Giving to
Children’s Inside this issue: Endowment funding: Why it works Chairholders grow knowledge Sheth family funds genetic disease research
FALL 2014
A celebration of gifts to Children’s Hospital Colorado
Endowments change lives
VOL. 7, ISSUE 2
Endowments are gifts for Children’s Colorado that provide a steady stream of permanent support that enable the hospital to intensify our commitment to finding new preventions, therapies and cures for children. Children’s Colorado’s endowments are carefully managed to enable visionary caregivers and leaders who run hospital programs to transform children’s health in our region and around the world. Those in our community who have generously invested in endowments for Children’s Colorado are fueling transformation in diverse ways. Selby’s Chair in Pediatric Cardiology was named for a beloved child who lost her battle with heart disease. The Frankenburg-Camp Endowed Fund and William K. (Continued on page 3)
childrenscoloradofoundation.org
Endowment funding:
Why it works for Children’s Colorado Endowment funding keeps us competitive • Yes, we see and treat more children than any other hospital in Colorado – but we don’t take this for granted. • Endowments help us serve the community in new, better ways. Endowments provide sustainable funding for breakthroughs • Shrinking government research funding make endowments imperative to help sustain research that can improve and save children’s lives. Endowments enable responsible resource stewardship • Dependable income from endowments helps hospital leaders ensure that critical programs have the resources they need. Endowments are a source of creative flexibility • Flexible funding from endowments gives creative caregivers the ability to experiment, change and grow programs that improve care and treatment options for kids. Endowments help attract and retain talented caregivers • Caregivers who know that endowment funding is available realize that Children’s Colorado is committed to solving children’s healthcare challenges. • Endowed chairs and endowed funds provide attractive financial backing to new and current leaders alike. 2013 Gifts
$11,602,320 Endowed funds $772,158 Total to endowments $12,374,478 Endowed chairs
2 Giving To Children’s
Giving to transform care Dear friends, Lives are transformed every day at Children’s Hospital Colorado. In this issue of Giving to Children’s, we show how philanthropic investors who create endowments partner with Children’s Colorado to accomplish these transformations. We are grateful for every gift given to Children’s Colorado and none are more important than gifts to endowments. By helping Children’s Colorado provide the best care today and create breakthroughs for tomorrow, endowed funds provide perpetual support for the courageous children we are serving today as well as for generations to come. A robust endowment bolsters Children’s Colorado's financial strength and enables us to move forward into the next century of medical breakthroughs. Endowments also serve as a recruitment and retention tool, helping us bring the best, visionary physicians and caregivers to our campuses to serve children and families throughout the region. We value the significant partnership and commitment our donors make with us when they establish endowments, and we know they want these endowments to grow. Stewarding these gifts is a critical component of our community-led Investment Committee, chaired by Fred Taylor. Endowments held at Children’s Colorado have earned an average of 11.9 percent over the last five years. Thus, they are not only providing support for today, but growth for the financial stability and strength of tomorrow. As a result of these investments in endowments, children’s care is improved, breakthroughs in research and treatment are discovered, and we are able to look confidently toward a future that offers all children the chance for a healthier life.
Steve Winesett President and CEO Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation
Endowments change lives
(Continued from page 1)
Frankenburg Research Professorship were established to further the work of Dr. William K. Frankenburg in early identification and prevention of developmental problems in children at risk of becoming environmental casualties. The Morgridge Family Fund for Educating Medically Fragile Children was created to coordinate and standardize care in school settings for children with great medical needs and technology dependency. Increasingly, gifts from a broad base of passionate donors, along with thoughtful long-term management of these community investments, drive our pursuit of research to find new ways of caring for kids. As varied as the motivations are that lead donors to establish endowed funds or endowed chairs, they are unified by foresight and generosity. The enduring support endowments offer is essential to changing the future of health care for children and families.
Types of endowments
Children’s Colorado donors can choose to establish endowments for a variety of purposes, to fund positions, programs or efforts at the hospital. Endowed chairs give physician-scientists the breathing room to investigate, innovate and pursue cures without disruption.
Endowed funds fuel educational opportunities, support clinical programs and caregivers who are offering beneficial support for patients, and leave a permanent legacy of compassion for children. Endowed directorships ensure that hospital programs are the strongest that they can be, endowed professorships ensure that professor positions have the funds they need to educate the next generation, and endowed fellowships enhance the hospital’s ability to compete for the most promising young medical talent, ensuring that the community at large has a ready pool of accomplished physican-scientists to meet society’s increasingly complex health care needs.
