderson’s medical staff are frequently recognized as among the best in the nation by services including Best Doctors in America. In addition, the institution is world-renowned for innovation, including the development of front-line diagnostic technology, which enables physicians to pinpoint each patient’s unique cancer and tailor treatment for the best possible outcome.
Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s campaign to land a man on the moon, MD Anderson launched its groundbreaking Moon Shots Program in 2012 to eliminate cancer. As with the moon-landing, this program is ambitious – it aims to save more lives, more quickly, by accelerating research and results to improve cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment. To drive progress, MD Anderson has developed a dozen platforms, or research engines, that provide a unique framework for innovation, scale, and collaboration.
The Opportunity
MD Anderson Cancer Center is in the closing stages of strategic planning for its largest philanthropic campaign to date. In a newly created position, the Associate Vice President, Principal Gifts and Strategic Initiatives (AVP) will lead efforts to build a nimble and specialized Principal Gifts Group, a cohesive team, whose primary tasks will be to identify, close, and sustain transformational gifts.
Serving as a key member of the Development Office Senior Leadership Team, the AVP will grow and steward an enduring program by partnering with faculty, staff, and institutional leadership, as well as activating MD Anderson’s committed 250-member Board of Visitors to engage individuals in gifts of significance for the institution’s initiatives. The best-matched candidate will be a results-oriented, high-EQ senior leader skilled in cultivating prospects and moving donors to transformational levels of giving in an academic medical or healthcare institution.
