Planning for Impact
Carol Wise’s life’s work can be described as mission-based. Before she retired, the Richmond native focused her career on improving human and environmental health through several professional roles, including critical care nurse and program director for a healthcare nonprofit. After her clinical and policy work in Richmond, she was recruited as UVA Cancer Center’s first official development director. Now Carol spends her retirement days enjoying the fruits of her purpose-driven vocation and her thoughtful financial planning. She's volunteering, traveling, gardening, and appreciating the mountain views from her home. She’s also making and planning philanthropic gifts to the causes close to her heart, including UVA Cancer Center.
“I’ve always been a donor—not a large donor, but a consistent and faithful one,” said Carol. “I’ve supported causes I believe in, but earlier, while I was working and saving, I wasn’t able to give at larger levels.”
Now, Carol is ready to make longer-term commitments. Her most recent gift to UVA Cancer Center was in the form of a beneficiary designation. Specifically, she documented her intention to leave a meaningful percentage of her estate to benefit the center's research in cancer immunology.
“I saved consistently throughout my career, and I have done well. The beneficiary designation was the easy part,” said Carol.
Designating UVA Cancer Center as a beneficiary of your estate, retirement plan, life insurance policy, or another qualified asset may offer tax benefits and flexibility. Donors retain the asset during their lifetimes and can revoke or adjust the beneficiary designation at any time. For guidance on designating UVA Cancer Center as a beneficiary of your estate or other assets, please visit https://giving.uvahealth.com/gift-planning.
“I believe immunotherapy is the future of cancer care," said Carol. “Discovering and developing a new cancer drug or treatment is time-consuming and complex. It’s expensive to get the treatments developed, approved, and released for treating patients. Supporting this research is a way to join something I truly believe in.”
BUILDING A BIOLOGICAL ARMY
Leveraging the immune system to fight cancer is a centuries-old idea. However, only in the last few decades has cancer immunotherapy emerged as a standard treatment protocol alongside surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. According to the National Cancer Institute, immunotherapies stimulate or boost your immune system to fight cancer. In some cases, immune cells are genetically modified to become “super soldiers” that can better detect and destroy cancer cells. Compared to conventional treatment, cancer immunotherapies are more personalized, targeted, and less invasive.
Today, immunotherapies are only approved for certain cancers and often must be combined with standard treatments. However, new immunotherapies are continually being developed and tested. Many discoveries and innovations in cancer immunology and immunotherapy occur at UVA Cancer Center because of visionary donors, like Carol, who support early experiments and studies.
“UVA Cancer Center has exceptional cancer immunologists and clinician-scientists doing this work. They simply need more funding to be able to do more,” she said.
In many ways, Carol is an ideal spokesperson for UVA Cancer Center philanthropy. One, as a former nurse, she “speaks the language” of healthcare. Two, during her tenure as the Cancer Center’s director of development in the 1990s, she had a front-row seat to groundbreaking research and discoveries. One physician-scientist made a particularly strong impression on Carol. He’s a primary reason why she feels so strongly about the promise of cancer immunology: Craig Slingluff, MD, a surgical oncologist who serves as the Joseph Helms Farrow Professor of Surgery at UVA Health, vice chair for research in surgery, and director of UVA Cancer Center’s Human Immune Therapy Center.
For over 25 years, Dr. Slingluff has led the development and testing of therapeutic cancer vaccines, particularly those targeting melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. This type of vaccine exposes your immune system to molecules (antigens) associated with the cancer cells, inducing an immune response. The advances made by Dr. Slingluff and his team are already improving the long-term survival rates of melanoma patients in clinical trials and generating findings relevant to many other cancers.
For years, Carol has made what she calls “small” annual contributions to Dr. Slingluff’s lab and immunology research. “The estate gift was a natural progression and a chance to have an even bigger impact,” she said.
SO MANY WAYS TO GIVE
Carol said she’ll likely make additional planned gifts, including a charitable gift annuity to support the Cancer Center’s immunology research program. A charitable gift annuity is a tax-advantageous vehicle in which the donor makes a gift to the Cancer Center in exchange for fixed income payments for life. When the donor passes, the remainder of the gift is used for the donor’s designated purpose.
“There are so many ways to give. I’ve been impressed with the expertise and care shown by the Cancer Center’s development officers and planned giving specialists. They have the capacity and time to customize a giving plan that meets each donor’s personal financial goals and philanthropic interests,” said Carol.
Although including UVA Cancer Center in her estate plan was simple, Carol said it was essential to work with the Cancer Center to formally document her intention. “I know from my professional experience that donors don’t always specify the intended purpose of their gifts with enough information and flexibility. There should be a clear understanding between the institution and the donor about how a gift should be used.”
In the case of beneficiary designation, Carol also pointed out that documenting it with UVA Cancer Center gives donors “a meaningful experience now” and an opportunity to stay connected to the center’s work during their lifetime.
If you'd like to discuss opportunities for planned giving benefiting UVA Cancer Center or related questions, please contact Erin Hughey-Commers, Director of Gift Planning for UVA Health, at efh3z@virginia.edu or 434-760-3281.