St. Jude gets $50M gift for new Family Commons space
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has received a historic $50 million donation — its largest one-time gift ever — to help fund a new space for patients and families to recover and connect.
The gift from AbbVie, a biopharmaceutical company based in North Chicago, Illinois, will cover construction and five years of operational costs for both a relaxation-focused floor called Family Commons and an outdoor space that includes a walking path, gardens and a playground on the Memphis campus.
“Quite frankly, we were stunned,” said Richard Shadyac Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC, St. Jude’s fundraising and awareness organization. “This (donation) is not the norm for ALSAC and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.”
Shadyac said AbbVie’s donation is more than two times the size of the next-largest gift St. Jude has ever received, adding that the average donation is $43.
“This is truly aberrational in our history,” he said. “But we think we have a pretty amazing mission, and I think AbbVie saw that and saw an opportunity to have an impact.”
St. Jude and AbbVie unveiled the donation Dec. 3, with speakers like Sha-
dyac outlining its importance. The event took place in front of a crowd featuring international hospital partners and others at the campus’ Domino’s Event Center.
One of the speakers was Marlo Thomas, St. Jude’s national outreach director and daughter of St. Jude founder Danny Thomas, via phone.
“(Danny Thomas) used to say there were two kinds of people in this world: the givers and the takers,” Thomas said. “The takers sometimes eat better, but the givers, they always sleep better. So I bet all of you at AbbVie are sleeping pretty well these days.”
Laura Schumacher, AbbVie’s executive vice president of external affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary, said the company “wanted to help create an environment of care and support” at St. Jude with the gift and that philanthropy is a key element for AbbVie.
AbbVie is giving the gift to St. Jude “immediately,” Schumacher added.
What’s in the new Family Commons
The under-construction Family Commons facility, which St. Jude says is the first of its kind at the hospital, is expected to open in 2020.
The facility is the result of months of research that included interviews with patients and families, Shadyac said. Much of the time patients and families spend on campus is for appointments and treatments, and many wanted an area where they could distance themselves from a strictly medical setting.
St. Jude is planning on the treatment-free Family Commons floor to include:
❚ A preschool program that will help patients and family members keep up with peers at home.
❚ An open play area with an outdoor patio, living room area and 19 resting nooks for privacy and lounging.
❚ A private area with coffee and snacks available, plus a general store.
❚ Patient and concierge services to address family needs like food and care coordination, housing and transportation.
❚ An area for families to get non-clinical answers from other parents.
As for the outdoor space, expect to see a playground with a design mindful of children undergoing treatment and those with restricted mobility. AbbVie’s donation is also funding landscaped walking paths, gardens and a 3.5-acre greenspace.
‘For kids to be kids’
Shadyac summed up AbbVie’s donation as going toward “sacred space” for patients and their families.
“So many of our families are here for months, and even years, on end, and they’re in the hospital for hours upon hours,” he said. “They need a place where they can just get away to and for kids to be kids and for moms and dads to be moms and dads.”
Janice English, director of St. Jude’s patient and family experience office, said St. Jude asked families to dream up a non-clinical space at the hospital and describe what that space would look like.
One mother interviewed said her teenage son said there wasn’t “a single quiet place in this entire hospital,” English said.
“I happen to agree with him,” English said. “There’s not a quiet place in the entire hospital. It’s bustling. It’s fast-paced. There’s something always going on. The kids come in the morning, and they have appointments all day long. If you do have a break from your appointments, what are you going to do? You can’t get too far away, right?”
St. Jude parent Cindy Howard, whose son Chandler was diagnosed with a brain tumor and has completed treatment, said a thoughtfully designed space like the one AbbVie’s donation will fund is vital for patients and parents.
“Having a child who is battling cancer is not an easy experience, and anything you can do to make that just a little bit easier, that’s an amazing thing,” she said.
AbbVie eyes long-term partnerships
AbbVie’s $50 million gift is part of the company’s vow to make an additional $350 million in charitable contributions to U.S. nonprofits this year.
AbbVie originated as a spin-off of the health care company Abbott Laboratories, and its employees are spread across more than 75 countries. The research and development-driven company aims to improve treatments in immunology, oncology, virology and neuroscience by developing innovative, advanced therapies.
Shadyac said AbbVie has worked with St. Jude on its Chicago-area fundraising efforts before. St. Jude has hosted AbbVie executives and employees on its campus as well, he said.
But AbbVie didn’t have a formal giving relationship with St. Jude prior to the development of the $50 million donation, despite its long giving history, said Melissa Walsh, AbbVie’s vice president of corporate responsibility and global philanthropy.
Walsh said the $350 million set aside for U.S. nonprofit contributions gave AbbVie an opportunity to look at new avenues for giving, with an emphasis on larger gifts, leading to the St. Jude donation.
“One of the things that makes us unique as a donor is that we tend to work with fewer partners over a long period of time,” Walsh said.
“Our belief is that in order to really drive true change and move the needle for communities and families, you need to commit and stay with people for a period of time.”