New Scripps Foundation President
Speaks Out

Cary W. Colwell, president of the Scripps Foundation for Medicine and Science, the fundraising organization for both The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and Scripps Health, has now been on the job for almost three months. News &Views spoke with him about the new position and his vision for the future.

 

News &Views (N&V): How has the transition into this new position been and how has your background helped prepare you for this job?

Colwell: Well, I think the transition has, at least from my perspective, gone very well. I have 12 years experience in higher education, working for both a Big 10 University and a Pac 10 University, and about nine years in health care. So, I have both the academic exposure as well as the health care side. I think that will probably serve me well as I work to support both the health care—the patient care—side of Scripps as well as the academic and the scientific side with The Scripps Research Institute.

N&V: What were those universities?

Colwell: The University of Illinois Foundation and Arizona State University Foundation. I was at both the U of I and at ASU for six years each. I also worked at the Henry Ford Health System, experience which has helped me recognize that Scripps has multiple constituencies—not only geographic locations, but also from the socioeconomic side of the equation.

N&V: So now you're here, what's on the agenda? What are your goals?

Colwell: Well, the first issue at hand is assessing where the greatest potential is for philanthropic private support throughout all of Scripps. And when I say Scripps, I mean TSRI as well as Scripps Health and its various entities. You know, we have an excellent staff in the foundation and outstanding resources. We need to make sure that they are aligned with where our greatest potentials lie. So, we're in the process of looking at the deployment of our resources and making sure that those alignments are going to allow us to be as effective as we possibly can be.

Also, we will be looking across all of the lines of Scripps and assessing what our immediate needs are in the next 18 months or so. For example, in the case of TSRI, we have a window of opportunity to acquire the Immunology Building, and that will be something of a high priority for the foundation. But we will also be determining the programs, the initiatives, the capital that are really going to establish Scripps as the preeminent multifaceted health care research institution in the country over the long term, the next two to seven years. My goal is that the foundation make significant contributions to all of Scripps, so that we really become the preeminent institution of its kind in the country.

N&V: What is your initial assessment of the philanthropic landscape right here?

Colwell: I think we've done a reasonably good job of talking about Scripps to this community. We have a history of significant private support from individuals. But while we have a few individuals who support us in an extraordinary way, overall we don't have a lot of people investing in Scripps as a percentage of the population. So, one area we're going to be focusing on is broadening our base of support. We want to engage as many people in this community with Scripps as we possibly can. So annual funds will be a focus, building our donor base over the next couple of years.

With the exception of TSRI, we have not really initiated a comprehensive corporate foundation and government relations program. The Scripps name, our legacy, allows us to open every door to every corporation, and every foundation, and every government agency in this country. We haven't been opening those doors, so we need to expand our presence in that arena, nationally. And we want to have a stronger presence in Washington D.C., particularly with health and human services. We have an extraordinary array of services that we provide to this community. In the case of TSRI, these efforts have not only national but international significance. And we need to be telling people about that.

You know, Scripps is a very special institution. In many ways, Scripps is probably held in higher regard outside of San Diego County than it is right here. I can tell you that having coming out of the East and the Midwest, Scripps is very well known—and held in very, very high esteem. And sometimes I wonder whether here in San Diego County the community recognizes what a truly special resource we are to the constituencies we serve.

N&V: Or at least understand that we're not in oceanography?

Colwell: That, too...

N&V: Do you anticipate a capital campaign?

Colwell: I don't believe that you will see a grandiose kickoff of a Scripps-wide capital campaign. What you'll see is a series of significant fundraising initiatives, not only at TSRI, but at the hospitals within the Scripps Health system, who will be conducting their own, focused fundraising campaigns. So if you want to call it a campaign, fine. I'm not really into that term, because a campaign represents a defined start and stop date. What we really want to do is to raise the overall level of giving throughout all of Scripps, and sustain that over time. So, while TSRI, while Scripps La Jolla, Mercy, Chula Vista, Encinitas, and Green Hospitals as well as the Scripps Clinic, will all have individual campaigns, if you will, we're not going to have a global, systemwide, "campaign for Scripps."

 

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Cary W. Colwell assumed the position of president of the Scripps Foundation for Medicine and Science, the fundraising organization for both TSRI and Scripps Health, in early November 2001.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We have an extraordinary array of services that we provide to this community. In the case of TSRI, these efforts have not only national but international significance. And we need to be telling people about that."

—Cary W. Colwell