Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation

What Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation does

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1946 to fund early-career cancer researchers pursuing high-risk, high-reward projects that traditional sources such as NIH may deem too unconventional. Headquartered at One Exchange Plaza in Lower Manhattan, the Foundation administers a portfolio of award programs — Damon Runyon Fellowship, Rachleff Innovation Award, Clinical Investigator Award, Physician-Scientist Training Award, Quantitative Biology Fellowship, Damon Runyon-Sohn Pediatric Cancer Fellowship, Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist Award, and the SPARK Scholars Program — disbursing over $21 million in new grants to 68 scientists in fiscal year 2025. Its scientific alumni include 12 Nobel Laureates and 49 National Academy of Medicine members, with documented contributions to immune checkpoint inhibitors, CAR T cells, targeted therapies, and cancer vaccines.

The Foundation's revenue model relies on individual donations, corporate contributions, and event-based fundraising, supplemented by the Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets service, a premium ticket resale operation whose profits cover organizational overhead. This structure allows 100% of donations to flow directly to cancer research. Distribution channels span high-profile galas (Annual Breakfast, 80th Anniversary Dinner, Fall Theater Benefits), adventure expeditions through the Timmerman Traverse program (Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp), the Runyon 5K at Yankee Stadium, and the Accelerating Cancer Cures Research Symposium hosted in succession by major biopharma partners including Novartis, Amgen, Lilly Oncology, and Genentech. Major individual donors include Ken Langone, Leon Cooperman, Connie and Bob Lurie, the Van Camp family, and the William Raveis family, alongside multi-million-dollar corporate commitments from Genentech and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The Foundation is led by President and CEO Yung S. Lie, PhD, the first scientist and alumna in its 80-year history to hold the top role, and operates with a lean staff of approximately 17 employees. Strategic priorities include expanding grant volumes, broadening industry-academic collaboration through the rotating pharma-hosted symposium, and scaling the adventure fundraising model globally. The Foundation does not publicly disclose annual revenue and operates without an AI/ML capability stack of its own, though it funds computational and quantitative biology research through dedicated fellowship tracks.

Name

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation

Legal name

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation

Website

https://damonrunyon.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1946

Operating status

Operating

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Nonprofit Cancer Research Funding

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (8132)

akta.pro primary industry

Health & Medical Research Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI), Disease-Specific Research & Support (e.g., Cancer, Diabetes, ALS) (BPAGACAA)

Keywords

• Cancer research funding
• Biomedical research grants
• Postdoctoral fellowship programs
• Physician-scientist training
• Nonprofit philanthropy services

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: The Foundation relies primarily on donations from individual donors, corporations, and foundations. Their overhead is paid from their endowment and Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets, allowing 100% of donations to directly support cancer research.
2. Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets Service: A service offering premium Broadway show tickets that supports the Foundation. Revenue from Broadway Tickets helps cover organizational overhead, allowing 100% of donations to go to cancer research.
3. Event-Based Fundraising: Major fundraising events including Annual Breakfast ($1.5M+ raised), 80th Anniversary Dinner (nearly $1M), Timmerman Traverse expeditions ($1.2M+ from Mt. Kilimanjaro, $800K from Everest Base Camp), and Fall Theater Benefits.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that identifies and funds exceptional early-career cancer researchers through multiple prestigious award programs, including the Damon Runyon Fellowship, Rachleff Innovation Award, Clinical Investigator Award, Physician-Scientist Training Award, Quantitative Biology Fellowship, Pediatric Cancer Fellowship, Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist Award, and SPARK Scholars Program. The foundation also operates the Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets Service, a premium Broadway ticket offering whose revenue covers all organizational overhead, enabling 100% of donations to directly support cancer research.

