History

The Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation exists to give ongoing life and relevant vitality to the testamentary intent of Ethel F. Donaghue, whose convictions, talents, and beneficent vision created the Foundation.  Ethel Donaghue, chose in her will to devote to research in health nearly all of the proceeds of two generations of successful family endeavor in Hartford commerce and investment.

The Donaghue Foundation began in 1991 with three grant programs focused on postdoctoral fellows and new investigators doing basic and pre-clinical research in cancer and heart disease. Over the ensuing years, the Trustees have widened the scope of our funding.  Thus, the Foundation began two investigator-initiated programs that provided larger grants in a broader range of diseases and more comprehensive fields of study:  Clinical and Community Health Issues, a project-based award, was established in 1993 and the Donaghue Investigator program, a career award, was established in 1998.  The Practical Benefit Initiative program, a program of Foundation-initiated awards, was begun in 1996.

The Donaghue Investigator program was designed to be a ten-year program and its last year of awarding grants was in 2007.  A new program, the Donaghue Research Leadership Program, will begin in 2008.