When our new team of development professionals was recruited to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, philanthropy was not a part of the picture. The board of directors were not expected to make a donation or ask someone for a donation. They would, however, receive healthcare at one of the nation’s best hospitals. Our job was to introduce philanthropy – to the board and throughout the medical group practice.

To create a culture of philanthropy, we recruited a small, impactful committee of the board of Directors. It included the chair of Eaton Corporation and the Managing Partner of a Venture Capital firm, the CEO of a division of Berkshire Hathaway and a Senior Vice President of a regional bank. We also worked with division and department chairs to quantify gift opportunities and identify potential donors.

We got access to these board volunteers because of the tremendous respect they had for their physicians and surgeons. We leveraged that respect into opportunities to support the critical and innovative research and education the clinical team conducted. In one case, a board member suggested that we fly to DC and get money from the NIH. While not a bad idea, my response was that on this morning I was there to talk about a personal investment in the enterprise – not a government grant.

Starting from a short of list of qualified patients, identified by members of the medical team, we connected these prospective donors to the board major gift committee. Whether a round of golf, a dinner, a tennis match, a tour of a production plant, we were able to confirm the philanthropic interests of the donors, and tie them to initiatives at the clinic. The first 6 figure gift was for cancer research, “so no one will have to suffer the way my wife suffered.” From those small beginnings a culture of philanthropy emerged that engaged the board, patients and clinicians in improving the quality of healthcare delivery in Cleveland and by extension the nation and the world. Philos. Anthropos. Love of Humankind so nobly expressed and demonstrated though Philanthropy.