Vice President, Philanthropic Planning and Integration
POSITION PROFILE
Vice President, Philanthropic Planning & Integration
Heart & Stroke aspires to be one of Canada’s best employers through consistently living their values to foster an outstanding culture and through adopting effective and consistent practices and processes that enable achievement of outstanding results.
Executive Summary
Heart & Stroke’s mission is to promote health, save lives, and enhance recovery as it relates to heart disease and stroke. They are committed to a culture that exemplifies their core values: CHAMPION Health, PRACTISE Humility, EMBRACE Change, DRIVE impact, LEARN and GROW, and BE HEARTFELT.
Heart & Stroke is a leading funder of life-saving research, which has led to breakthroughs such as heart transplant surgery and a revolutionary stroke treatment that cuts the death rate by 50%.
They empower Canadians to live healthier lives — from preventing and controlling high blood pressure to getting more physical activity. And they fight for change that will create better health for all, such as reducing salt in the food supply and improving access to stroke rehabilitation.
But there’s a lot more to do. Much more.
The threat is urgent.
Heart disease, stroke, and related conditions take one life every five minutes in Canada. An estimated 1.6 million more Canadians are living with the devastating effects of these diseases. An astounding 9 in 10 Canadians have at least one risk factor, such as high blood pressure, obesity, tobacco use, lack of physical activity, and diabetes.
The threat of heart disease and stroke has never been more urgent. And it’s amplified by our aging population, sedentary lifestyles, poor diets, and more.
Life. We don’t want you to miss it. ™
For more than 60 years, Heart & Stroke have been dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. Their work has saved thousands of lives and improved the lives of millions of others. They have invested more than $1.52 billion in heart and stroke research, making them the largest contributor in Canada after the federal government. In that time, the death rate from heart disease and stroke has declined by more than 75 per cent. The health promotion and advocacy programs across the country are saving lives every day. Working together, employees, volunteers, donors, and world-class researchers have made Heart & Stroke Canada’s most widely recognized and trusted authority on cardiovascular health.
Big challenge, ambitious goals
To tackle these challenges, Heart & Stroke focuses efforts on areas where they can make the biggest impact. They are working to beat heart disease and stroke with innovative programs such as:
Heart-Brain Connection: Seeking to gain better understanding of the critical connections between the heart and the brain, in January 2021, Heart & Stroke & Brain Canada announced a partnership resulting in a research award in the amount of $6M – the Heart-Brain Connection IMPACT Award. This research will investigate and unravel the heart-brain connection to improve knowledge and treatments.
Closing the Gap on Health Inequities: The focus in fiscal 2024 will continue to be health equity, with a greater focus on Women’s Health, and supporting early careers of Black & Indigenous Scholars through multi- year funding that will largely be supported through philanthropic contributions from Heart & Stroke donors.
Heart & Stroke currently funds two research Chairs in Women’s Indigenous Heart and Brain Health in partnership with the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). In April 2024, H&S is hosting the fourth annual Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit in partnership with the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.
Heart Failure: Working to lessen the burden of heart failure, which afflicts over 600 thousand people in Canada, in collaboration with World Heart Federation and other Canadian health partners. The first order of business is to collect data to better understand current resources and services throughout all health care institutions in the country.
Advocating for Healthy Policies: Pushing for a national pharmacare program to provide the access to medically necessary medication that everyone in Canada deserves and reduce the burden on the health care system. Working to restrict youth vaping and cap nicotine levels in vapes, as well as restrict the marketing of unhealthy products such as sugary drinks to children.
Increasing Cardiac Arrest Survival Rates: Looking at new ways to increase the survival of out-of- hospital cardiac arrest. They support a vast network of Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation training across Canada and have been instrumental in placing Automated External Defibrillators in public places. Looking for innovative ways and partnerships to drive the survival rate up.
Is This You?
You are a subject matter expert when it comes to philanthropy – individual major gifts, foundation, corporate and community giving. You consider yourself to be an exceptional Collaborator, Coach and Strategist. You bring expertise, experience and innovation to enhancing and deepening fundraising programs, systems, structures to drive growth nationally.
You excel at providing thoughtful and well-informed counsel and direction. You are excellent at bringing teams with different skills and abilities together to achieve a desired shared outcome.
You have a proven ability to chart the path forward when the path may not be so obvious.
