Highlighted Accomplishments
Jackson Health Foundation
Rolando was the founding Executive Director of Jackson Health Foundation. His first project was the $28 million Ryder Trauma Center Campaign. JMF has grown into one of the country's most respected U.S. public hospital foundations. Rolando guided over $200 million in private philanthropy, $70 million in grants, and over $250 million in international patient revenue.
Holtz Children's Hospital
Rolando championed the development and marketing of Holtz Children’s Hospital. Rolando led and developed the concept for a centralized children's hospital at UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, as well as for the founding of the Guardian Angels, a premier support group dedicated to helping children in need.
International Kids Fund
Rolando founded the International Kids Fund (IKF), now known as the IKF Wonderfund, dedicated to providing care to children from all over the world who need life-saving care. The Wonderfund rapidly grew into an internationally recognized program responsible for the oversight, management and fundraising for children in need of life-saving or life-changing medical care.
https://jacksonhealthfoundation.org/program/ikf-wonderfund/
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami
Rolando led the launch of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Foundation with dynamic new major gift and branding strategies, a prestigious board of directors and other programs seeking to double the amount of private funds raised by the agency. With his help, BBBS concluded a campaign for its new home - the Carnival Center for Excellence.
Breakthrough Collaborative
Based in San Francisco, Breakthrough closes the opportunity gap with a students-teaching-students model, implemented through 24 affiliates throughout the United States. In 2018, helped lead the expansion of Breakthrough's national development office, including hiring staff, launching a new grants program, expanding events, and developing a major national fundraising campaign.
Friendship Circle of Miami
The Friendship Circle has been dedicated to helping children with special needs since 2004. In 2018, Rolando began shaping a full development effort, including the creation of a board of directors, developing a formal grant program, hiring development staff and launching other organized fundraising initiatives. Rolando led a $16 million campaign to develop a 20,000 sq. ft. Community Center which opened in April of 2025.
Coral Gables Community Foundation
Since 1991, the Foundation has been bringing together beneficiaries and benefactors to fund programs with the greatest impact and benefit to “The City Beautiful.” Rolando developed and is guiding a strategic planning a process aimed at growing and focusing the foundation's future work. In 2025, he served as Interim CEO and helped the board with the search for a new permanent CEO, concluded in June of 2025.
PATCHES
PATCHES serves children who require daily healthcare, including support of ventilators, tracheotomies, oxygen therapy, and feeding tubes, or who have other special medical needs. Rolando is developing a new development program, launching a board, and preparing for a multi-million capital expansion of a new PATCHES Village on 4.5 acres in Florida City.
Ronald McDonald House of South Florida
The Ronald McDonald House offers families a place to call home while their child is receiving critical medical treatment in nearby hospitals. In 2021, Rolando developed and guided the start-up of a $30 million campaign for a new 7-story house on the grounds of Jackson Memorial Hospital, with construction beginning in late 2025.
University of Miami’s MRED+U Program
The Master of Real Estate Development + Urbanism (MRED+U) program at the University of Miami is guided by a premier board of leading developers and visionaries from Miami, New York, and beyond. I’m leading a strategic planning process to explore the future of the real estate industry and how MRED can continue to evolve, deepen its impact, and prepare the next generation of real estate professionals.