The foundation at Oregon Health & Science University is within shooting distance of meeting the $500 million challenge grant from Phil and Penny Knight.
President Joe Robertson announced at yesterday’s OHSU board meeting that victory was imminent, with $465 million raised to date.
The night before, his wife, Patricia and he were entertaining a few people for dinner in their home, and one couple brought a wrapped gift resembling a bottle of wine
“My mother always told me to read the card first, which I did,” Robertson said. Inside, there was a pledge for $1 million. “I ended up giving them a vase and in return we got $1 million.”
To date, 9,200 people have made contributions toward this campaign, representing 4,497 first-time donors. Contributions have come from all 50 states, while 41 people giving $1 million.
“We’re marching to success,” Robertson said.
In September 2013, the Knights surprised OHSU by offering the $500 million challenge grant for cancer research. At that time, Robertson called this campaign “a transformational moment” for the university and the war on cancer.”
Earlier, the Knights had donated $100 million to create a cancer research institute at OHSU, headed by Brian Druker, who led the development of the cancer drug Gleevec.
Once the pledge drive is completed, OHSU officials haven’t announced how they plan on spending the $1 billon. But earlier Druker said he envisioned hiring about 20 elite scientists and giving them enough funding to take risks, a strategy he compared to what the Howard Hughes Medical Institute does. “We’re trying to release investigators from our current constraints of grant-writing,” he said.
No donor in the history of U.S. philanthropy has publicly attached such a large challenge grant to such a short matching period.
Meanwhile, OHSU’s Foundation has also raised $187 million from 21,000 donors this year in non-Knight Challenge funding this year.
Diane can be reached at [email protected]. .
