Our Grantmaking Process
The Parker Foundation strives to make meaningful change by working in areas where we have a unique insight and see a path to catalytic impact. We tackle challenges through a multifaceted, interdisciplinary approach that combines capital, science and technology, organization building and public policy. The Foundation does not solicit grant applications.
The Foundation’s starting point is to identify areas that have major challenges, and where we see the potential for large-scale breakthroughs. We ask a series of targeted questions to chart a path forward and reexamine the idea at every step of the process.
Our first question is whether the solution is usable for our partners in the field.
If it is, we look at impact – will the solution help solve the problem in a significant way?
The next lens is sufficiency – is the solution useful on its own, or are there missing pieces?
If the solution is usable, impactful, and sufficient, we consider the organizational model – what is the best structure to implement the solution?
If an existing organization is already working on the problem, then we will make a grant; if not, we will help to create an organization that can effectively work towards the solution.
A cornerstone to our approach is to identify the right people to lead an initiative at a key moment, and make sure they are equipped with the tools they need for success.
Case Study
The future of allergies looks clear and bright
The Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford is an example of the Foundation’s approach and values.
The Challenge: Allergies are a critical problem; they affect 30-40% of the world’s population, and the number of people with allergies is doubling roughly every 10 years. The economic cost of food allergies just in children in the United States is nearly $25 billion a year, yet Congress appropriates a mere $28 million a year to research. Allergies are an immunological problem, but allergy research has lagged behind the rest of the immunology field.
The Path to Large Scale Breakthrough: The Foundation identified the opportunity to transform how allergies are researched and subsequently treated. Prevailing methods are focused on controlling the allergic reaction rather than the underlying cause or trigger. We need to transition from delivering reactive medications to repairing the immune mechanisms that drive sensitization and desensitization in allergies.
An allergic reaction occurs when the body misidentifies an ordinary food protein (e.g. peanut) as an invader (e.g. a virus) it must attack – the chemicals the body then releases can ultimately cause the heart or lungs to fail, and the person to collapse. (Add verbiage about targeting the immune system that triggers the misidentification in order to create a permanent solution)
With recent research in immunology, many spearheaded by Dr. Nadeau, this transition to finding large scale, permanent solutions is now within reach.
The Usable and Impactful Approach:
This long-term, multifaceted approach brings together laboratory and clinical research. It puts ambitious and innovative science at the center of a well-organized effort of multiple partners across sectors, spearheaded by a leader in the field, to have catalytic impact. The goal is not just to alleviate this global problem or address one piece of it, but to solve it – finding a permanent cure for allergies.
The Project: In order to put this approach into action, the Parker Foundation announced a $24 million grant to Stanford University to establish the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy & Asthma Research. Since December 2014, the interdisciplinary Center has been committed to its mission to find better treatments for allergies, to discover underlying immune mechanisms against the disease, and to develop a lasting cure. It focuses on understanding the dysfunctions of the immune system’s mechanisms that result in allergic reactions – a complex interplay of the environment, genetics, and the immune system – and finding cutting-edge therapies that change the immune system in a lasting way.
The Center’s efforts include laboratory and computational research, clinical trials, and community outreach. It collaborates with partners across academia, medicine, government, philanthropy and the private sector; such as Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Food Allergy Research and Education, Genentech, Novartis, and Samsung. The Center’s research spans disciplines: allergy, asthma, and immunology; adult medicine; pediatric medicine; otolaryngology; gastroenterology; pulmonology; genetics; health research and policy, statistics, and informatics; immunity, transplant, and infectious diseases; psychology; pathology; chemical engineering; preventative medicine; and bioengineering.
Catalytic Impact:This long-term, multifaceted approach brings together laboratory and clinical research. It puts ambitious and innovative science at the center of a well-organized effort of multiple partners across sectors, spearheaded by a leader in the field, to have catalytic impact. The goal is not just to alleviate this global problem or address one piece of it, but to solve it – finding a permanent cure for allergies.
“We are setting up the infrastructure for scientific immune monitoring–looking at molecular markers to see how the body reacts to allergens and see why some people are desensitized, and other get allergic reactions. The ultimate goal is to create a therapy that successfully induces tolerance to any allergen in a single treatment. In other words, we’re looking for a cure.” –Sean Parker