NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Deerfield Foundation (“Deerfield”), the philanthropic affiliate of Deerfield Management Company, a healthcare investment firm, today announced the awarding of $1.497 million to support 13 grantee not-for-profit organizations in seven countries in their 2024 healthcare initiatives to benefit children and their families from underserved communities.

“For more than 15 years, the Deerfield Foundation has made annual grants to help fuel the activities and initiatives of organizations that share our mission to improve health, innovation and equity, with a focus on children and where they live,” said Mark Veich, Vice President, Philanthropy and Executive Director of The Deerfield Foundation. “Our strategic giving helps outstanding organizations develop therapies, deliver treatments or improve public health services to make a positive impact to individual children as well as whole communities.”

Since its inception as a private not-for-profit in 2007, the Deerfield Foundation has awarded more than $45 million to more than 100 organizations to deliver on Deerfield Management’s mission of advancing healthcare through philanthropy. The Deerfield Foundation’s funding reflects contributions from employees of Deerfield Management Company as well as its profits.

This year’s grantees will receive one-year grants in December 2023 to carry out 2024 initiatives focused on pediatric and adolescent health. A program committee of the Deerfield Foundation selected grantees based on the direct and measurable impacts of their proposals. The committee also considered  opportunities where Deerfield employees could  provide their support through meaningful collaborations. The Deerfield Foundation does not accept unsolicited requests for funding, and all potential grantees are invited by Deerfield employees.

Of the 2024 grantees, six are based in the United States and together received almost $560,000. An additional seven global organizations received nearly $939,000.  The 2024 grantees are:

Achilles International (NYC)
A-Z Children Ltd (Nurture Africa) (Uganda)
Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) (Global)
Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundation (Egypt)
Manjushree Vidyapith Inclusion School (India)
Many Hopes (Malawi)
May We Help (Cincinnati, OH)
Project Healthy Minds (NYC)
Red Door Community (NYC)
The Family Center (NYC)
The Matthew Larson Foundation for Pediatric Brain Tumors (Iron Matt) (Franklin Lakes, NJ)
The Pradiya Foundation (Nepal)
The Water Trust (Uganda)

In addition to annual grants, the Deerfield Foundation, together with Deerfield Management, launched in 2022 the Advancium Health Network, a public charity dedicated to eliminating barriers for the advancement of healthcare and to becoming a leading organization in the advancement of health technology and innovation in areas of compelling need. Deerfield Foundation also created, in June 2023, the American Society of Hematology Peter Steelman Scholar Award in honor of former, longtime Deerfield Partner, Peter Steelman. The award supports research focused on acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

About The Deerfield Foundation
An affiliate of Deerfield Management, the Deerfield Foundation is a New York City-based not-for-profit organization whose mission is to strive to improve health, accelerate innovation and promote human equity. Since its inception in 2007, the Foundation has formed numerous partnerships and invested in the advancement of children’s health, from clinics in the South Bronx to Nepal. Funds are provided through employee contributions and directly from Deerfield’s profits.

Deerfield contact:
Elise Wang
[email protected]
Phone: (212) 583-7267

The Pradiya Foundation is a non-profit organization with the mission of empowering the people of India and Nepal to improve living conditions for people suffering from illness, poverty, discrimination and a lack of human rights.

The organization seeks to provide people with tools to improve their lives in a sustainable way. Pradiya’s mission is inspired by the lived realities in India and Nepal– where education, employment opportunities, and healthcare are currently lacking significantly. The Pradiya Foundation vows to support people on their journey to create the changes they want to see in their own communities and within their own lives.

The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is a not-for-profit medical research organization that discovers, develops, and delivers safe, effective, and affordable treatments for neglected people. DNDi is developing medicines for sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, river blindness, mycetoma, dengue, pediatric HIV, advanced HIV disease, cryptococcal meningitis, and hepatitis C. Its research priorities include children’s health, gender equity and gender-responsive R&D, and diseases impacted by climate change. Since its creation in 2003, DNDi has joined with industry, academia, government, and philanthropic partners across the globe to deliver 12 new treatments, saving millions of lives.

Project Healthy Minds is a Millennial & Gen Z-driven mental health tech non-profit startup. Project Healthy Minds is democratizing access to mental health services by building the world’s first digital mental health marketplace, destigmatizing mental health by partnering with culture-makers, and improving access and affordability by advocating for innovative workplace investments in employee mental health.

Since 2007, The Matthew Larson Foundation has financially supported families living with pediatric brain tumors and funded research in the hopes of finding a cure. 

Red Door Community is New York City’s preeminent nonprofit cancer support organization helping everyone and anyone impacted by cancer. A welcoming place that provides a full complement of FREE cancer support, emotional and educational programs, and healthy lifestyle workshops online and in‐person. We are committed to expanding our program and broadening our reach to meet the growing needs of individuals living with cancer, in more ways, and in more places than ever before. Because only Red Door Community is committed to providing unwavering support at every stage of the cancer experience, so no one faces cancer alone. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

Nurture Africa’s mission is empowering vulnerable children, adolescents and families to be positive influences on society. Nurture Africa aims to achieve this through health, education and sustainable livelihoods projects.

Sometimes, a device is all that stands in the way of an individual with a disability achieving independence or pursuing their passion. When that device is not available in the marketplace, that’s when May We Help’s volunteers step in. They are a team of engineers, industrial designers, inventors, welders, woodworkers, seamstresses, doctors, occupational and physical therapists whose skill sets come together to design, build and deliver custom devices at no cost to hundreds of recipients every year.

Achilles International is a global organization providing opportunities and support for people with disabilities interested in participating in mainstream athletics. Through a portfolio of programs, Achilles encourages personal achievement, enhances self-esteem and breaks down barriers to living a fulfilling and healthy life. Achilles promotes inclusion and community by bringing together athletes with disabilities and their able-bodied peers.

Published Jan. 4, 2023

By Kelly Bilodeau

Early-stage drug development typically comes with a heaping side of financial risk. As a result, promising academic research discoveries can languish in the uncertain R&D stages because there is no commercial funding to prove their market potential. Increasingly, nonprofits are stepping in to fill this gap, backing new ideas and bringing them to a point where pharma companies are willing to invest and carry them past the regulatory finish line.

Read More Here