Cleveland Clinic picks new leader for $1.25B fundraising campaign

Armando L. Chardiet

Updated 3:51 p.m.

The Cleveland Clinic has wooed and won a heavy hitter in the world of major philanthropic campaigns from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.

Armando L. Chardiet will become the Clinic’s Institutional Relations and Development chairman, and executive director of its $1.25 billion fundraising campaign on July 1.

Chardiet led the Pennsylvania medical school to double its annual fundraising numbers during that institution’s Making History: The Campaign for Penn, the Clinic said in a release.

He replaces Carol Moss, who left in August as its top fundraising executive to take a similar position at the University of California San Francisco. Chardiet comes to the Clinic as it gears up to spend an all-time high of $848 million on capital investments and hire 1,800 workers this year.

“Armando’s talent, vision and depth of health care experience will strongly position Cleveland Clinic to continually deliver world-class patient care, innovative research and outstanding educational programs,” Dr. Delos M. “Toby” Cosgrove, the Clinic’s president and chief executive, said in the release.

“The generosity of our donors has fueled a time of unprecedented growth and innovation at Cleveland Clinic,” Cosgrove said. “Their support has made Cleveland Clinic what it is today–and it will carry us through a new generation of even greater achievement.”

Chardiet witnessed that donor generosity–a result of the Clinic’s ongoing fundraising campaign–in the form of bricks and mortar when he visited the institution’s main campus with his wife. “One of things that impressed me, there were so many names on facilities that were gifts from donors to the Clinic,” he said. “The campaign has been remarkably successful. The Clinic has been doing something terribly right.”

Chardiet will be responsible for leading the philanthropic initiatives and capital campaigns for the health system, including Today’s Innovations, Tomorrow’s Healthcare, the Cleveland Clinic’s five-year philanthropic campaign to raise $1.25 billion.

That campaign, which started in 2006 as the Campaign for Cleveland Clinic, hit the $1 billion mark in May 2008, according to the campaign’s Web page. The Clinic is one of the first health systems to embark on a campaign to support innovative patient care, basic and clinical research, medical and patient education, and physical expansion, it said.

The Glickman Tower and Arnold and Sydell Miller Family Pavilion, opened in late 2008, were part of the campus master plan for which money was raised during the campaign, said spokeswoman Erinne Dyer.

Chardiet has been chief advancement officer and assistant vice dean at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and University of Pennsylvania Medical School since 2003. Chardiet has become experienced in developing, launching and stewarding major philanthropic campaigns at health systems, the Clinic said. He is a recognized leader in the world of philanthropy and has established a strong culture of charitable giving at other institutions.

Even so, Chardiet sees the Clinic job “as an amazing professional challenge,” he said. “It’s a natural progression for me to go to a place like the Cleveland Clinic that is expanding its reach internationally and nationally, which is an aspect of my career.”

He has previous experience at the Washington Hospital Center Foundation, the development arm of the largest teaching hospital in the nation’s capital. Earlier in his career, he held positions at the Red Cross, Brown University and American University.

“When Dr. Cosgrove and I met, he began to talk about his vision of philanthropy and the support it can provide to the Clinic. It resonated with me,” Chardiet said. “I want to build on the Clinic’s success, take it to a whole other level … to expand its international reach to grateful patients abroad.”