Campaign looks beyond financial milestone, continues fundraising for key initiatives

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute today announced it has reached its $1 billion Mission Possible: The Dana-Farber Campaign to Conquer Cancer fundraising goal one year early. The first hospital in New England to set and reach a $1 billion campaign goal, Dana-Farber will continue to raise funds for campaign priorities until Sept. 30, 2010, when the campaign was scheduled to end.

Philanthropy plays a critical role in advancing adult and pediatric cancer research and care at Dana-Farber. The Mission Possible campaign has created new avenues of research and new treatment options, but more work remains to be done, according to Institute officials. Dana-Farber is committed to continue fundraising through the end of the campaign and beyond until the promise of personalized medicine is available for each patient.

"We look upon the $1 billion raised to date as a significant milestone in the campaign," said Josh Bekenstein, co-chair of the Mission Possible campaign and a managing director of Bain Capital, LLC. "We will continue to fundraise aggressively because cancer will not cease to exist when this campaign ends next year. There is much more critical work to be done and we need to remain committed to this important mission into the future."

Larry Lucchino, president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox and co-chair of the Mission Possible campaign, added, "It has been my good fortune to be associated with Dana-Farber as a patient twice and as part of the leadership team for its current fundraising effort. Dana-Farber has proven over and over that cancer can be conquered. I am living proof of that. We need to continue to support Dana-Farber so that, some day, all patients can stand up and tell their stories of survival."

The size and scope of the campaign reflect the growth of Dana-Farber during the last decade. Between 2001 and 2008, outpatient visits and infusions at Dana-Farber more than doubled, from nearly 128,000 to more than 264,000. The number of clinical trials available to Dana-Farber patients increased nearly 80 percent, from 409 trials to 735.

Dana-Farber is constructing its Yawkey Center for Cancer Care, a 14-story, 275,000-square-foot clinical care and clinical research facility, which is scheduled to open in Spring 2011. Designed with advice from patients, families, and staff, the Yawkey Center will enable Dana-Farber to provide an increasing volume of patients its trademark compassionate, family-centered, and state-of-the-art care, while also creating an environment that fosters healing and facilitates "smart" clinical trials based on the genetics of each patient's tumor.

"We are indebted to the literally millions of donors who have supported us during our campaign," said Dana-Farber President Edward J. Benz Jr., MD. "They have made a very real difference in the lives of thousands of people with cancer and have brought us substantially closer to our goal of beating this terrible disease."

To date, more than 1.7 million gifts of all sizes were received, with 107 gifts of $1 million or more, and 703 gifts of $100,000 or more. Every Dana-Farber trustee has made a gift during the campaign, and 96 percent of Dana-Farber's senior faculty contributed very early on, showing their confidence in what the campaign could accomplish.

Transformative gifts were received from several individuals and organizations, including $153 million over six years from the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge bike-a-thon, $50 million from Susan F. and Richard A. Smith, $30 million from the Yawkey Foundation, and $20 million from the Linde Family Foundation.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org) is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. It is the top ranked cancer center in New England, according to U.S. News & World Report, and one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health grant funding.