Are you ready to be the architect of B.C.’s most ambitious healthcare campaign? The VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation is launching an unprecedented, comprehensive fundraising effort—a bold undertaking designed to elevate healthcare innovation across the province. At the heart of this monumental initiative is a critical new role: Director of Campaign Operations.
In this exclusive Opportunity Spotlight, we sit down with Vanessa Abaya, Senior Vice President for Philanthropy and Campaign, to discuss the foundation’s culture, its expansive impact, and the pivotal responsibilities of this “air traffic controller” position. Discover how you can leverage your strategic vision and operational excellence to bridge fundraising strategy with tactical execution, working across all teams (from Major Gifts to IT) to drive success for a campaign that will redefine healthcare in British Columbia. If you thrive on complexity, collaboration, and the chance to leave a legacy, this is the deep dive you need to read.
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VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation With Vanessa Abaya, Senior VP, Philanthropy & Campaign
In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Vanessa Abaya, who is the Senior Vice President, Philanthropy and Campaign with the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. Welcome, Vanessa.
Thank you so much. I’m very excited to be here.
Excellent. I’m excited to be speaking with you, Vanessa, and of course, we’re speaking about the new director campaign operations role that we’re going to be talking about. We’re going to cover all types of things about the role, about the culture of the organization, a little bit about you for that matter. Maybe we’ll start there. Tell me a bit about your role at the foundation and then we can pivot to about the foundation itself, because you and I have known each other for a few years now. I know about the foundation. Tell me a bit about both of those. Tell me about yourself and what the foundation is.
I’m a relatively new addition to the foundation. I’m told you can still say that up until three years of being here. After that, you can’t say it anymore, so I’ve got a little bit of time for it. I joined the foundation in 2024. Now I’ve assumed the senior vice president role, and I’ve been fundraising for far too long, over 30 years now.
I wasn’t going to ask that number.
When I say that, everybody’s like, “You’re shocked.” I’m like, “I know. I started when I was five years old.” Fantastic. I’ve been involved with a lot of fundraising campaigns. I did public groundbreaking campaigns in culture. I’ve done some in universities, of course, higher ed and of course, healthcare. Moving here to BC, doing the campaign at BC Children’s, and of course, now here with VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation.
Tell me a bit about the foundation, then. I’m very familiar with it, but for people who aren’t, tell us a bit more about the foundation. What does it do?
Overview Of The VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation’s Mission & Scope
Of course. The foundation team is about 100 people strong. I am always extraordinarily amazed by the people who are here. Their commitment, their passion for healthcare, is something that is really blows me away every day. When I think about the work that we do and what the foundation stands for, we’re the leading charity investing in healthcare innovation in BC.
Hospital Foundation: When I think about the work we do and what the foundation stands for, we’re the leading charity investing in healthcare innovation in B.C.
Our beneficiaries range from Vancouver General Hospital, UBC Hospital, and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. GF Strong Rehabilitation Center and Vancouver Community Health Services. It spans this incredibly wide range of services and care in our healthcare system, from things like specialized cardiac surgery to acute spinal cord injury, all the way down to enabling accessible care for people of all ages, newborns to the elderly. If you want to be part of something pretty amazing, the foundation is a place to be.
That breadth and depth are really quite significant. As with other Vancouverites, like me, probably think VGH Hospital Foundation, the towers, the facility, that’s it. However, there’s so much more that happens that the foundation is supporting across facilities, across people, research community, patients, and community families. So much is happening at the community level, as you said as well. It’s really quite eye-opening and it’s quite compelling at the same time. Tell me a bit more, Vanessa. How did you get involved in the foundation and what is your why? Why do you do the work that you do and what do you love most about it, for that matter?
Vanessa Abaya’s Personal “Why” For Working In Healthcare Philanthropy
I don’t know if I’m rare anymore, but certainly, when I first started my career, I was one of those rare ones who graduated from university and went right into fundraising. This was not my second career.
You didn’t fall into it.
This was a destination for me. I got very lucky to have learned about fundraising as a career fairly early on in university and subsequently had some really great mentors who guided me along the way and brought me to different organizations. Ultimately, the reason why I’m here at VGH and I’ve worked in different settings, it was really about a couple of years ago when my parents went through their own healthcare situation. They both work in a hospital.
I remember sitting up by my dad’s bedside thinking, “Aren’t we really lucky that we live in a place that can take care of my parents in the way that they are being cared for?” The entire time, I kept thinking was, “I want to be part of this. I want to give this to families, that comfort that they have a place to go to and they’ll be well cared for.” It all worked out. The stars aligned. There was an opportunity here and here I am.
