Vision and mission statements are the foundation upon which an organization builds its programs and initiatives. The Urology Care Foundation has undergone a significant transformation over the last decade. This strategic change has been tremendously positive, resulting in an improved brand, a solid and growing financial portfolio, and enhanced offerings within 2 pillars: research and patient education.

The vitality of an organization can be measured by its ability to respond to the ever-increasing complexities of society. Therefore, in 2018 the Urology Care Foundation expanded its vision and mission statements to reflect its aspiration and commitment not only to fund research, but to serve patients worldwide and to recognize the Foundation’s efforts in pursuing philanthropic support.

As the Foundation continued to explore how it could better serve the global urology community, supporting humanitarian initiatives became a natural next step, and in 2020 the Foundation unveiled 2 new humanitarian endeavors:

• Urology Care Foundation Humanitarian Award: Recognizes an individual for their demonstrated commitment to advancing global health and improving access to quality urological health care in underserved populations, either internationally or within AUA Section boundaries.
• Urology Care Foundation Humanitarian Endowment/Grant Program: Supports the outstanding efforts of individuals and projects that provide direct urological patient care to individuals and communities in underserved areas, either within or outside the United States.

Earlier this year, the Foundation bestowed its first Humanitarian Award to Dr. Catherine deVries, and our first 2 Grant Program Awardees will be announced next month. Through the increasing interest and success of these 2 initiatives, it is clear the mission and vision of the Foundation has evolved to include a third pillar—humanitarian endeavors—to complement the Foundation’s efforts to fund research, provide patient education and pursue philanthropic support for the global urology community. As such, the Board recently updated its vision and mission to reflect this evolution:

• Vision: Be the leader in improving health care for urological patients worldwide by supporting research, providing education and advancing humanitarian initiatives.
• Mission: We support the improvement of urological care by funding research, developing patient education, advancing humanitarian initiatives and pursuing philanthropic support.

This new vision is intended to codify the depth of our collective aspirations and desire to positively impact health care for urological patients worldwide and our belief that this is accomplished by the 3 pillars of our mission: research, education and humanitarian initiatives.

For more information about the Foundation, I encourage you to visit www.UrologyHealth.org/Humanitarian.