Health

The Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania announces the launching of a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary center focused on discovering novel treatments for orphan diseases. The Center will bring together all necessary approaches to attacking and treating orphan diseases: establishing dedicated research support facilities, translating findings into therapies, fostering targeted grant awards, and educating physicians and researchers.

Formation of the new Penn Center for Orphan Disease Research and Therapy was catalyzed by a $10 million gift from an anonymous donor.

San Diego developer and philanthropist Conrad Prebys has given Scripps Health $45 million for its new cardiovascular institute in La Jolla, Calif., making the donation the largest in Scripps’ history and the biggest Prebys has given any organization.

Scripps officials plan to announce that the $456 million center being built at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla will be named the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute.

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness and funds for childhood cancer research, announced more than $19.6 million in new grants to fund promising and innovative childhood cancer research. The grants bring the total to more than $21 million awarded by St. Baldrick's for the fiscal year. Every dollar raised came from the creativity and dedication of St. Baldrick’s volunteers and the generosity of donors, working together to help fund the best possible research.

U.S. nonprofit healthcare organizations reported an average return on investible assets of 10.9 percent for fiscal year 2010, a decline from the average return of 18.8 percent registered in FY2009 but a significant improvement over the average of -21.2 percent recorded in 2008, the Commonfund Institute reports.

According to the 2011 Commonfund Benchmarks Study of Healthcare Organizations, the average returns on "investible assets" (i.e., endowment/foundation funds, funded depreciation, working capital, and other separately treated assets) for 2009 and 2010 represent the best back-to-back annual performance in the nine years of the study.

The New York City-based Elton John AIDS Foundation has announced a comprehensive $1.3 million grant to AIDS United, the organization formed from the recent merger of the National AIDS Fund and AIDS Action.

The grant will support four specific program areas, including the Community Partnership Network, which was awarded $950,000 to share with 39 local programs across the country.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research seems to have it all wrong, going against conventional fundraising wisdom at seemingly every turn. Yet the $57 million MJFF raised last year ($50 million of which went toward its mission) tells a different story. The foundation, which has funded more than $240 million in research since its founding 10 years ago, is light on its feet and built for speed.

The Li Ka Shing Foundation (LKSF), a Hong Kong-based philanthropy devoted to advancing education and health care, has awarded $1.5 million to Yale University to expand two research core facilities, the human embryonic stem cell core and the genomics core, of the Yale Stem Cell Center (YSCC). The funding provides the Center's scientists with new capacity and resources for advancing research on stem cell biology at Yale.

The campaign to equip the new Oakville Hospital has received a further boost thanks to a $6 million gift from Oakville, Ontario, philanthropists June and Ian Cockwell.

The couple, with their family foundation Amarna, is donating $4 million to the campaign and has pledged an additional $2 million as part of a multi-strategy community challenge. The purpose of the challenge gift is to encourage as many people as possible to support the new Oakville Hospital.

As fundraising requests go, it started out small: Would Sidney and Lois Eskenazi consider donating $250,000 in return for their names on a hospital room?

Officials at the Wishard Foundation, the fundraising arm of Wishard Health Services, hoped the Eskenazis would consider a six-figure gift to help with a $50 million philanthropic drive to help build the new hospital.

Initially, Sidney Eskenazi resisted, but the Wishard Foundation pressed on. After a meeting and then discussions, both sides agreed to a $40 million gift by the Eskenazis in exchange for the naming rights to the hospital and foundation.

The increasing pressure on America’s nonprofit community clinics and health centers was documented in a report, "State of the Safety Net," released by Direct Relief International summarizing the most extensive data assembled on safety net providers who care for the country’s most vulnerable people.

Nonprofit health clinics are struggling to meet overwhelming demand from new patients who have lost jobs and health insurance.

The report summarizes national information about the activities at America’s nonprofit community-based clinics and health centers from 2006 to 2009.