I remember sitting by my dad’s bedside thinking how lucky we were to live in a place that cared for my parents so well. I knew then that I wanted to be part of this—to give families the same comfort of knowing they have a place to go where they’ll be… Share on XThe rest is history and current history for that matter. What is it like to work at the foundation? Tell me a bit about the culture of the foundation. Candidates will often ask, what’s the dynamic? What’s the culture? How does collaboration happen? Tell me a bit more about that piece.
The Foundation’s Culture & Core Values
We’ve been reflecting a lot on culture. We’ve been looking at our values and we’ve identified our values as being bold and acting with integrity and being in community. When you say sometimes you think of values, they’re usually the things that people put up on the wall and it stays on the wall. I’ve got to tell you, in this place, those words are not words on paper. We live it every day.
There are numerous meetings or conversations that we have where we talk about, we are being bold enough. How do we break through whatever it is that we’re having the session about? How can we break past or push our boundaries when we talk about bold, and then if we’re running into issues or even when we talk about how we do donor engagement or how we work with our partners, we often talk about are we acting with integrity?
Are we being honest with each other? Are we being accountable? We talk about community. I’ve got to tell you, we had our gala. If there was a symbol of community it was that thousand-person room. Most meaningfully for me, when I saw all of our team members, there was a wide range of people there that night, from our IT folks through the finance team to our major gifts. Everybody was supporting each other. To me, that really speaks volumes about who the foundation is and the people that work here.
That’s so meaningful, as you said, in such a large staff team as well. A hundred some odd staff for that matter. It’s so encouraging and exhilarating to see for that matter. With the theme of boldness, maybe let’s pivot to the director of campaign operations role in the spirit of a bold campaign. Tell me a bit about this person’s role. What are they going to be doing? What’s the nature of the role? Tell me a bit more about the specifics of this campaign director role.
The Director Of Campaign Operations Role
One of the things about VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation is that we’ve been quite successful in our fundraising efforts. We’ve done it in a certain way. We’ve done it by working through smaller campaigns. Now we’ve decided, and I think we’ve hit that stage in our history where we’re going to look at a pretty ambitious, comprehensive campaign. We’re building as being the largest and most ambitious fundraising healthcare campaign in BC.
It goes to who we are as bold people. We want to reflect the ambitions of our clinical partners who are among the best in their field. We’re going to level up along with them, but with that comes a way of how we’re going to approach fundraising. How are we going to work as an entire team? Bringing together our marketing and brand team, our major gifts team, our community giving team, our donor engagement team.
It speaks to who we are as bold people. We want to reflect the ambitions of our clinical partners, who are among the best in their field. Share on XWe’re bringing the entire foundation under the umbrella of a comprehensive campaign. This director of campaign operations is really at the heart of that entire functionality, how we are going to show up as a foundation. If you can imagine like, this is the person who’s going to be the air traffic controller for our campaign. They’ll build the systems, they’ll monitor things, they’ll work collaboratively across the organization. I think it’s a pretty exciting role and one that I think will add to the level of expertise that we already have across all of our teams.
I’m glad you mentioned that, that expertise and that collaboration, because they’ll be working with you, they’ll be working with leadership, they’ll be working across the teams in IT data finance, as you said, the frontline fundraisers, the major gift to people, really across the board for that matter. Community giving, I know, is a huge component for the campaign as well. Campaign cabinet volunteers, whatever that might look like fundamentally as well.
I like that air traffic control analogy certainly as well, bridging the strategy, the tactics and furthering these pieces. That’s exciting. It’s really compelling. Thinking about this person’s success measures, targets, what for you might be some things that you’re looking for this person to accomplish? To get a gold star, what do you think they might need to do or look for or be in the first, let’s say 6 months, 8 months, something like that to really get them planted to the ground?
In truth, we are a large, complex organization,a foundation itself. We’ve got a number of teams and we’re located in two sites. We’re just across the street from each other. Not far, but that distance enough to need real mental effort to stay a one-team organization. For me, the person coming into this role is really getting to know their colleagues, how well they can work together. Really trying to gain a real understanding of what each is seeking in terms of information about the campaign, but also how they can actively contribute to the success of the campaign.
That’s only one piece of looking at us internally, because part of the role is also helping build those cases and sub-cases for the campaign. That means getting to know the hospital. Getting to know very many divisions and five organizations that are beneficiaries. It’s a lot, but I can tell you that we’ve got some great partners who fully understand what the foundation delivers for their work, and they’re eager to have those conversations with us.
Hospital Foundation: The Director of Campaign Operations is really at the heart of that entire function—how we show up as a foundation. You can imagine this person as the air traffic controller for our campaign.
