Our mission is to empower people and accelerate scientific discovery.

Since its inception in 2007, the Shanahan Family Foundation has made numerous significant gifts to organizations and institutions nationally.

Fellowship at the Interface of Data and Neuroscience

The Shanahan Foundation Fellowship at the Interface of Data and Neuroscience was created to bring fresh perspectives into the field, encouraging data scientists to work together with leading neuroscientists at the Allen Institute and at the University of Washington.

The Center for STEMM Mentorship at Stanford

The Center for STEMM Mentorship at Stanford is a pilot initiative launched in 2022 with support from the Shanahan Family Foundation that works in service of building healthy research teams and improved mentorship alliances in STEMM labs. An effective mentor-mentee relationship is a two-way street—an alliance with a collaborative spirit rooted in a vulnerability-based trust, in which both mentors and mentees are comfortable in acknowledging what they don’t know, admitting mistakes when they occur, providing honest feedback, readily asking for help, sharing failure stories, and celebrating successes. The Center’s approach uniquely focuses on the unit of the research team, serving whole teams all together and employing lessons from successful teams across diverse sectors (business, academia, and even sports!) to implement and elevate the practice of mentorship in an academic research team context.

“What is now proved was once only imagined.”

― William Blake

Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA) for Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s

The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA) is working to replace today’s expensive and invasive PET imaging and spinal fluid taps with new gold-standard methods for early, non-invasive and affordable diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and related dementias. Launched in July 2018, the DxA has mobilized commitments totaling $50 million to bring focus, resources, and urgency required to solve this important problem.

“Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.”

― Rosalind Franklin

Work to Ride

Work to Ride provides constructive activities centered on horsemanship, equine sports, and education to under-resourced youth from Philadelphia. The program is housed at Chamounix Equestrian Center, located in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. In addition to the Work to Ride program, Chamounix Equestrian Center engages the community at large through various equestrian programs; including horseback riding lessons, summer camp, discovery days and polo program.

The Hertz Fellowship at the Hertz Foundation

For over 60 years, the Hertz Foundation has identified and cultivated the next generation of scientists, leaders, disruptors, and creators who have the potential to transform our world in ways that few others can. Through the Hertz Fellowship, the foundation provides five years of funding to carefully vetted physical scientists, biologists, engineers, and mathematicians attending programs at the nation’s top universities. Over 1,240 Hertz Fellows are part of a supported network that is fueled by a moral commitment to our nation to apply their remarkable talents where they are most urgently needed. This multi-generational, multi-disciplinary, intellectual community is a unique engine to help advance scientific discoveries into actions that will ensure our country’s technological leadership in industry, academia, and government.

Ocean Institute

Founded in 1977, the Ocean Institute is a community-based organization that educates 100,000 children, teachers, parents, and visitors annually through over 60 marine science and maritime history programs. Located in the Dana Point Harbor and adjacent to a Marine Life Conservation Area, the facility is an ocean education center that offers in-depth Marine Science, Maritime History and Outdoor Education programs. All programs are designed to maximize immersion, spark curiosity, and inspire a deep commitment to learning.