As our hospital looks forward to the next decade, we seek to grow our capable, dedicated, collaborative corps of leading caregivers and physician-scientists, all of whom are focused on what’s possible in pediatrics. Growing our endowment is one tangible way we can lead the way toward healthier futures for all children.
How endowments work Endowments benefiting Children’s Hospital Colorado are invested in a diversified pool. This pool is managed by a committee of board members from both the hospital and the Foundation who bring extensive investment experience to their role. These dedicated individuals volunteer their time to ensure that donors’ contributions are stewarded in a manner that will result in the most funds available for important hospital programs, while also remaining balanced over a long period of time. An overall advisor and dozens of investment managers are retained to help achieve this goal.
At Children’s Colorado, investment results have been impressive. Looking back over the last 10 years, our investments returned 9.1 percent compared to a 7.8 percent increase for the S&P 500.
Fall 2014 3
knowledge Growing
at the hospital and beyond
Neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Handler sees potential in unanswered questions. In a probing, cerebral manner appropriate for someone who studies the brain, he talks about what neuroscientists don’t yet know: Where do brain tumors come from? What causes the failure of the nervous system and spina bifida? Why do some people get epilepsy after a traumatic brain injury, while others do not? Dr. Handler believes that if Children’s Colorado can continue to expand our research capabilities, we will join the top players in pediatric neurosciences and unlock more mysteries of the brain. One of Dr. Handler’s many priorities, The McMurry Seebaum Chair in Pediatric Neurosurgery, is developing a strong research program to answer these questions. By offering research support to faculty investigators, faculty can serve patients now by using what they do know, and serve patients in the future by finding answers to what they do not.
the direct effect of increasing the number of applications for our pediatric neurosurgical fellowship. Exposure to new ideas from specialists around the world makes a difference for patients, too. “The chair allows us to seek out new knowledge that enhances the care we provide at Children’s Colorado,” Dr. Handler said. “I learned about a new procedure for treating epilepsy from the American Epilepsy Society meeting that is much less intrusive. We are now using that procedure.” Expanding research activities
Chair funding supports a full-time research assistant in the neurooncology lab who works closely with another chairholder. Dr. Handler was also able to use chair funds to supplement the hire of two full-time clinical research associates.
Dr. Handler and his team believe will pay off, academically and clinically. Having a foundation in clinical research will further distinguish a neurosurgery program that stands out for its innovation and collaboration across all the neurosciences subspecialties. Think, delve and discover
Philanthropic gifts like The McMurry Seebaum Chair are crucial to give neurosurgeons the time to step back, think and develop research projects. Traditional funding sources for research, like grants, are harder to come by, and the clinical work of neurosurgeons keeps them busy. Time afforded by funds like this chair provide an invaluable gift to Dr. Handler and his colleagues as they work to find out what they don’t yet know.
International reach, local impact
The McMurry Seebaum Chair is helping Dr. Handler grow knowledge inside our hospital and beyond. The gift enables Dr. Handler to attend international conferences, which raises Children’s Colorado’s profile and has had
One of the four neurosurgeons on staff was able to participate in a clinical studies program at the University of Colorado to formally learn how to do clinical research. Chair funds helped cover part of his time out of clinic, an investment
To read more stories about the inspiring work our endowed chairholders are undertaking, please visit: childrenscolorado foundation.org/ EndowedChairsBook
4 Giving To Children’s
Dr. Michael Handler, Chairholder The McMurry Seebaum Chair in Pediatric Neurosurgery
Fall 2014 5
Anicee is an 11-year-old artist and Children’s Colorado patient in treatment for osteogenesis imperfecta. She was adopted from Belize in 2010 by parents with the same disease. Painting gives Anicee joy and hope on her journey to better health.