You’ve got some eager partners, you’ve got some keen participants. The culture of philanthropy that we often talk about, and the partnership between the hospital and the foundation, is so crucial. It’s great that this person’s going to be a part of that. As a bit of an aside, you talked a little bit about collaboration. You’ve talked about mentorship. You’re going to be working very closely with this person. How do you want to work with them? How do you see that engagement happening? How do you show up as a leader within the foundation and working specifically with this person of what you might expect for them and the dynamic between the two of you?
We always talk often talk about your best laid plans out there. Sometimes something happens and you have to rethink your strategy. I think as we go along this campaign, and even as we’ve begun some of the work already in the campaign, we’re already running into that. I’m really looking for someone that I can work with, throw some ideas around with, have those conversations, and ultimately, really taking the strategy and running with it from an operations perspective.
It’s somebody that I want to trust to run with things and when things aren’t going well, flag them for us. I think my hope and my plan for this person is to really give them a lot of space to test some ideas out. If that doesn’t work, let’s go back to the drawing board. Let’s start all over again. I really want us to have that space to test new ideas. Also, learn from some of the well-practiced or already well-oiled machines of other organizations. There are no amazing secrets that we hold dear. I’m a big fan of picking up the phone and calling colleagues from other organizations saying, “We’re thinking of doing this. What do you guys think? What do you guys do?” Learn from the best. I’m a big fan of that.
Best practices are best practices for a reason, fundamentally, when it comes down to. I like that, that giving people the space to try new things. That does speak, again, to the value of boldness, of trying new things, of innovation and that safety net to try. If you fail, learn the lessons, but get back up and get over it. As you might see, Vanessa, I tend to mix all my metaphors. I realize planning feet in the ground and traffic control. There’s a lot going on in metaphors.
I’ve mixed my metaphors as well. I was debating, do I do stage manage or airdrop?
All of the above. It speaks to the adaptability of the role. Why should someone come join you? Tell me what are the most compelling reasons for someone to come join you at the foundation at this time in their lives and careers for this role?
Why This Is An Extraordinary Moment To Join The Foundation
I’d bucket that in a couple of things. I would say, if you are someone who is really looking to do something pretty incredible or push boundaries, there are not that many campaigns like this that exist in Canada, in British Columbia. I’ve benefited immensely from the campaigns that I’ve participated in. I’ve learned from them. I’ve grown from that. I think campaigns have a given opportunity for people who are in them to learn and grow. That’s one piece.
I also would say now is an incredible time to come and join the foundation. When you hear the ambition from the physicians that they want to build their own best and most amazing areas in the organization, you have that enthusiasm, that validation, that ambition from these clinical leaders. You get to sit in a room with them and share their enthusiasm with people who can make a difference from our donors and our supporters.
There is something in the mix right now where we are at, at the foundation that is bringing together this moment that feels right, that feels really good. The folks here, the team here in the foundation really want to try to push these boundaries. They really want to see something bold and something big, in part, because I think, again, it comes down to the dedication that they have for ensuring that this healthcare system is here of service not just for us, but for everyone. We could create something special.
I can see and hear the enthusiasm and the excitement you have for the project and the campaign on the horizon, for that matter. Any final messages for potential candidates or curious people? I always encourage people to reach out, to think about things, to ask questions, to be curious. Your foundation site is just a wealth of information and it’s a tremendous resource for me, somewhat superficially, I suppose, in my purposes. For someone thinking about a career at the foundation, it’s a great source as well. Any final messages for people who are thinking about this?
I often think about what would prompt someone to make a leap to try to consider a different role. I would probably say, you might not be considering making a move, or you might be thinking about a move right now. Either way, ask the question. Reach out to Christoph, and find a little bit more about whether or not this is the right fit for you.
I think about our commitment to professional development for our people, ensuring that folks are able to grow in their careers, however they see their careers going. Think about what a role like this could bring to your own career. Also, honestly, my final words are, I think it’s, again, a pretty exciting time to join the foundation. There is something in the water around here that is gurgling something pretty magical.
We got water, we got flight, we got planting trees, we got all the metaphors in there. It’s such an exciting time because it’s really at the ground floor in many ways. You were talking about the formation, the work that’s being done now for the campaign that’s going to blossom in the new future.
It’s early stages.
It’s formative in many ways. Vanessa. It’s always a pleasure to speak with you. The website that I mentioned before is VGHFoundation.ca. Thank you for encouraging people to reach out to me. I can be reached at [email protected] as well. Certainly, we want to encourage expressions of interest and people coming forward and asking questions. It’s a dynamic place to be.
I’ve had the pleasure of working on a few searches now over the years with the foundation and foundational leadership like yourself. It’s so compelling and so exciting, and I learn so much every time. It’s always a pleasure. We’ll chat again soon and looking forward to getting candidates and learning more about that too.
