Robert West

Senior Associate Director,
Analytics

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

New Hampshire

Robert West joins my "People in Fundraising" webcast just before his 1-year anniversary of working at the world-renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He entered fundraising from experiential education and admissions before first working in prospect research. A University of New Hampshire alum, Robby also talks about the joy and challenge of working for his alma mater for several years.

In about 10 years, Robby has held jobs in prospect research, prospect management, and now analytics in higher education and healthcare philanthropy. He describes the size of Dana-Farber's prospect pool, the scale and cadence of prospect identification for thousands of new patient files each month, and the learning curve of working in healthcare fundraising, complimenting Lindsay A. Brown and season 1 "People in Fundraising" guest James Cheng.

Robby concludes our conversation by describing the impact that his Wesleyan University manager and early-career mentor Sarah Benson, who helped Robby see that hiring for curiosity, passion, and excitement for working in fundraising is more important than hiring for experience - a critical mindset that Robby has implemented in his own hiring practice with teams he has managed.

Thank you for a very insightful conversation, Robby, and best wishes for the Dana-Farber "Defy Cancer: The Dana-Farber Campaign!"