Funding a Cure for Childhood Diseases

Benefunder partners with wealth management firms to provide a donor-advised fund, the Benefunder Charitable Innovation Fund, that connects donors directly with research being conducted at universities. Christian Braemer, cofounder and CEO of Benefunder, said the focus on university research is due to the fact that "universities are responsible for over half of all research and development going on in the U.S. today."

The fund covers a broad range of causes at different stages of innovation, Braemer said. "It could literally be anything under the sun. Right now we're covering technology, life sciences, environment and arts and humanities [and] everything from basic understanding of certain things all the way through to clinical trials and developing new materials that can be directly applied to technologies."

Of the partnership with Children's, Braemer said, "Children's National is one of, if not the largest, pediatric health systems in the country, so they're a unique combination of a hospital and a research institute, which is incredibly important because it gives them first-hand access to patients," he told Investment Advisor. "They can perform their own clinical trials, and they also have the capability for the doctors and the researchers to work in close collaboration. That offers a unique opportunity for donors to get more directly involved."

One of Benefunder's goals for the partnership is to create direct access to some of that research and "to develop relationships with the researchers and doctors who are working there; that's pretty unique in itself," Braemer said.

"We want to do lab visits with them. We want to engage and actually bring donors on site, and of course, in any area that a donor might have interest in the area of pediatrics," he added.

Braemer said the value of Benefunder to advisors is that his firm acts as a product specialist; "they have a new ability to open a philanthropic conversation with a client and bring us in as a philanthropic specialist to help guide the conversation through to actually thinking through and creating a portfolio of causes that match the goals that the donor might have."

He said they follow the same process that wealth managers use with their clients, starting with a needs assessment, developing a proposal, implementing the plan and reviewing progress at certain intervals.

"If we understand that a client is interested in cancer research, for example, we would help find the best-of-breed cancer researchers across the country that address the most pressing needs in cancer," he explained. "Once that portfolio's implemented, there would be a giving plan—it might be three years, it might be six years—and there's an annual review to look at, 'What are the milestones? What are the objectives that have been reached in that year?' If the donor client isn't happy with the way things are going, we can make adjustments."