Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Overview

The Bristol-Myer Squibb Foundation provides grants and helps support programs in a variety of fields around the world.

The Bristol-Myers Fund, the predecessor to the current Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, was first established by what was then Bristol-Myers Company in the early 1950’s. Its primary purpose was support “charitable, educational, scientific, literary, cultural and benevolent purposes.” Among its more significant activities in those early years, in addition to funding community charities and cultural organizations was to provide matching donations for its employee donations to qualifying educational institutions.

Today, even this matching program has changed to also include employee donations to hospitals and biomedical research institutions. Indeed, the scope and activities of the philanthropic arm of Bristol-Myers Squibb, its Foundation (which was formally created in 1954) have evolved and expanded exponentially. After all, the company itself has grown significantly, its strategic focus has changed and its mission has become focused on extending and enhancing human life. It interprets that mission broadly to include a focus on meeting unmet medical needs in 10 disease areas, to develop innovative products and to do everything it can to exhibit compassion, by expanding access to those products and strengthening the health infrastructure to deliver better health around the world, particularly in developing countries.

The Foundation itself has continued to evolve as well as it has sought to strategically align its programs with the goals, objectives and strategic vision of Bristol-Myers Squibb. It has moved from programs that are community focused only to areas that get at the heart of corporate social responsibility and the specific capabilities of a foundation that is part of a research intensive health care company.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation creates meaningful and sustainable improvements in health and education for people around the world by developing partnerships and supporting innovative programs that actively fulfill the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company mission – to extend and enhance human life. The Foundation focuses specifically on programs in seven areas of critical need where it has the knowledge, resources and experience to make a meaningful impact. These are global HIV/AIDS, women’s health, health education, science education, product donations, employee-driven contributions and community support, and unrestricted biomedical research support. Its efforts seek to foster initiatives that build capacity, that are sustainable over the long-term and that can serve as a catalyst and platform for policy creation and policy changes, thereby advancing the frontiers of health and education around the world.

Two specific programs demonstrate the level of innovation and commitment. The first was created in 1977 – an unrestricted biomedical research and grants program that was to become the first and largest such corporate effort to provide no strings attached funding so that research had the ability to explore the frontiers of science, unencumbered by either institutional or bureaucratic impediments. [ Read More ]

The second was a 1999 commitment – again pioneering and groundbreaking and still today the largest such corporate effort – to SECURE THE FUTURE – a program of community education and support and medical research and care focused on helping women and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in Southern and West Africa. That program has since expanded to a $150 million commitment in 10 countries in the region. It has set new standards and landmark efforts to change the face of AIDS treatment in Africa, and eventually around the world. [ Read More ]

Other programs have also served as beacons for others to follow. An unprecedented commitment to enhancing science education – beginning in pre-school years and continuing through elementary and middle schools – began in 1993 and continues today with more than $5 million committed each year. So far more than 150,000 students in the U.S. and more than 50,000 outside the continental U.S. have been touched, hundreds of teachers have been trained and new hands-on curriculum materials have been developed and distributed through the Foundation’s programs in partnership with more than two dozen school districts. A number of state-of-the art Centers for Science Teaching and Learning have also been established to serve as regional focal points for educating teachers about better engaging students in science and math learning. [ Read More ]

The Foundation’s women’s health program has served as a catalyst for changing how policy makers as well as health professionals view the special needs of women. From a greater emphasis on heart disease, the number one killer of women in the U.S., to new types of support systems for women ravaged by war in Afghanistan or by the need to deal with sexual trafficking of young girls and women, the Foundation has been on the leading edge of helping spur changes in perspectives and policy. [ Read More ]

Today, the Foundation continues to evolve to focus its efforts where it can do the most good – in the communities where the company operates and its employees live – and in countries where health disparities in health care treatment, delivery and infrastructure must be addressed and overcome.

The idea, as Foundation president John Damonti notes, “is very much about where the issues are going to be down the road. That’s what informs capacity building, sustainability and the innovations we need to make happen.”