Learning, Leading and Working Together

Swifty is helping to build a more collaborative and innovative cancer community. We recognize there is much we don’t know and can’t do on our own, therefore it’s our priority to find ways to partner with other pediatric cancer foundations and families. There is so much more we can do together!

Gift from a Child Funding Partners

Gift from a Child is a Swifty-led national initiative supported by families who have lost children to brain cancer, private foundations, researchers and medical professionals. Gift from a Child’s mission is to increase postmortem pediatric brain tissue donations through advocacy as well as the education of families enduring the worst … the loss of a child. Swifty offers our thanks to our Gift from a Child Funding Partners:

Collaborative Partners

Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC)

Since beginning our partnership with CBTN on the Post-Mortem Tissue Donation Program in 2016, Swifty’s involvement with the consortium has continued to grow.
Why? The consortium provides free and open access research data aimed specifically at curing pediatric brain cancer. Its massive database of bio-data is ambitious, innovative, and an essential tool for collaboration among pediatric brain cancer researchers.

In addition to sponsoring the Post-Mortem Tissue Program, Swifty is a member of CBTN’s Advisory Council and Al Gustafson has served as the liaison between the CBTN Executive Committee and the 15 foundations that make up the Advisory Council. Al is currently serving on the Executive Advisory Committee for the Pediatric Brain Tumor SPORE grant being submitted by CBTN and PNOC. SPORE grant information.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF)

We have been co-funding research grants with ALSF since 2017. With one of the best scientific advisory committees of any private foundation, ALSF vets the best research proposals and seeks funding from smaller foundations to help them maximize the number of research grants funded each year. Learn more about the research grants we co-fund.

Dr. Eric Hutton Raabe, MD/PhD & Dr. Barbara Slusher, PhD
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Pre-clinical Testing of Novel Glutamine Metabolic Inhibitors in MYC-driven Medulloblastoma
Grant Award: $25,000

Melanie Vincent, PhD
University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO
Targeting Eya2 to Inhibit c-Myc Driven Medulloblastoma Tumor Progression
Brain Tumor\Medulloblastoma
Grant Award: $25,000

Dr. Marc Symons
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research – North Shore
De-escalation of Radiotherapy for Medulloblastoma by a Novel DNA Damage Checkpoint Inhibitor
Grant Award: $25,000

Shannon Wong-Michalek (Mentor) Dr. William Weiss
University of California San Francisco
Exploring synthetic lethality of one-carbon metabolism genes and mTORC1 inhibition in MYCN amplified Medulloblastoma
Grant Award: $5,000

Dr. Zulekha Qadeer, Phd.
University of California San Francisco
Targeting TGFb Pathways for Dependencies in Group 3 Medulloblastoma
Grant Award: $20,000

Dr Rosalind Segal, MD/PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Targeting symmetric division in pediatric cancers
Grant Award: $30,000

Swifty was one of a handful of foundation partners invited to participate in the ALSF Crazy 8 Initiative with the purpose of detailing roadmaps for cures for specific, hard-to-treat childhood cancers and pressing topics of the childhood cancer community. We were proud to partner in the Crazy 8 Initiative kick off meeting that brought together an expansive group of over 90 top scientists and researchers from around the world to share their expertise in eight key areas to tackle the big question: How can we find better treatments and cures for childhood cancer? More to come!

2019-Swifty-Foundation-Impact-Report-from-ALSDownload

Coalition Against Childhood Cancer (CAC2)

We are one of the 100-plus members that make up CAC2. These childhood cancer organizations benefit from leveraging the unique strengths of the members and minimizing the waste of precious resources and expertise. We attend educational webinars and symposiums hosted by CAC2, as well as participate in vital advocacy programs initiated by member organizations. Swifty’s Communication Director serves on the CAC2 Board of Directors as a member of the Executive Committee.

KidsvCancer

KidsvCancer helped us through the process of donating Michael’s tissue back in 2013. We have had the pleasure of learning from and helping each other on many initiatives. In 2017, our Junior Board member Kira Couch interned with KidsvCancer as an advocate on Capitol Hill, helping to push the Race For Kids Act into law.

Institute of Clinical Bioethics (ICB)

As the academic research center of Saint Joseph’s University, the ICB’s faculty and fellows actively carry on interdisciplinary research projects and regularly team up with Swifty to explore cutting-edge issues in pediatric cancer research. Our work with them includes a research paper on post-mortem tissue donation and pediatric cancer research that shaped our focus and strategy.

Kids First Pediatric Data Resource Center (DRC)

DRC is a new collaborative effort funded by the National Institutes of Health Common Fund to discover the causes of pediatric cancer and structural birth defects through the use of big data. Swifty Foundation has participated in the launch and framework developing sessions offering the perspective of families and foundations as the DRC is designed and developed.

Curefest USA


Swifty Foundation has participated in Curefest USA since 2015. In 2019 we were proud to be a Bronze Level Sponsor!

Four Pennies

Four Pennies is a fundraising model that childhood cancer foundations can use to raise money together. The federal government only allocates four pennies of every dollar available for cancer research to childhood cancer research. This model strives to highlight that dismal fact.

Eric Montgomery’s 2018 hike of the Pacific Crest Trail was the inaugural Four Pennies campaign. The Swifty Foundation, Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, Dragon Master Foundation and the Kortney Rose Foundation raised 4 pennies for each of Eric’s steps on the 2659 mile trail. More than $170,000 was raised for the Open DIPG project, a pediatric brain tumor research project.

With efforts like the ones above, together we are moving toward a better future for our children. But it only happens with the help of individual supporters like you.

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