Making the Rounds: Developing Philanthropy

Making the Rounds

January 14, 2020 Issue 226

Friends and Colleagues,

What can make the difference between a good and great medical school is the availability of resources to attract the best students, recruit and retain the best faculty and support innovative research. While the State of Nevada and government at every level has worked deliberately to ensure that the UNLV School of Medicine has a stable foundation to build on, we have already seen how important caring and generous donors are to our future -- they have contributed scholarship support to our students and have committed to providing a new building for our medical school. In today’s newsletter, we feature our new fundraising professional, Annette Carter, whose career has already shown she has the ability to forge partnerships with foundations and donors that allow medical institutions to move in important new directions rapidly and seamlessly.

MEDICINE BY THE NUMBERS

2-3 per year

Every year, adults average 2 to 3 colds - and children have even more.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/dotw/common-cold/index.html

Annette Carter :

Philanthropy Could Take UNLV School of Medicine to New Heights

Annette Carter's natural grace and charm should serve her well as a fundraiser for the UNLV School of Medicine because, as she puts it, "fundraising is a relationship business." The native Oklahoman whose career has taken her to St. Louis, Costa Rica and Florida is excited to be living in Las Vegas and sees tremendous potential for philanthropy.

During her fundraising career, Annette Carter, the new UNLV School of Medicine Senior Director of Development, has raised millions of dollars for non-profits, including universities, hospitals, and health-related foundations.

At the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida, at Florida’s Suncoast Hospice Foundation, at Northern Arizona University, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation in St. Louis, MO, the results were always the same: She built and managed a pipeline of hundreds of prospects and donors who contributed what they could so the missions of the institutions could be better carried out.

You won’t find her in her office much now -- just a few weeks on the job, she’s out making contacts, forging the kind of partnerships necessary to help develop the resources that will assist the medical school and its clinical arm, UNLV Medicine, in transforming the quality of healthcare in Nevada.

“Fundraising is a relationship business,” she says. “This is a wonderful challenge and it’s definitely not a one-woman show. I am a catalyst to bring interested donors together with very worthy projects and students.”

Carter says very important partnerships will come from many areas of the community.

“There are those who want to ensure we have the best healthcare providers and enough of them to meet our growing population. There are grateful patients and families who want to honor the health professionals who cared for them. There are those in the community who believe in the importance of higher education and who are paying it forward for help they themselves received. There are physician practices and healthcare companies who will eventually want to hire our graduates. There are foundations and others who believe in UNLV and are grateful to have our presence in Las Vegas. There are those who can give $50 and those who can give $50 million. Each and every one is important. I will be talking to anyone who will take an appointment with me and getting to know this community, inside and out.”

Priorities for fundraising, Carter notes, are being set internally and that process will continue when the newly named dean, Dr. Marc J. Kahn, takes over in April. “I have no doubt at all,” Carter says, “that Las Vegas will continue to rise to the occasion as it already has, evidenced by the new building that will be built by generous and caring donors, and the scholarships that have been established by others. This is a community full of generous individuals, foundations and companies, and I’m here to help them make a difference.”

This year Carter, who acknowledges the medical school has many pressing needs, says fundraising for scholarships for students will continue to be important -- “we’ll continue to raise money for scholarships because many of our Nevada students need that help...and we want them to practice in Nevada…Unrestricted dollars are also important because they give the dean and faculty the latitude to meet the most pressing needs using their good judgement.”

During her first year,, Carter says she’ll also be looking at ways to make donor-named professorships, chairs and programs possible. “Beginning to build endowed positions is extremely important because it ensures a perpetual stream of funding. Times change and our needs will change as well, so endowments to support faculty positions, scholarships and programs are vital. Research will also be a priority as we seek out the best and brightest physician/PhD researchers. Research is a big part of what makes a great medical school.”

Carter says she also sees a need to raise funds for patient care, particularly for members of the community who have difficulty even paying to see a doctor. “When major healthcare issues arise, they will need our help and donors can make a great difference in this area. I’ve always felt that the worst place to be in this life is sick and poor.”

One of Carter’s goals for 2020 is to ensure that those interested in helping the UNLV School of Medicine understand the many different ways that can be done. She’ll be happy to explain, for example, stock and deferred gift options. “My goal is always to help the donor identify the amount of impact she/he wishes to have on the school of medicine and help them to discover beneficial ways for them to make those wishes a reality.”

