It can fund research on devastating diseases — and equipment to help treat those who already are suffering from them.
It can help train a new generation of physicians — and allow systems to recruit already-established experts.
It can build new wings for the future — and create peaceful sanctuaries for those whose final days may be near.
Philanthropy always has played an important role in health care. Today, during a time when federal research dollars are being shorted and charitable giving by the masses is waning, large-scale gifts by individuals and foundations are more important than ever.
Remember this: Philanthropy can save lives.
The pages of the first BINJE’s BEST: Health Care list, a look at the most impactful and influential members of the health care community in the state, are filled with organizations that have been blessed by large-scale donations.
You can start with our co-No. 1 choices.
RWJBarnabas Health and its CEO, Mark Manigan, reached the top spot thanks in part to the opening of the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center in New Brunswick.
The facility is just the 13th such freestanding cancer center in the country, one that was spurred by an incredibly generous (and undisclosed) donation by Jack and Sheryl Morris. Jack Morris joins joins Manigan and the center’s director, Dr. Steve Libutti, in the top spot.
RWJBH, of course, has benefited from other transformative acts, including a gift from Anthony and Andrea Melchiorre that is funding the Melchiorre Cancer Center at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center — a hospital that is benefiting from a recent transformative $100 million gift from Leon and Toby Cooperman.
There’s also the generous gift from Anne and Sheldon Vogel, which helped create the Vogel Medical Campus at Monmouth Medical Center.
Hackensack Meridian Health, our other co-No. 1, was grateful to receive a gift from the Mike & Patti Hennessy Foundation to create the Hennessy Institute for Cancer Prevention and Applied Molecular Medicine, a transformative effort that aims to find ways to test and detect cancerous activity at its earliest stages.
HMH, of course, has long benefited from the generosity of the Theurer family. Its cancer center at Hackensack University Medical Center is named in honor of John Theurer; its recent large-scale addition there is named in recognition of a gift from Helena Theurer.
Meanwhile, Cooper University Health Care was able to start a nursing training program thanks to a gift from Ann and Mark Baiada — and add to its new Moorestown campus thanks to a donation that helped create the Dan & Lisa Falasca Welcome Center.
“It starts with good business and good policy, but philanthropy can really bolster those efforts, especially at nonprofit mission-driven institutions.”
— Jeffrey Brown, Acting New Jersey Health Commissioner
Then there’s Atlantic Health System, which was able to fund the MEVION S250-FIT Proton Therapy System at the Carol G. Simon Cancer Center thanks to generous contributions from the Gagnon Family Foundation, the Margaret A. Darrin Charitable Trust, the Ferreira family, Carl Goldberg, Robert and Catherine Tafaro, the Hampshire Foundation and the Douglas M. Noble Family Foundation.
The Noble Family Foundation was just getting started at Atlantic Health. In July, it donated $75 million to Holy Name Medical Center — a transformative moment if there ever was one.
And a necessary one.
Acting New Jersey Health Commissioner Jeffrey Brown said philanthropy often is the final piece of the puzzle.
“It starts with good business and good policy, but philanthropy can really bolster those efforts, especially at nonprofit, mission-driven institutions,” he told BINJE. “When you have all of that aligned, it can be a game-changer for health care — and drive improvements in all of health care.”
The challenge, of course, is to keep all this going.
Not surprisingly, philanthropists are leading that charge, too.
Morris, who does so much anonymously, said he stepped to the forefront with this gift for one reason: To inspire others who have been fortunate to do the same.
“If everyone sees the impact one family can make, it may spur other families to do the same thing,” he said.
So many people sure hope so.
