For over 75 years, Damon Runyon has been identifying brave and bold scientists early in their careers and providing them with the resources to make the next breakthroughs in cancer research. Our strategy ensures that the most brilliant, creative and audacious scientific minds are singularly focused on this goal.
OUR FOUNDING
In 1946, the iconic sportswriter and journalist Damon Runyon passed away from throat cancer. His legacy lives on in his memorable stories, which have been transformed into the Broadway hit Guys and Dolls. His good friend, famed radio broadcaster Walter Winchell, took to the airwaves shortly after Runyon’s death to implore “Mr. and Mrs. America” to send anything they could spare to fight cancer.
It’s time we tried to do something to fight this terrible disease. We must fight back, and together we can do it. Won’t you send me a penny, a nickel, a dime, or a dollar? All of your money will go directly to the cancer fighters, in Damon Runyon’s name.
Walter Winchell
Donations poured in from across the nation in such great numbers that Winchell was able to establish the “Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund.” He promised to use its coffers to support the most promising cancer scientists across the nation. With the help of celebrity supporters like Marlene Dietrich, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, Winchell led the organization’s fundraising until his own death from cancer in 1972.
OUR SUCCESS
Since our founding, in partnership with donors across the nation, we have invested nearly $450 million and funded nearly 4,000 scientists. Damon Runyon scientists have made extraordinary breakthroughs in nearly every area of cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. It was a Damon Runyon scientists who first cured a solid tumor with chemotherapy, who first cured late-stage cancer with only immunotherapy, who discovered the first cancer causing gene, and who pioneered the development of gene editing tool CRISPR. Visit Our Timeline to read about these and many more groundbreaking discoveries.
OUR FUTURE
As an independent funding organization with a 75-year-plus track record of success, Damon Runyon is uniquely positioned to fill critical gaps in the cancer research mission, and we take this responsibility extremely seriously. With every new class of awardees, we continue to seek out underfunded research areas, vulnerable junctures in the research career pipeline, and brilliant young scientists who have the potential to become leaders in cancer research - with the right support from donors like you.
