Ethel Donaghue [Photo: Courtesy of Dohagnue Medical Research Foundation]

Donaghue Foundation and Hartford Foundation team up to fund medical research

Ethel Frances Donaghue lived a life of luxury, but she also knew the debilitating effect of disease and disability. Her father, who made a fortune in the Hartford real estate market in the late 1880s, died of heart disease when she was 13. Cancer killed her mother. Ethel lived to be 93, enduring her own share of ailments.

When she died in 1989, she left the bulk of her estate – $53 million – to the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation, named after her parents, to “promote medical knowledge which will be of practical benefit to the preservation, maintenance and improvement of human life.”

To help meet that goal, since 1998, the Hartford Foundation has awarded 35 grants totaling over $839,000 in collaboration with the Donaghue Foundation. The Donaghue Foundation recommends possible grants and Hartford Foundation determines which ones are good matches for its funds that share a preference for medical research.

Grants have helped fund research into some of the most debilitating diseases.  Sickle cell disease is one. 

Sickle cell is an inherited blood disorder marked by a mutation in the hemoglobin genes. The defect causes abnormal crescent-shaped red blood cells that give the disorder its name. The sickle-shaped cells get stuck in blood vessels, producing excruciating pain, organ damage and strokes. Pain is the hallmark of these patients’ lives and results in days lost from school, work, and for many children multiple hospital visits for treatment.  Currently there are limited effective treatments for the pain caused by sickle cell disease.

The disease affects 100,000 Americans – primarily African Americans – including 180 children being treated at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC).

Dr. William Zempsky’s research has helped Richard Smith and his parents, Cristine Doran and Christopher Smith, manage his sickle cell disease. [Photo: Jake Koteen]

With funding from the Hartford Foundation and Donaghue Foundation, Dr. William T. Zempsky at CCMC is overseeing research aimed at developing better pain assessment tools and medicines to improve the lives of children with sickle cell disease.

“Many researchers of sickle cell disease are experts in blood disorders,” said Dr. Zempsky. “My specialty is pain research, so I approach the problem from a completely different perspective.  It’s a real advantage.  Without the grants, my research would be dead in the water.”

In addition to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center Foundation, grants for medical research have also been awarded to Hartford Hospital, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, and University of Connecticut Health Center.

“One key to the success of this relationship is the close fit between Donaghue’s mission of funding research for practical benefit and Hartford Foundation’s mission of improving the quality of life for residents throughout the region,” said Lynne Garner, president of the Donaghue Foundation.

Learn more about the Hartford Foundation's grantmaking >>