Collette Wixom-Call, MPA, CFRE

Senior Director of Development,
University of California - San Diego

San Diego, California

 

I am delighted to have my friend Collette Wixom-Call represent "People in Fundraising's" first foray into California and on the West Coast!

 

She is a dynamic, insightful, and humorous person, and our conversation could have gone on much longer if not for a donor visit she had already lined up. In our wide-ranging conversation, Collette outlines her first positions in fundraising at Harvard and the career-changing influence the roles had on her. She candidly discusses when she recognized that she had lost her "why," and what she did to regain it as a young professional.

 

There were cultural and institutional shocks as Collette and her family moved from the East Coast to southeastern Idaho, but she took comfort in "doing what my heart is telling me to do." She shares the differences in donor mindsets that Collette experienced in her roles now on both coasts and at two institutions (Idaho State University and the University of Utah Health) in the Intermountain West - and how she had to adjust on-the-spot in donor engagement efforts.

 

Having spent much of her career in healthcare philanthropy, Collette shares some terrific insights about wrestling with the question, "How do I feel ethically about fundraising in healthcare." Our conversation wraps up with Collette sharing her ideas for a Ph.D. pursuit and, among other goals, helping to create professional pathways in fundraising for people who don't want to be a manager.

 

Thank you, Collette, for such a rich and enjoyable conversation!