Leveraging Your Donations

Donations for research have a tremendous multiplier effect. They can generate a return on investment many times the original gift by leveraging even more funding from private sector grants and government agencies. 

From Thousands to Millions

Here are two great examples of donations having tremendous impact by kick-starting crucial research.

Dr. Brent Hagel

Dr. Hagel was recruited to Calgary in 2005.  His research as a PhD student was on the need for helmets for skiers.  He was offered the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation Professorship in Child Health and Wellness as a start-up opportunity.  He translated his research knowledge into action by participating on a national advisory board whose recommendations have led to mandatory ski helmet policies at ski hills across Canada, thus making children – and adults - safer.  

Hagel is now an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research funded Population Health Investigator, has become an internationally recognized expert in the prevention of childhood injury and is a co-investigator on a large Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded study to investigate childhood pedestrian injuries.

In just a matter of a few years, an initial community investment of $75,000 has resulted in life-saving research findings and more than $1 million in leveraged funding.


Dr. Jim Kellner

In 1998, one member of our Institute, Dr. Jim Kellner, received a $20,000 grant from the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation to establish a local surveillance program for pneumococcal bacterial infections that cause life-threatening illness like meningitis.  This surveillance project is still going strong, is now internationally recognized and has been supported with more than $1.5 million in supplemental external research awards.

Dr. Kellner is co-Team Leader on a $5 million Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Team Grant, co-investigator on a $600,000 Canadian Institutes of Health Research study and co-investigator on a recently announced $10 million CIHR study, all of which are directed at developing and evaluating vaccines against deadly bacteria and viruses.   

So in ten years, a community investment of $20 thousand has leveraged more than $17 million!
 
Dr. Kellner is now the Head of Pediatrics for both the Calgary zone of Alberta Health Services and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary.