Physician Volunteers Create Success
The AGA Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition (FDHN) owes its success to the leadership and support of many generous physician volunteers. Today, it awards nearly $3 million annually in support of basic and clinical research in gastroenterology.
Through the years, and through a few different names, the foundation has been carefully nurtured by visionaries including Martin Brotman, MD, AGAF, James Freston, MD, AGAF, and Sidney Cohen, MD, AGAF. “The field of gastroenterology has been very good to so many of us over the years,” observes Dr. Cohen. “Making a contribution to the future of GI seems like a modest and entirely appropriate thing to do.” That contribution takes many forms.
Serving as officers of the Foundation, physician volunteers have taken the lead in defining its mission and in spreading the word to everyone they could reach. Both as AGA President, and later as FDHN Vice Chair of Corporate Gifts, David Peura, MD, AGAF has traveled extensively to garner new donors and volunteers.
“Fortunately,” observes Dr. Peura, “physicians are still regarded as leaders in our respective communities. Often, we work for hospitals or universities, which are the objects of philanthropic affection. And, rightly and wrongly, doctors are perceived to be relatively affluent. Whatever the reason, we are very often asked to give and also to get. And that makes me happy.”
His travels on behalf of the Foundation have taken him to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Albuquerque, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, New York, and elsewhere. In each place he has spoken to individuals and groups about the task at hand. “With reduced government support for young investigators and the lure of financial opportunities in private practice,” he tells his listeners, “relatively fewer candidates are dedicating themselves to academic research careers in gastroenterology. To turn the tide, and it must be turned to guarantee the future of our subspecialty, the Foundation is committed to increasing the number and size of individual awards granted annually.”
Dr. Peura’s message, like that of his fellow volunteers, is quickly followed by an invitation to his listeners to become members of the AGA Legacy Society, the Foundation’s premier donor club. Leading by example, he and his wife Kristin were early Legacy Society members themselves. “I do hope you will consider both giving and getting gifts for our Foundation,” he says.
Along with giving and getting donations for the Foundation, Dr. Peura and his fellow volunteer leaders are looking for a few good men and women to join the FDHN Physician Advisory Boards. The boards, which exist in cities throughout the country, serve as the foundation’s grass-roots representation in their local communities.
In addition to also being donors, many FDHN Physician Board members reach out to fellow doctors, asking them to consider contacting former patients, friends and others who may have the ability and desire to support the foundation.
In describing the influence that doctors can have on potential contributors, former FDHN Chair James Freston, MD, observes: “Clinicians represent a large body of influential persons with enormous persuasive potential. We can positively affect the funding link between research and advances in clinical medicine because we are in the best position to bring important funding opportunities to the attention of potential donors through our unique, close, and often personal relationships with former patients and others.”
One physician who responded to Dr. Freston’s call was Dr. David Roseman of La Jolla, Calif. Thinking of a close friend whose husband passed away years before of pancreatic cancer, Dr. Roseman asked her if she would be interested in speaking with an FDHN staff member about possibly supporting research into the disease. In fairly short order, she and her family agreed to commit $225,000 to establish a Research Scholar Award in Basic Science Related to Pancreatic Cancer.
“People who are affected by a disease or touched by a disease, these are the kind of people who are very willing to give,” says Dr. Roseman. “When people are touched by the disease, that’s the type of research that may interest them.” Indeed, the award in this case was subsequently given to a researcher studying new methods of diagnosing the disease at the earliest possible stage, a topic of great interest to anyone concerned about possible hereditary impact of pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Roseman is among the eight members of the Foundation’s San Diego Physician Advisory Board, chaired by John M. Carethers, MD, AGAF. Another member of the same board is Alan F. Hofmann, MD, AGAF, also an early member of the AGA Legacy Society. “The AGA Foundation is an essential organization,” says Dr. Hofmann. “I can’t think I’m any different than anyone else in supporting worthwhile organizations. If everyone would contribute to the AGA Foundation, it will acquire significant equity and be able to offer funding for even more research.”
Since its inception, the AGA foundation has awarded over $30 million in funding to more than 300 grant recipients. Its endowment has grown to more than $9 million, on its way to a target of $50 million. Of the $3 million raised in recent years, approximately $1 million has come from physicians themselves. They are among the thousands of donors, the 45 members of the AGA Legacy Society, and the 100 members of the regional Physician Advisory Boards who are essential to its success.
Visionaries…messengers…recruiters…fundraisers…donors, the AGA Foundation’s physician volunteers do it all.
For information about how to join an FDHN Physicians Advisory Board, click here.
