October 12th, 2021

I’ve moved on from Advocate Illinois Masonic and Advocate Charitable Foundation after nine years, and it’s time for me to express the huge amount of gratitude that I feel to the colleagues who helped make this productive run possible and that time special and memorable.  Since 2012 the Illinois Masonic development team that I was fortunate to lead has more than doubled philanthropic production and raised over $55M over the course of nine years.  None of this happens in a vacuum, and I’m particularly grateful for the great collaborators whom I worked with in the Foundation and at the hospital who helped us raise ambitions and drive results.  We did this with fewer staff and financial resources each year, higher expectations and continual change amidst a large, growing, highly-matrixed healthcare organization.

First, I want to thank Randy Varju, president of Advocate Charitable Foundation (now Advocate Aurora Health Foundations), who welcomed me back to healthcare fundraising in 2012 after four years away and gave me the tools and time that I needed to be successful in a new setting.  Randy’s consensus-building leadership style was perfect for me as was the leeway that he supplied for me to find my way, learn the ropes and establish a new team while rapidly scaling up our efforts in my first year and paving the way for a successful campaign for the Center for Advanced Care at Masonic.  Over time, Randy has successfully led an evolving healthcare foundation through a merger while maintaining a leadership role with AHP and other groups.  Randy, I know that you will continue to lead with integrity and vision while keeping your finger on the pulse of team culture.  The results will follow if team members are trusted and empowered.

Susan Nordstrom Lopez has been an exemplary leader as president of Advocate Illinois Masonic during my entire tenure at the hospital and foundation. I have never enjoyed working for and with someone as much as I have with Susan. High standards and great results delivered with true grace, humor and collaboration. Her ability to rally troops and speak authentically to team members in all functions from environmental services and food prep to surgical services and construction is unparalleled in my experience. We had some wonderful philanthropy wins, but I’ll also remember the $50M mega-gift that we pursued but could not land.  It took courage to make that ask! I appreciated how we could discuss challenging topics and frustrations while also laughing about our beloved children and our own blind spots. It was a privilege to work with you, and I’m confident that the future is extraordinarily bright for Illinois Masonic. I look forward to seeing exciting (and much needed) new clinical buildings continue to come on line in Lakeview over the next five years.

I also want to thank Jeremiah Stevens and Emily Wagner, those with whom I worked most closely over the past four years in moving Illinois Masonic’s development program forward.  Both were new to medical fundraising when they joined the team, but they dug in quickly and were more than just “quick studies” – they analyzed which approaches were proving successful, which could work better and which should be scrapped, and they were fearless in advocating for best practices that suited our particular situation at Masonic.  I’ve rarely worked with colleagues who are both so professional, so dedicated and so hilarious.  Our combined ability to find the humor in difficult or absurd situations and still push towards fundraising solutions helped keep me focused and sane both before and during COVID.  You both have incredibly bright futures, and I’m grateful that I got to lead a team with such stars on it.  I also want to acknowledge Jordan Sund, Jennifer Hendrick, Lynn Miller and Anne Wilson.  Each of you helped set Illinois Masonic philanthropy on the strong trajectory that it currently enjoys, building on the work of our predecessors and forging strong relationships with donors.  I’m always impressed and appreciative when team members step up to strengthen a relationship when my personal approach may not be getting traction.  Jordan, best of luck with your MBA and thank you for steering Emily to Illinois Masonic!

My peers in the Senior Leadership group of the Foundation are particularly meaningful to me.  I shared both wonderful and difficult times with Ally Regnier, Michelle Weber, Jennifer Benanti, Andrea Petrie and Jo Amick.  Ally has been an outstanding partner in the Central Chicagoland region as we brainstormed ways to achieve greater philanthropic synergy amongst three complex hospitals stretched across metro Chicago.  She has a great ear, great empathy and perseverance and remarkable stamina in seeing large, complicated gifts through.  Most of all, she has a wonderful and warm sense of humor in the midst of tremendous change and upheaval.  Michelle is an incredible talent who took on the task of synthesizing vastly different fundraising cultures at southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois hospitals.  Her capacity to produce results from these disparate situations is a tribute to her communications skills and steady hand.  Jennifer brought a welcome salty approach to her task of organizing large and small Milwaukee hospitals while being an authentic and trustworthy partner in assessing challenges.  Andrea plunged right into the north Wisconsin region and provided welcome perspective from her time at Marquette.  Jo brought hard-won experience from a variety of roles and took on the task of managing expectations and results at Advocate’s largest and most bewildering site.  And I cannot forget the highly capable Sara Alger, a fellow outspoken and strong-willed development professional – though you’ve moved on to exciting new challenges in Texas, I know that your voice and perspective is truly missed at the Foundation.

Many thanks also to senior leaders on the Foundation and Corporate side with whom my team and I collaborated endlessly to drive revenue for Illinois Masonic.  Ina Owens took the reins in the foundation and government grants arena from the capable hands of Barb Giloth and has completely transformed the approach in order to respond to a changing world of financial and regulatory oversight.  At the same time, she and her team have continued to produce at a phenomenal rate, and they have raised both productivity and responsiveness.  Illinois Masonic benefitted disproportionately from the skill and experience of Ina, Maryanne McDonald and Maureen Bilek, and I’ll be forever indebted to Ina’s team for consistently helping Masonic secure generous state support for important programs such as Behavioral Health, Pediatric Development and Dentistry.  Your persistence and experience was instrumental in allowing the Illinois Masonic team to reach and frequently exceed ambitious goals.  I particularly want to thank Maryanne for her incomparable talent in understanding each program’s strengths and potential and presenting these elements in a manner that allowed funders to understand complex initiatives and directly addressed the factors that funders required in applications.

Leslie Wertheimer ably leads the Corporate team and has done a great job of incorporating Jenny Shaw and her Advocate/Illinois experience into a new system approach.  Their ability to help the site-based teams navigate the particular “enlightened self-interest” approach of each vendor and corporate donor meant that we were able to offer gift, sponsorship and volunteer opportunities that were tailored to the specific interests of each company and often secure the involvement and time of senior executives from companies.  Jenny, your partnership in helping us grow Rally on the Rooftops was textbook in understanding the drivers of corporate donor motivation.

I couldn’t mention Rally without bowing down to Jen Thanos and Marina Grant, two of the best and steadiest development event professionals that I’ve every encountered.  Thank you for managing donor and executive expectations, for working quietly and efficiently behind the scenes, for sharp negotiations with venues and for guiding events consistently to success.  Jen, I so appreciate your wry humor, your keen understanding of the quirks of each site and venue and your ability to take a deep breath and dive in when I took on some crazy projects such as the incredible 2014 cornerstone ceremony for the Center for Advanced Care at Masonic.  Marina, your professional growth from somewhat shy Coordinator to fearless event Director has been a privilege to watch.

I have many others to thank on both the Foundation and hospital side, but I don’t want to let this first post get too long or let perfect be the enemy of good, so I’ll wrap up this first installment now and work on a couple of additional entries for the coming weeks. More to come….

Chris Toft

Reach me at christoft89@gmail.com