Entrepreneurial Philanthropy and Innovative Medical Research: The Arthur C. Frantzreb Lecture at Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy 19th Annual Symposium: “Health and Philanthropy: Leveraging Change”

Abstract

Information technology has radically transformed virtually every sphere of human activity through the power of networks. Health care and the search for health cures lag behind, however — as much for cultural reasons as for technical ones — and innovation is suffering as a result. Philanthropy's goal can no longer be to fund pet projects or to build stand-alone organizations. The role of entrepreneurial philanthropists should be to invest in building new networks that will accelerate the development of medical solutions that will improve the quality of our lives. Most philanthropists, however, do not have access to the information that foundations gather on work going on in their areas of interest. FasterCures is creating an information resource that will describe the landscape of nonprofit medical research in order to help entrepreneurial philanthropists make the best-informed decisions about their giving.