Key Takeaways:
- The plan is named for how care is delivered. The C4K Way, Every Day is built on the idea that the experience of receiving care is part of the care itself, not an extra layer on top of it.
- It is a rolling three-year plan, not a fixed five-year one. Cure 4 The Kids Foundation will review and refresh the plan annually so it can adjust as the landscape changes.
- The focus is depth over expansion. The plan concentrates on strengthening existing programs in oncology, rheumatology, and metabolic genetics rather than adding new service lines.
- Workforce development is a central priority. C4K is exploring a subspecialty fellowship program with Roseman University of Health Sciences to train pediatric subspecialists in Nevada rather than compete nationally for a limited pool.
- Philanthropy does not fund overhead. Clinical services cover the day-to-day cost of operating the center, so donated dollars go to charity care, research, and access for children who would not otherwise reach us.
It was our first week seeing patients. The clinic was small, the furniture was secondhand, and nothing about our future was certain.
A ten-year-old girl sat in the infusion area for her first outpatient chemotherapy treatment. Her mother kept getting pulled into the hallway by a work crisis she couldn’t ignore. A single mom, terrified of losing the job that carried the insurance that kept her daughter in treatment. I gave her my office. A desk, a door, a few minutes of privacy.
Then I sat down with her daughter. We colored. We played with her doll. We talked about school. She asked about her hair; she knew it was going to fall out, and about the hats some of the kids were wearing. She said she wanted a yellow one. I promised her a yellow hat would be waiting for her on her next visit.
When her mother came back, she broke down and sobbed; overwhelmed. Her daughter watched every second of it, and then said, “Mommy. It’s going to be okay.”
The yellow hat was waiting for her at her next visit.
None of that appears in a clinical outcomes report. It is also, precisely, what this strategic plan is about.
What is The C4K Way, Every Day?
The C4K Way, Every Day is the 2026–2029 strategic plan for Cure 4 The Kids Foundation, Nevada’s only dedicated outpatient treatment center for children with cancer and rare diseases. It is a rolling three-year plan, reviewed and refreshed annually, organized around six enduring commitments and four strategic priorities. The title is the point and the promise: how care is delivered is part of care itself.
The idea for this organization started on a napkin at Applebee’s over lunch. The business plan got written later, at my kitchen table. There was no parent organization, no committee of wealthy backers, no infrastructure to lean on. Just a conviction that Nevada’s children deserved better than the options in front of them.
Nineteen years later, Cure 4 The Kids Foundation is the only freestanding outpatient pediatric cancer and rare disease center in the United States with Children’s Oncology Group membership. We hold Joint Commission accreditation and operate a CAP-accredited laboratory. We care for thousands of patients every year.
How Is Outpatient Pediatric Cancer Care Different From Hospital-Based Treatment?
Our vision is that we will be a center of excellence that sets a national standard for healthcare hospitality. That is a large claim, and I want to be direct about where the standing to make it comes from.
Most pediatric cancer care in America is delivered inside a hospital. C4K is built differently. Children come to us for treatment and then go home: to their families, their own beds, the routines that matter enormously during the hardest months of their lives. When a child does need inpatient care, surgery, or a transplant, we work closely with our hospital partners so that transition feels like one continuous system rather than a handoff.
But the center of gravity is here, in a setting designed around childhood rather than around a ward. That environment is the thing we have built, and we are the only freestanding center of our kind in the country holding academic-medical-center clinical standards inside it. What excellence looks like in that setting is ours to define, and defining it is work we intend to do.
Why Did Cure 4 The Kids Foundation Move to a Rolling 3-Year Plan?
Our last plan, Here We Grow Again, carried us from 2020 to 2025: new specialties, expanded facilities, a metabolic gene therapy program, all of it through a global pandemic. Any one of those developments could have made a rigid five-year plan obsolete.
So, we changed the framework. The C4K Way, Every Day is a rolling three-year plan, to be reviewed and refreshed annually. Each year, our Mission Leadership Team will ask one question: is this still the most important work ahead of us? If the landscape has shifted, we adjust. If an initiative is finished, we replace it with the next important opportunity.
That instinct isn’t new. Continuous quality improvement is how we have grown C4K from day one. We have always believed that what we do today has to be better than what we did yesterday, and what we do tomorrow has to be better than today. This plan builds that discipline into how we plan, not just how we practice.
