Fundraising Priorities

In 1998, the Foundation embarked on a mission to establish a $25 million endowment fund for research, as directed by the Heart Institute. This campaign has been very successful and the goal has twice been extended. It now stands at $100 million, and current projections predict this goal will be reached by 2015.

Why focus on an endowment fund for research?

Heart disease is the number one killer of all disease-related deaths. Cardiovascular diseases cost to the Canadian economy more than $22.2 billion every year in lost wages, decreased productivity, physician services, and hospital costs.

Research is the key to combating heart disease. Many leading authorities, including Dr. Robert Roberts—our President and CEO—claim that this will likely be the last century of heart disease because of strides being made through research.

Research is funded to a large degree through endowments, like the one at the Heart Institute that has been built with private donations from the community.

Growing our existing endowment to the $100 million level is our top priority, and to date we have made extraordinary progress in securing gifts and pledges—the importance of which will be profound for the Institute's future generations of patients.

Endowments have a remarkable impact on organizations like the Heart Institute. World-renowned institutions, such as Harvard, Yale, and others, would not have reached their current levels of excellence without the benefit and support of substantial endowments. Endowments are also one of the ways Canadian centres like the Heart Institute can halt and prevent the "brain drain" of our top medical professionals. A strong endowment is one way to attract and retain our most talented people and to encourage them to live and work in Canada.