Product overview

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is a nonprofit organization that operates as a unified portfolio of cancer research funding programs. The core offering is the Broadway Tickets Service, which generates revenue to support cancer research operations, enabling 100% of donations to directly fund research. The foundation administers multiple prestigious award programs including the Damon Runyon Fellowship Award, Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, Physician-Scientist Training Award, Quantitative Biology Fellowship, Damon Runyon-Sohn Pediatric Cancer Fellowship, Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist Award, and SPARK Scholars Program. These programs collectively identify and fund exceptional young scientists pursuing high-risk, high-reward cancer research projects.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets: Broadway ticket service that allows 100% of donations raised to support cancer research, with overhead paid from the endowment and Broadway Tickets revenue.
• Timmerman Traverse

Products and services

• Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets Service
• Damon Runyon Fellowship Award
• Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award
• Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award
• Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award
• Damon Runyon Quantitative Biology Fellowship
• Damon Runyon-Sohn Pediatric Cancer Fellowship
• Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist Award
• SPARK Scholars Program

Quantifiable outcome

• Funded 49 physician-scientists since 2015, whose research led to new therapies and clinical trials
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• St. Jude Children's Research HospitalcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 April 2026Damon Runyon and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital partnered to award 2026 fellowships totaling $1.5 million to five pediatric cancer research fellows, each receiving funding for four years ($300,000 total) to conduct innovative research with potential to impact pediatric cancer diagnosis or treatment.
• AmgencoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 March 2026Amgen hosted the 2026 Accelerating Cancer Cures Research Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts, bringing together Damon Runyon scientists and industry partners for collaboration between academic and pharmaceutical researchers.
• Timmerman TraversecoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 15 February 2026Partnership with Timmerman Traverse, an adventurous initiative bringing biotech executives and investors together to scale extraordinary heights while raising funds for Damon Runyon scientists. The 2026 Mt. Kilimanjaro expedition raised over $1.2 million.
• NovartiscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 March 2025Novartis hosted the 2025 Accelerating Cancer Cures Research Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts, continuing the annual partnership designed to encourage collaboration between industry and academic cancer researchers.
• Lilly OncologycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 March 2019Lilly Oncology hosted the 8th annual Accelerating Cancer Cures Research Symposium, bringing together academic researchers from top universities with scientists from Genentech, Gilead Sciences, Merck, Novartis, AbbVie, and Amgen.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• St. Baldrick's Foundation: Pediatric-cancer-focused grantmaking foundation supporting early-career researchers, fellowship programs, and infrastructure grants — directly comparable to Damon Runyon in grantmaking structure, with a narrower disease focus.
• Lustgarten Foundation: Pancreatic-cancer-focused research foundation funding early-career investigators and high-risk research programs — comparable to Damon Runyon as a single-disease-focused grantmaker but at smaller scale and narrower scope.
• Stand Up To Cancer: Funds collaborative, high-risk translational cancer research teams including early-career investigators through Dream Teams and individual awards; comparable in mission and in leveraging major media/entertainment industry partnerships for fundraising.
• Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation: Childhood-cancer-focused grantmaking foundation funding early-career researchers and providing infrastructure grants — a direct peer in mission (cancer research grants) and stage/scale of grantmaking programs, though narrower in disease focus.
• National Foundation for Cancer Research: Funds high-risk/high-reward basic cancer research and provides fellowships and research grants; directly comparable as a grantmaking foundation targeting breakthrough cancer science with a similar scale of operations.
• Prevent Cancer Foundation: US cancer-focused nonprofit funding research and community programs with grants and fellowships for early-career scientists — directly comparable in mission and grantmaking model, though with additional emphasis on prevention and community outreach.
• V Foundation for Cancer Research: Founded in 1993 by Jim Valvano, the V Foundation is a direct peer: a US cancer-research grantmaking foundation funding high-impact research and early-career investigators, with a comparable event-driven fundraising model and similar award-program structure.
• Cancer Research Institute: CRI funds high-risk, high-reward immunotherapy research and supports early-career scientists through fellowship and investigator award programs — closely aligned with Damon Runyon's mission of seeding breakthrough cancer science via competitive grants to early-career researchers.

Broad incumbents

• American Association for Cancer Research: Much larger professional society that funds cancer research through a broad portfolio of grants, fellowships, and scientific meetings. Overlaps with Damon Runyon in supporting early-career researchers but operates a substantially wider set of programs, advocacy, and publications.
• Susan G. Komen: Much larger US breast-cancer-focused nonprofit funding research grants (including early-career awards) alongside community programs, advocacy, and global operations. Comparable in the research-granting component but materially larger and disease-narrower with broader mission scope.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/DamonRunyonFnd/videos
• Facebookfacebook.com/damonrunyon
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/damonrunyon
• Instagraminstagram.com/damon_runyon

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments1 record

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Frequently asked questions about Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation