The V Foundation for Cancer Research has awarded nearly $43M in grants to 73 research teams in its 30th anniversary year, marking the highest amount the foundation has granted in a single year. This year’s figure brings the organization’s total to over $353M granted since its founding in 1993. V Foundation CEO Shane Jacobson applauded the milestones as “extraordinary” while noting that 25% of the money the foundation has raised since it began has been generated “in the last three years alone.”
Notable accomplishments over the past year includes the V Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Gala raising $2.8M in support of therapeutic resistance research and the Dick Vitale Pediatric Cancer Research Fund granting over $16.9M -- bringing the V Foundation’s total to more than $84M awarded to pediatrics. A new partnership with the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation was formed as $3M was awarded as part of an All-Star Grant program to three V Foundation-funded pediatric researchers.
Additionally, a new grant program -- A Grant of Her Own: The Women Scientists Innovation Award for Cancer Research -- was launched with $8M invested in supporting the efforts of 11 women scientists. In July, the V Foundation announced a partnership with the NHL and NHLPA to expand the league’s Hockey Fights Cancer initiative. “There's more we can do to engage fans, to engage the cancer community, and to compel them to lean in through the storytelling,” said Jacobson.
The foundation’s annual V Week begins today starting with GivingTuedsay. ESPN platforms will also feature a “roadblock” that will include messages from the late Basketball HOFer Jim Valvano and others. Additional festivities extend the spotlight. The Jimmy V Women’s Classic takes the stage on Dec. 3 along with N.Y. hosting the Boo-Yah event that honors late ESPN host Stuart Scott on Dec. 4. Madison Square Garden will host the men’s Jimmy V Classic on Dec. 5. Heading into 2024, Jacobson said the V Foundation strives to “engage more donors, have a more diverse donor community, engage our partners, [and] new partners” with the foundation’s aspirational goal to become a “$100 million per year cancer fighting charity.”
V Foundation
