The Children's Fund
Unconditional support for the most critical needs
Imagine the possibilities if hope and healing were accelerated by unlimited resources. If big thinkers and doers could make the next life-saving discovery more quickly with the right tools and equipment. If a community program could provide necessities like healthy food and homes to more families immediately, without worrying about cost. Imagine if all children had a chance to just be kids.
The Children’s Fund at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is essential to powering the people, places and programs at CHOP with support that is not limited to a specific use. These unconditional funds maximize your impact by strengthening the work CHOP does to improve the lives of children, their families and our communities by touching all areas of the hospital.
Philanthropic investment in the fund ensures CHOP can immediately and consistently rise to the challenge of providing innovative pediatric healthcare and research, while responding quickly to infuse resources into areas with the most urgent needs. Whether it’s to ease the financial burden on a patient family, supply the latest technology, fast track a research discovery, subsidize salaries or boost a critical community initiative, the Children’s Fund supports it all.
From cures to communities, local needs to global health challenges, unconditional gifts of every size touch so many aspects of care and innovation at CHOP. Your wholehearted support maximizes our impact by empowering CHOP leaders to be nimble, allowing them to address both critical needs and pursue promising, timely opportunities as they arise. Above all, you help us push the boundaries of what’s possible, so children everywhere can grow, thrive and lead healthy, happy lives.
The Children’s Fund helps support:
Patient Family Care
Encouraging creativity and play in the hospital setting
Many primary Child Life initiatives, hospital well-being activities and education programs are funded through the Children’s Fund. All patient events – including the annual prom, movie nights, pajama day, Halloween and many more – bring a sense of normalcy back to the bedside. They allow children and teens to continue “outside” experiences and take part in special events despite being in the hospital.
You are life savers. Bringing joy, compassion, warmth and smiles to precious children.
Other activities and programs such as CHOP’s Patient Book Club, the Patient Technology Program, the Hospital School Program, and Fostering Health Program wouldn’t be able to operate at full capacity — or expand to serve more children and their families — without the support of the Children’s Fund.
Training and Education
Building the pipeline of experts in pediatric medicine
Supporting our workforce in continuing education and honing the skills of our many professionals is a cornerstone of CHOP’s values. Most of our professional education opportunities are funded through the Children’s Fund, including resident fellowships and nursing clinical services. CHOP makes it a priority to ensure we attract and keep the best talent in every area of clinical and non-clinical expertise.
Research
Powering the people, resources and tools to make breakthroughs happen
Many miscellaneous, yet crucial, research expenses at CHOP would not be attainable without the Children’s Fund. This includes costs such as salaries for principal investigators and research staff, animal models, lab supplies and more. Going without these supports would hamper the progress being made within CHOP’s Research Institute.
Seed funding for otherwise unfunded research projects often comes from the Children’s Fund to get the projects off the ground before they can be considered for more extensive federal funding. Cell and Gene Therapy Collaborative Seed Grants are one such example — funding that promotes early-stage development of new cell and gene therapies.
Community Relations
Creating safer and healthier communities
Pediatric healthcare goes beyond the walls of the hospital. The Children’s Fund fills funding gaps in critical community-centered programs and initiatives. Priority health-need projects (as identified in the triennial Community Health Needs Assessment) that address topics such as youth homelessness, adolescent reproductive health, literacy and education, opioid-related mortality prevention, and many more, are all supported by the Children’s Fund.
Many more community projects and initiatives funded by the Children’s Fund collaborate with local partners and services to improve childhood outcomes in every area of life — from school to home and everywhere in between.
Because gifts to the Children’s Fund are not limited to a specific use, they allow CHOP to infuse immediate resources into urgent initiatives, touching every area of the hospital and affecting countless members of the CHOP community. Please consider donating today. Together, we can push the boundaries of what’s possible, so children everywhere can grow, thrive and lead healthy, happy lives.