6 Giving To Children’s
Meet Anicee Lisa and Chris always wanted to adopt a child that shared the same bone disease they have, osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease). They wanted to share their experience and provide the best life possible for their child. They initially fell in love with Anicee through photos, descriptions and talking to her on the phone. The family took a trip to Belize on Mother’s Day of 2010 to meet then 6-year-old Anicee at the children’s home where she lived. “We instantly fell in love with her,” said Lisa. “She was beautiful.” The first time they saw her she was outside, wearing a white dress, with her bags packed, ready to stay with them for the week. The family stayed in Belize and got to know each other before Anicee had to return to the children’s home. They planned to be there about seven days, but as soon as the week was coming to an end, Lisa couldn’t leave Anicee. They booked their hotel room for the next 63 days until Anicee’s adoption was finalized. Lisa, Chris and Anicee flew home in July of 2010 as a family, right around Anicee’s birthday. “It felt touching to me and it felt like I had a new home,” said Anicee. Lisa and Chris knew that Anicee was going to require a lot of medical procedures. The bottom of her legs and her arms were bowed. Doctors in Belize put a cast on broken bones and provided medication, but intricate surgeries were not possible.
Confined to a wheelchair, Anicee is now a determined, articulate, courageous 11-year-old who has had rods placed in her femurs and lower legs to make them straight and strong. She recently underwent a spinal fusion so that she can move and use her limbs more easily. Doctors placed three rods and 20 screws in Anicee’s back during the nine-hour surgery. In the future, Anicee will need to have both of her arms straightened and additional rods will be put into place. Since her parents have gone through the same procedures, they are able to understand Anicee’s struggles and provide great support and empathy. No matter how much pain she has experienced in the hospital, Anicee has a positive outlook on Children’s Colorado. She still looks forward to her hospital visits. “The doctors at Children’s Colorado and everyone takes care of my daughter, and that’s the most important thing in our lives,” said Lisa. “We’re so thankful that they’re here.”
Support
Children’s Colorado For more information about giving to Children's Colorado please visit our website: childrenscolorado foundation.org
Fall 2014 7
Dr. Erickson and team
invest in orthopedic research The Department of Orthopedics at Children’s Colorado has been providing top clinical care and education by phenomenal surgeons for decades. By enlisting staff support to create a Pediatric Orthopedic Research Endowed Fund, the department is able to produce more world-class research than ever before.
The assistantship program the endowed fund sustains began with philanthropic support from the Rose Brown Chair in Pediatric Orthopedics, held by department lead Dr. Mark Erickson. Research assistants have provided a huge benefit to the department: the department overall has increased its number of published scholarly projects from about four in a given year to over 60, proving to everyone that the program was worthy of sustainable support. Thus, the Pediatric Orthopedic Research Endowed Fund was created. “We achieved 100 percent consensus on establishing the endowed fund within our department,” said Dr. Erickson. “Plus, the fund is helping us recruit new ‘phenom’ surgeons who are attracted to the research support we can provide.” The program is benefiting every area of the department. Each multi-specialty program within Orthopedics–including spine, tumor, hip, cerebral palsy and others–is conducting its own research projects. In the Gait Lab, researchers are studying everything from chest-wall deformities to sports injuries, and Dr. Nancy Miller studies the genetics of scoliosis. “The endowed fund has been great for orthopedics, and we could not have given the assistantship program its start without philanthropic support,” said Dr. Erickson.
8 Giving To Children’s
Sheth family
funds genetic disease research During a time when research funding is increasingly competitive, private philanthropy has the power to attract, maintain and energize the best research talent in pediatric medicine for Children’s Colorado. researchers who are working to create breakthroughs in children’s health, so that other children will not be impacted in the way their own family has been. “We firmly believe that the type of research conducted by Dr. Lee Niswander and her team, and other developmental biologists, will create the cures for so many genetic disorders,” said Arun. “In fact, we feel the next decade will be revolutionary rather than evolutionary. We are so excited to play a role in this scientific discovery.”
2013 $4,808,223 2003 $1,041,565
ENDOWMENT DISTRIBUTIONS TO CHILDREN’S COLORADO
Arun Sheth and his wife Ravindra established the Ravindra and Arun Sheth Endowed Fund in Developmental Origins of Health and Disease in 2013.
Their son received life-saving care at Children’s Colorado 38 years ago, and they have supported the hospital annually ever since.
Both their son and their grandson were born with the same genetic disorder, Hirschsprung Disease.
Their grandson, thankfully, is doing well on the West coast, and they hope that their endowment will help the
Our funds rank in the top 3% of similar investments.