You operate with high integrity and care about the work you do and the people you work with, and in doing so you have created a followership around you. Colleagues enjoy working with you because you elevate their work by encouraging the best out of them, and volunteers appreciate working with you because you are respectful and conscientious. Senior leaders appreciate your candor, your tact, and your diplomacy. You are respectful yet straightforward, you are detailed, yet good at summarizing the details. You are strategic, but get the work done that needs to get done. You bring strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication and negotiation skills to the table, with demonstrated success in strategic and annual planning, donor prospecting and cultivation.
You can work effectively with a diverse population of community leaders, volunteers, donors and other stakeholders and you use your strong organizational, administrative and time management skills to address multiple projects in a complex environment. You have experience working with and supporting a volunteer advisory board focused on philanthropy and awareness building and can pioneer new territory while building programs from the ground up.
You are passionate about heart health and would be excited to support one of Canada’s most beloved health and wellness charities working alongside a dedicated and passionate national team.
Is your curiosity piqued? If so, please keep reading….
Position Overview
Organization: Heart & Stroke https://www.heartandstroke.ca
Title: Vice President, Philanthropic Planning & Integration
Reports to: Executive Vice President, Fundraising & Marketing
Direct Team: Geographically dispersed team across Canada
Director, Central Development Services
Director, Corporate Development
Director, Planned Giving
Total Team: 14
Key Stakeholders: Chief Executive Officer
Senior Vice Presidents, Regional Philanthropy Leads (includes individual major gifts, corporate, community, third party)
VP Finance
VP Marketing Strategy Digital and Communications
Director, DM and Lottery
Director, Health Equity and Mission Impact
Location: Heart & Stroke is a national charity operating with a successful hybrid work model that varies by role, with approximately 325 employees located across the country and working primarily from a home office. There is a ‘collaboration hub’ in Toronto that is essential to bringing employees together from across the country throughout the year and an office in Montreal. Ideally the Vice President, Philanthropic Planning & Integration will be in the GTA given the need for frequent collaboration.
The Position
Reporting to the Executive Vice President, Fundraising & Marketing, this newly created role provides leadership, develops strategy and drives Heart & Stroke toward greater success in major gifts, corporate partnerships and planned giving across the country. This position plays an integral role in the future growth of the organization and provides strategic leadership and management of development working with a team of skilled fundraising professionals and support staff.
The Vice President, Philanthropic Planning & Integration is responsible for building the organizational capacity in philanthropy including major donors, foundations, corporate partnerships and planned giving. The portfolio will include campaign development, opportunity development, prospect research, stewardship, and recognition to support the fundraising teams to achieve revenue growth. The role does not have a direct portfolio of prospects or a direct revenue accountability, however, will provide strategic direction and coaching to the Chief Executive Officer, Executive Vice President, Senior Vice Presidents on their donor portfolios.
Primary Accountabilities
The Vice President, Philanthropic Planning & Integration will collaborate with many internal partners to deliver on key accountabilities including:
Strategic Business Planning
- Set strategic direction in the development of the National integrated fundraising strategy ensuring development plans are aligned
- Lead the development of annual and multi-year plans for major gifts, corporate partnerships and planned giving in alignment with the organizational strategic plan and priorities
- Provide leadership and expertise to engage philanthropy teams in a cohesive approach to philanthropy across the country
- Working in collaboration with mission leadership, identify the mission priorities that would benefit from donor support
- Supporting the CEO, develop the National Board ‘giving strategy’ and annual plan in the implementation of said strategy
- Establish the strategic direction for the development of compelling and articulate case for support that will engage donors in alignment with strategic priorities
- Lead the development of a compelling suite of opportunities to engage corporate partnerships
- Lead the development of the stewardship strategy for the organization that optimizes the donor experience
Stakeholder Engagement
- Oversee the prospect development strategy for the organization
- Play a lead role in leading a consistent approach to prospect identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship across the development functions
- Support the CEO, EVP and SVPs with their prospect portfolios by developing strategies for each prospect and providing direction to moves management approach
- Work collaboratively with the regional SVPs to develop strategies, plans and materials needed to drive fundraising success
- Provide subject matter expertise, coaching and advice to assist regional SVPs in effectively coaching their philanthropy team(s)
Business Operations
- Develop annual and 3 year revenue and expense budget and KPIs, reviewing results and projections on a regular basis to mitigate challenges, optimize opportunities and manage expenses
- Establish performance measures to evaluate and monitor the success of development
