During this reporting period, $36.9 million ($13.4 million in philanthropy and $23.5 million in private grant support) was received through private gifts and grants supporting medical research. These funds include support for chair and professorship positions, enhancing faculty recruitment and retention efforts of distinguished medical faculty who spearhead medical research efforts. These private donations come from grateful patients and their families, from alumni and from other individual or organization friends in the community, in addition to this corporate support. Of these research dollars, more than $2 million was raised by patients, their families and friends, and by volunteers who are mobilized to increase awareness about a disease and raise funds toward medical research to eradicate it or improve treatments.
An individual or family can make a significant impact by funding medical research on a particular disease as recognized by Jay and Kathy Tolkan Worly of Bexley, Ohio, who funded two endowments at $50,000 each for cancer research – one for breast cancer and the other for lung cancer. Another local individual, George A. Skestos, established The Justine Skestos Chair in Minimally Invasive Neurological Spinal Surgery at $1.5 million in honor of his wife and to advance a particular medical specialty. Ohio residents from outside central Ohio often support Ohio State’s academic medical research, as did the many members of the Fraternal Order of Eagles – Grand Aerie (through their Ohio State Eagles Charity Fund). They supported $100,000 in medical research in diabetes, cervical cancer, cardiovascular disease and spinal cord injury. Some individuals accomplish their philanthropic goals through their personal estate planning, as did the late Leo H. Faust and Judge Grace Heck Faust of Urbana, Ohio, who provided almost $90,000 each to cardiology, psychiatry, cancer and ophthalmology.
The Medical Center’s academic medical research reputation has resulted in personal philanthropy in support of research in cancer, ophthalmology, spinal cord injuries, cardiology, neurological diseases, diabetes and orthopedics, to name a few.