Often, Carter says, many people mistakenly believe that because a school has taxpayer support, it doesn’t need philanthropy. In her experience, she says government support only covers around 10 percent of what is necessary to make an institution truly outstanding. “Without the philanthropic donations of donors at all levels, innovation is not always possible. Donors really are the reason that the impossible becomes possible.”

“We’re laying the foundation and building the infrastructure of a best-in-class fundraising program. Las Vegas deserves that, and our students deserve that. We’ll be putting into place processes to ensure that our donors are thanked and stewarded as they deserve to be, and that they know how very important they are to our success."

- Annette Carter

Carter, the divorced mother of two grown children, grew up in Oklahoma, the oldest of four, but spent much of her child-rearing years in St. Louis. Her father was a country veterinarian and her mother managed the office. “My dad believed we should work for any money we requested so I spent many hours cleaning kennels, mopping floors, or answering the phone in his office. It was a true family business.”

She began studying to be a nurse, but eventually changed to journalism after working as a nurse’s aide in a small town hospital. “I loved the work, but I took each patient’s case home with me every night. I quickly realized I couldn’t handle the work emotionally. Little did I know then that there are so many things you can do with a nursing degree, other than working as a bedside nurse.”

Carter went on to get a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Oklahoma, serving as communications director for the Oklahoma Public Employees Association until her now ex-husband accepted a position in Missouri.

While communications director for an arts organization in St. Louis, she was asked by her boss if she’d be interested in fundraising after the fundraiser left. “I said, 'Maybe, but I have no idea how to do it.’” After her boss promised to give her on-the-job training, she agreed. “I was able to learn on the job more than many programs teach in degree programs, and to exceed our annual fundraising goal in less time my first year.”

In St. Louis, Carter went on to work in major gifts for three years at Barners-Jewish Hospital, where a fundraising campaign was underway for a cancer center. “My first seven-figure gifts, both cash and deferred gifts from grateful patients, came during this tenure. Working with grateful patients and families was my new passion, and something I love to this very day.”

When the economy went belly up in St. Louis during the Great Recession, Carter moved to Costa Rica, where she started her own travel company. After more than seven years in Central America, she moved back to the U.S. and went back to her fundraising career. Working at Northern Arizona University, she raised several million in endowment and planned gifts. Moving on to the University of Central Florida, the University of South Florida and the Suncoast Hospice Foundation, she continued to enjoy considerable success as a fundraiser.

For University of South Florida Health -- it consists of the schools of medicine, pharmacy, public health and nursing -- Carter had the opportunity to start and build a grateful patient fundraising program. “While there I created the foundation for the program, and began implementation, but a family situation called me back to St. Louis.”

Though Carter didn’t get the chance to finish what she started at the University of South Florida Health, where Joann Strobbe was then senior associate vice president and vice dean for finance and administration at the Morsani College of Medicine, Strobbe was impressed.

Now the senior associate dean for administration and finance and chief financial officer for the UNLV School of Medicine, Strobbe, who was on the search committee for the medical school fundraiser, was pleased to learn Carter had seen an ad for the position and applied.

“Annette was a highly respected Major Development Officer during her tenure at USF Health,” Strobbe says. “Her leadership in this area for the UNLV School of Medicine is essential for our philanthropic efforts.”

Carter has hit the ground running. “We’re laying the foundation and building the infrastructure of a best-in-class fundraising program. Las Vegas deserves that, and our students deserve that. We’ll be putting into place processes to ensure that our donors are thanked and stewarded as they deserve to be, and that they know how very important they are to our success. We’ll be building opportunities for our donors to get to know our students, and for our communities to experience what we do and how we do it.”

If you would like to meet with Annette Carter, call 702 895-0211 or email annette.carter@unlv.edu

In the News

UNLV Picks New Dean for Medical School

KSNV-TV

Interviewed: Dr. Marc Kahn

UNLV Study: No Pot While Pregnant

FOX5 Las Vegas

Interviewed: Dr. Nora Doyle

Study Reveals Adverse Effect of Smoking Marijuana While Pregnant

The Nevada Independent

Interviewed: Dr. Bobby Brar

Missed a newsletter? All previous issues of Making the Rounds, are available on our website .