Local Foundations and Medical Research Support in Indianapolis after 1945

Abstract

Philanthropy plays an important and often publicly visible role in modern medicine. Names like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Gates are associated with medicine both personally and through the foundations they created. This phenomenon also played out on a local level, where communities are dotted with hospitals, university laboratories, and medical schools bearing the names of families who contributed to build, literally and figuratively, the institutions of medical research. Little is known about these local philanthropists, including why they decided to support research and how they organized and carried out the work of grantmaking. Consequently, there is no deep understanding of the value of their contributions. I seek to remedy that omission through this study of the history and work of three small foundations dedicated to medical and scientific research and located in a single, midsized American city. Ultimately this work considers a question fundamental to medical research philanthropy: Can smaller foundations make a meaningful contribution to modern medical research given the scale, complexity, and cost of the work as well as the dominance of federal government funding? This work concludes that the primary value of the foundations under study was not their financial support for research per se, but their flexible and sustained contributions to the local research infrastructure, including philanthropic investments that helped launch research projects and the careers of individual scientists; provided capital for needed physical space; and supported recruiting efforts to bring innovative and productive faculty members to staff new research and patient care departments. The foundations in this study, both individually and collectively, served as valuable strategic allies to the research institutions in their community. As a result, the foundations contributed directly and meaningfully toward the expansion and improvement of the research institutions. The resulting growth in the size and reputation of these programs and facilities generated economic gain that benefitted the broader community. This finding supports a call for the development of a more nuanced and complete understanding of the potential impact that smaller funders can have in a large and complicated system.