Curebound welcomes new leadership in cancer survivor Robin Toft

Traditionally, organization leadership rarely flows backwards from board seats to the C-suite. But for Robin Toft, when the chance to step into the role of CEO at San Diego-based nonprofit cancer research fundraiser Curebound arose, she seized it with passion. “It was a whole-body ‘yes,’” says Toft, herself a 20-year cancer survivor. “There is nothing I’d rather be doing. Even though I had evolved into serving on nonprofit boards in the point of my life where I don’t have to be here, I really, really want to be here, because what we’re doing is so important.”

Toft was a 20-year biotech executive literally up to the moment of her colon cancer diagnosis in her early 40s, a hard pivot that further deepened her resolve to seismically impact the world of cancer research, care, and treatment. “It was absolutely shocking to be diagnosed, because I thought I was at the peak of my health and fitness,” she recalls. “I immediately quit my job, came back to San Diego (because I was working in the Bay Area at that point), and decided I was just going to change everything about everything, just everything. I was going to dedicate my life to changing cancer care forever, because the system is essentially very difficult to navigate, and I don’t think you should have to ‘know someone’ if you have cancer. I think that it should be very straightforward — [where] the best technology is available to all people — and we have to do everything in our power to get to that point.”

She didn’t shy from her goal once she kicked cancer. Toft sat on multiple oncology-centric boards, walked the Susan G. Komen 3-Day walk for 11 years, is currently on the boards of the American Cancer Society and the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and is active with CEOs Against Cancer, an initiative led by the American Cancer Society that promotes a culture of health in the workplace. And serendipitously, Toft was on Curebound’s board when the CEO opportunity presented itself.

“Being a philanthropist and being highly involved in giving back to make things better for patients in the future, when this came up to be able to lead a charge against this model — that is just so beautiful,” she says. 

As a cancer research catalyst-accelerator, Curebound partners with local entities to fund work toward innovative research projects that have the potential to lead to new discoveries that can in turn become available for clinical application. The organization’s “Research Roadmap” includes five lanes of discovery that channel investments: early detection, novel therapeutics, immunotherapy, cancer equity, and childhood cancer. Its premier partnerships include Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, the Salk Institute, Sanford Burnham Prebys, Rady Children’s Health, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and Scripps Research. “We are using donor money to bridge a gap with things that may not otherwise be funded,” says Toft, who simplifies the concept as similar to crowd-funding.

Toft notes Curebound’s collaborative element and hyper-local-ness as being truly rare and reflective of the nature of this community. “San Diego is a wildly collaborative town, and that’s what’s allowed us to build this infrastructure here. I think it’s uniquely different that way,” she says, noting that other biotech hubs like San Francisco and Boston can have more of a competitive and siloed atmosphere. But it’s also the community-centric aspect — what Toft refers to as an “ecosystem accelerator model” — that bolsters Curebound’s success while retaining its grassroots essence. The Rancho Santa Fe resident says she feels the local embrace deeply within her own immediate community. “It’s just been an incredible luxury to be in the center of such support and such a beautiful intention of the people who support us here,” she says.

“We actually raise money from the community, do it for the community, invest it back in, but what we do here, make no mistake: It serves the world,” she adds. Since its inception, she says Curebound has raised $51.5 million, and estimates another $25 million will be raised this year through direct donor funding and fundraising events including last month’s Concert for Cures, which featured recording artist Pink, and the upcoming Curebound Cancer Challenge on August 1, a ride-run-walk-spin event that will take place at UC San Diego. 

“We just want to save lives. That’s it,” says Toft. “Accelerate research, save lives, and at the very minimum, give patients more time with their families and more quality time to live while these new discoveries are accelerating.” curebound.org