We are six months into the first year. The real test isn’t how a plan reads at launch. It’s whether we sit down twelve months from now and tell the truth about what’s working.
What Are C4K’s 4 Strategic Priorities for 2026 to 2029?
Six enduring commitments describe the work we return to year after year: philanthropy, expansion, experience, clinical innovation, research, and policy. Four strategic priorities describe where that work is concentrated right now. In practice, it comes down to this:
- Going deeper in the programs we already have, rather than adding new ones. In rheumatology, among the most underserved pediatric specialties in the country, that means shorter wait times and stronger referral pathways, with the aim of making C4K the regional destination for children with autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. In oncology, it means strengthening long-term follow-up for childhood cancer survivors and expanding our research portfolio, so more patients reach the newest protocols. In metabolic genetics, it means continuity for patients who require lifelong management, while we examine where gene therapy expands what is possible.
- Building the people who deliver the standard. Pediatric subspecialists are scarce nationally, and Nevada feels that shortage more acutely than most states. We are exploring a fellowship program with Roseman University of Health Sciences that would let us train subspecialists inside our own institution rather than compete for the few who exist.
- Maturing our rare disease registry into a long-term asset for Nevada and the surrounding region, and growing our capacity to originate research rather than only participate in it.
- Strengthening the relationships that care depends on: academic and hospital partners, the referring providers who trust us with their most complex patients, and the payers who fund the care we provide.
Going deeper before going wider is a deliberate choice. When our core programs are operating at their best, staffed by the right people, supported by the right systems, reaching the patients who need them most, we will be in a far stronger position to expand again.
Where Do Donations to Cure 4 The Kids Foundation Go?
Over 92% of our revenue comes from clinical services. The day-to-day work of running this center is covered by the care we deliver, which means philanthropic dollars do not pay for overhead. They go somewhere much more specific: charity care for families who cannot afford treatment, research that brings the newest protocols to Nevada’s children, and access for children who would otherwise never reach us at all.
When you give to Cure 4 The Kids Foundation, you are not keeping the lights on. You are reaching the child who would not otherwise be here.
That has always been the arrangement, and this plan does not change it. What the plan changes is our clarity about where your support goes over the next three years, and our commitment to tell you honestly, every single year, whether it is working.
What Hasn’t Changed
There’s a conviction that hasn’t changed: We focus on the difference between what is and what should be.
That is what made Cure 4 The Kids Foundation possible in 2007, and it is what drives this plan today. The specifics have changed enormously since that napkin. The conviction hasn’t moved an inch.
The C4K Way. Every day.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cure 4 The Kids Foundation?
Cure 4 The Kids Foundation is Nevada’s only dedicated outpatient treatment center for children with cancer and rare diseases, located in Las Vegas. Founded in 2007, C4K is a freestanding outpatient center with Children’s Oncology Group membership, Joint Commission accreditation, and a CAP-accredited laboratory.
Is Cure 4 The Kids Foundation a hospital?
No. C4K is a freestanding outpatient center. Children receive treatment at the center and return home the same day. When a patient requires inpatient care, surgery, or a transplant, C4K coordinates closely with hospital partners so the transition functions as one continuous system of care.
What does "healthcare hospitality" mean?
Healthcare hospitality refers to treating the experience of receiving care as part of the clinical care itself, including the physical environment, the way families are supported, and the small acts that make a difficult treatment course more bearable for a child.
How long is the C4K strategic plan?
The C4K Way, Every Day is a rolling three-year plan covering 2026 through 2029. It is reviewed and refreshed annually rather than remaining fixed for the full term.
Does Cure 4 The Kids Foundation use donations for overhead?
No. Clinical service revenue covers the operating costs of the center. Philanthropic support funds charity care, research, and access for children who would not otherwise be able to receive treatment.
Who founded Cure 4 The Kids Foundation?
Annette Logan-Parker founded Cure 4 The Kids Foundation in 2007 and serves as Chief Advocacy & Innovation Officer.
About the Author: Annette Logan-Parker brings over 30 years of experience in pediatric oncology to her role as Founder and Chief Advocacy & Innovation Officer at Cure 4 The Kids Foundation. She has dedicated her career to improving outcomes for children with cancer and ensuring equitable access to cutting-edge treatments for all families.