The Nevada Cancer Institute puts Las Vegas’ newfpound philanthropic nature to the test — and patients around the region come up winners.

By Nicole Rollender

“We were also in a state where a mayor had left for breast cancer treatment, and three governors left to be treated for prostate cancer.”

What also helped, she says, was getting some of those first large gifts.

“Some of our early strategy was saying to people, ‘We need a leader. Someone has to go first. And if someone goes first, others will follow.’ Before we even had a location, the first five gifts came in on our dream and our vision, and nothing more,” Gitomer says. “We didn’t have an exact sketch of the building and we didn’t have an exact location, but we had a lot of good statistics, and we knew we could substantiate the need for a cancer center. But first we had to convince them we needed leaders.”