Foundation Support
Funders who invest in Cincinnati Children's are investing in improving the lives of children. We deeply appreciate the local, regional and national foundations who help us bring hope and healing to children and families.
Charles H. Dater Foundation
Fifty years ago, a child diagnosed with cancer would almost invariably die from the disease. Today, the overall survival rate for childhood cancer is close to 80 percent. Research has made this tremendous achievement possible.
At Cincinnati Children's, research is a core part of our mission. We know that it takes innovative minds and new ideas to continue to uncover the mysteries that currently elude us – and to bring hope to those 20 percent of children whose cancers do not respond to existing treatment. In order for these new ideas to be realized in actual research studies, someone has to believe in their possibilities enough to provide funding to get them off the ground.
In 2001, scientists in the Molecular and Gene Therapy Program at Cincinnati Children's wanted to develop and implement several human gene therapy trials to seek cures for cancer, brain tumors and blood diseases such as Fanconi anemia and sickle cell disease. They believed these groundbreaking studies had the potential to change the outcome for children with these diseases and give them and their families hope for a cure and a healthy future. But they needed $250,000 to get started. They needed someone who believed in their vision and was willing to fund the work.
That someone was the Charles H. Dater Foundation, a private organization that supports programs to benefit children. Dater generously donated $250,000 and, because of this funding, researchers at Cincinnati Children's have used genetic approaches to make great progress in combating serious diseases of the blood and cancer. They have completed a clinical gene therapy study for children with Fanconi anemia and another gene therapy study for children and adults with high-risk brain tumors.
"The support of the Dater Foundation was crucial to the project's success," said Franklin O. Smith III, MD, director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Cincinnati Children's. "It not only got the project started, it demonstrated community support and, ultimately, attracted much-needed government research funding, including from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health."
The Foundation committed an additional $50,000 in 2007, and recently made a new five-year, $250,000 commitment to continue its support through 2012.
"Ongoing support from the Dater Foundation will help us continue our work to further innovative therapies for children with cancer and diseases of the blood," Smith said.
The Dater Foundation, in its ongoing demonstration of support, has the unending gratitude of not only those involved in the project's research at Cincinnati Children's, but the countless children and their families who will benefit from the outcome of these studies in years to come.
Contact Us
For more information on supporting the efforts at Cincinnati Children's to save lives through breakthrough research and clinical care, please contact:
Adrienne W. Drobny
Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 9002
Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3039
Telephone: 513-636-8760
Fax: 513-636-7173
Email: adrienne.drobny@cchmc.org
