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Dana-Farber Cancer Institute announces record $2.5 billion fundraising initiative

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute announces record .5 billion fundraising initiative

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute raised $2.5 billion over a seven-year campaign, completing one of the largest fundraising initiatives entirely focused on cancer Monday.

“It has been an honor to lead this historic campaign that has allowed Dana-Farber to make great strides in cancer research and patient care,” said Laurie Glimcher, the outgoing president and CEO of Dana-Farber, who stepped down Monday. “I am grateful to the many benefactors whose generosity and dedication have enabled remarkable progress in the ambitious effort to find cures for cancer.”

The Dana-Farber Campaign, which launched in Oct. 2017 and was announced in May 2021, raised funds for the institute’s clinical trials, increases in patient care and diagnoses, and initiatives in areas including prevention and early detection.

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute specializes in cancer care and research, offering over 1,100 clinical trials. The organization stats estimate around one in three women and one in two men will develop cancer in their lifetime.

The seven-year campaign included donations from all 50 US states and 117 countries, the institute said, and over 2.2 million gifts from more than 900,000 donors. The largest single contributor was the Pan-Mass Challenge, an annual bike-a-thon, with $425 million raised through over two million gifts over the seven years.

Michael Eisenson, chair of the Dana-Farber Campaign, said campaign funds “have already helped Dana-Farber make progress for our patients and families.”

The fundraising campaign has helped expand the clinical trial program by more than 22% in the last seven years, the institute noted, and over doubled the size of the Cancer Care Equity Program.

The organization said fundraising assisted creation of three new patient care facilities in Merrimack Valley, Chestnut Hill, and Foxborough over the last five years, bringing the total facilities to seven. The Dana-Farber Centers for Early Detection, a “first-of-its-kind, integrated clinic to increase early detection of precancer conditions and to prevent cancer,” also opened in 2023.