2013 $4,808,223 2003 $1,041,565
ENDOWMENT DISTRIBUTIONS TO CHILDREN’S COLORADO
13
ENDOWED CHAIRS in 2003
36
ENDOWED FUNDS in 2003
Developmental Origins of Health and Disease includes several programs: pediatric stem cell biology, developmental biology, and birth defects and disease. “We are all striving to learn the same thing: to understand how pluripotent stem cells adopt particular functions and how we can drive them to do what we want,” said Dr. Lee Niswander, PhD, who leads Developmental Origins of Health and Disease.
35
ENDOWED CHAIRS in 2013
94
ENDOWED FUNDS in 2013
10-YEAR ENDOWMENT INVESTMENT GROWTH
Fall 2014 9
In 2014, the hospital is gratefully celebrating newly created endowed chairs and the promising work of their holders, all leaders in their pediatric specialty area. Robert J. and Kathleen A. Clark Endowed Chair for Pediatric Cancer Therapeutics
Dr. Lia Gore, Chairholder Celebrated on February 25, 2014 Taplin Endowed Chair for Celiac Disease
Dr. Ed Liu, Chairholder Celebrated on May 19, 2014 Haberfeld Family Chair in Pediatric Neuromuscular Disorders
Dr. Julie Parsons, Chairholder Celebrated on August 18, 2014 The Ponzio Family Endowed Chair in Neurology Research
Dr. Tim Benke, Chairholder Celebrated on September 23, 2014 The Cille B. and Ronald W. Williams Endowed Chair in Executive Leadership
Dr. Jim Shmerling, Chairholder Celebrated on October 8, 2014 The Sandy Wolf Chair in Maternal Fetal Surgery
Dr. Kenneth Liechty, Chairholder Celebration date to be announced
10 Giving To Children’s
Endowed chair investitures: Celebrating a hopeful future
Endowed chair investitures celebrate the transformational generosity of donors and the inspirational potential of the work their holders are conducting at Children’s Hospital Colorado. For the Haberfeld family, the endowed chair for neurological disorders that bears their name is one of several transformational gifts motivated by a two-fold hope: that their philanthropy will help create breakthroughs in Neurology research and care, and that advances in care will help their grandson, Rain. Rain has been treated in the Neuroscience Institute at the hospital for Duchenne muscular dystrophy since he was young. Earlier this year, an advocacy organization working to end the serious genetic condition, which affects one in 3,500 male births each year, named the hospital a certified Duchenne Care Center.
The holder of the Haberfeld Family Chair in Pediatric Neuromuscular Disorders, Dr. Julie Parsons, will use chair funds to continue building an already prominent care center, conduct pioneering research, and make contributions to the field that may one day help patients like Rain. “This endowed chair gives me the opportunity to expand our role in the research community, to continue to be on the cutting edge of providing individualized clinical care, and to enhance educational outreach to patients and families, medical providers and the greater community,” said Dr. Parsons.
Summer events recap
More than
$3 million for kids
from our top two summer events!
Children’s Classic at Sanctuary
Three days, three mountain passes,
This summer’s Children’s Classic
hundreds of miles pedaled, and
at Sanctuary made every birdie,
$2.9 million raised for the kids of
par and slice into the woods count.
Children’s Colorado. We rattle our
Dedicated golfers raised more than
cowbells for 2,000 fearless riders,
$200,000 for research at Children’s
more than 300 exceptional volun-
Colorado while trekking 24 acres of
teers, and all of the generous spon-
fairways. Thank you to everyone,
sors and donors who helped make
including 6-year-old cancer survivor
this year unforgettable. Thank you!
Conner, who came on the course.
Fall 2014 11
Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation Anschutz Medical Campus • 13123 E. 16th Ave., Box 045 • Aurora, CO 80045 • childrenscoloradofoundation.org
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Giving to Children’s is published three times yearly by Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation Editors: Laura Esterly, Tina Garbin Contributors: Kelly Sterner, Ashley McGregor Designed by: Catrine Watt Printed on recycled paper © Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation
2013
PHILANTHR OPY REPORT
1
View the Annual Report online:
bit.ly/2013PhilanthropyReport
do Colora spital ren’s Ho at Child
View for the Endowed Chairs Book online:
childrenscoloradofoundation.org/EndowedChairsBook
Thank you for your support!
Members of Children's Circle of Care
You are invited to a
Children’s Circle of Care Fall reception Tuesday, October 28, 2014 contact Amy Stewart for more information 720-777-1760 or astewart@childrenscoloradofoundation.org