- Lead the development and management of an integrated moves management program with reporting and prospect clearance process
- Develop and evaluate processes and systems to build rigor and increase overall efficiency and accountability and drive revenue growth
- Comply with all policies and practices at Heart & Stroke, including compliance with Code of Professional Conduct
People Leadership
- Lead talent development, ensuring high standards, competence and that staff is well supported in fulfilling their accountabilities, developing their skills and achieving their career potential
- Provide clear direction on business goals and priorities; ensure optimal deployment of resources to achieve business goals
- Ensure philanthropy staff can speak confidently and compellingly about Heart & Stroke strategic research and programs
- Act as staff lead for formal or ad hoc volunteer groups formed to support Philanthropic initiatives
- Provide subject matter expertise, coaching and advice to senior staff and volunteers
- Build and develop cohesive lateral relationships
- Establish individual performance plans and goals; complying with the performance review cycle
- Partner with the People & Culture team to recruit skilled talent in support of current and future Heart & Stroke needs aligned with Foundation practices to build and sustain a high performing, highly engaged and aligned team
- Familiarize and comply with all People & Culture management policies
Donor/Partner Management
- Contribute to the research, qualification and identification of new prospects, working cooperatively and cross functionally in prospect management and clearance
- Effectively integrate the mission, strategic plan and various case for support in achieving the goals of the organization
- Liaise with internal teams to articulate the case for support to prospects and ensure appropriate representation of staff, scientists, clinicians at meetings
- Follow standard policies and procedures for the acceptance and administration of gifts
- Negotiate gift terms and bring solicitations to closure
- Ensure appropriate, meaningful recognition and thorough stewardship including follow-through on the gift implementation and administration of the funds and related expenditures
- Develop and oversee an annual stewardship and communication plan identifying key communications vehicles and events for existing and potential donors/partners
The Ideal Candidate
- 15+ years experience setting strategic direction on National fundraising with a focus on major gifts, corporate partnerships and planned giving
- Experience leading a major gift campaign would be considered an asset
- Experience in successfully recruiting, training and managing a team of fundraising professionals
- Proven track record in identifying strategic business development opportunities and developing and leading such initiatives
- Significant experience and successful track record developing, building and leading a development function for a national organization
- Solid business acumen along with advanced analytical and financial modelling experience
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders
- A visionary; able to provide the overall picture while being able to operate at the detailed implementation level to ensure a quality donor experience
- Experience in senior volunteer management – ideally have worked with a campaign cabinet
- Experience leading a major gift campaign would be considered an asset
- Demonstrated ability to lead a significant initiative in a large organization
- Superior communication skills, writing and interpersonal skills, in addition to well-developed presentation abilities
- Demonstrated commitment to measuring outcomes and a results focused approach
- CFRE or equivalent experience preferred
- A University degree or relevant experience
At Heart & Stroke, we believe in equity, diversity, and inclusion; it’s embedded in our values and core mission work to support all people in Canada to lead healthier lives. We are committed to applying this principle to cultivate a welcoming environment that embraces diversity among our employees. Candidates from diverse backgrounds, including but not limited to, Indigenous peoples, racialized and LGBTQ2+ communities, women, and people with disabilities, are encouraged to apply.
Application Instructions
Thank you for your interest in this opportunity. If you would like to apply, please email your application to Lindsay Preston, lindsay@phcap.ca. Please note the deadline for applications is
December 15, 2023 at 5pm ET. Please include your cover letter and CV.
In addition to a competitive base salary ($180,000-$220,000) Heart & Stroke believe that time off is integral to the personal health and wellness of employees. They offer a generous paid time-off package including vacation days, personal days, wellness days, and paid company-wide closure between December 25 and January 1. They also provide competitive health, medical, dental and vision benefits, basic life and disability insurance, an employee assistance program (EAP) and a defined contribution pension plan with employer matching. Heart & Stroke employees also enjoy a flexible hybrid working model and reimbursement for mobile phones and home office setup, as well as opportunities for professional development.
Heart & Stroke is committed to fostering an inclusive, barrier-free, and accessible environment. If you are contacted for an interview and require accommodation to participate in the recruitment and selection process, please advise and we will work with you to meet your needs.
Please note: Heart & Stroke has a vaccination policy that requires all employees to be fully vaccinated unless they have a valid exemption. You can view the policy here.
We thank you for your interest in this opportunity. Please note that only qualified respondents will be contacted.