Love Collins: Raising Dollars, Pushing the Envelope

Meet Love Collins, III. Appointed as the VP of Development in June of this year at the Van Andel Institute, he has a lot resting on his shoulders. But be assured that his more than 20 years of experience in the areas of capital campaigns, planned giving, annual fund management and donor cultivation for companies and organizations including BellSouth Corporation and the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta have prepared him for the job.

“It was all preparation for what I am doing now,” says Collins when asked about his impressive resume.

Collins graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds an MBA degree from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. He served as an infantry and airborne officer in the United States Army for five years. Now, Collins’ job is to raise the private resources to underwrite what he calls "the journey." That journey involves the Van Andel Institute (VAI) being the leader in biomedical research. "It’s my job to put the gas in the tank to get down the road."

That road is marked with successful milestones when it comes to VAI’s progress in developing the cures to cancer and other neurodegenerative diseases. Collins puts his experience in private fundraising and executive level management experience to work, developing a plan to see that every dollar raised goes directly into the research lab in the form of technology, scholarship and getting the scientists who make that all possible. Scientists like Dr. Giselle Sholler, pediatric oncologist, and Dr. Craig Webb, Ph.D., who co-directed the symposium for the Pediatric Cancer Translation Research Program this past June.

What allows the VAI to delegate all of Collins' fundraising resources entirely into the labs is the roughly $1 billion dollars left by its founders, Jay and Betty Van Andel. It is with these funds that the VAI takes care of operating costs, thereby leaving all giving to scholarship and scientific advancements.

When asked why he chose to come to Grand Rapids and work with the Van Andel Institute, Collins says there were three factors that led him and his wife Valeda to call Grand Rapids home: the cause, the people and the spirit.

The cause is moving toward a cure for cancer in all its forms. Collins makes a resonating point that there are very few individuals whose lives have not been touched by cancer in some form, and that alone should be reason to lend his energy and talents in the pursuit of cures.

Leading the way in that pursuit are the men and women who brought him to VAI. Their passion and commitment were clearly evident during his interview process. During the interviews, Collins was able to see the entrepreneurial spirit at the heart of what drives the Van Andel Institute’s research success and found it invigorating.

“This enterprise is founded upon resources that come from entrepreneurial idea," he says. "We have scientists here who are pushing the envelope in traditional medicine, moving in a direction where no one has ever been. We are using the stars as our step stools.”