Walther Cancer Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Walther Cancer Foundation supports a wide range of cancer research efforts with a geographical and academic focus on major Midwestern universities.
IP TAKE: The Walther Cancer Foundation is primarily a local funder that prioritizes funding research at universities in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. Otherwise, Walther looks to fund outfits that demonstrate the ability to secure additional funding through other sources. This is not a funder for researchers or organizations whose cancer research does not benefit this foundation’s limited geographic scope. This is not an accessible funder with grant guidelines or deadlines. Only established researchers at major universities in the foundation’s geographic areas who can create multi-member teams will have any success here. We advise networking with previous grantee departments to learn more about how to get on this funder’s radar.
PROFILE: The Walther Cancer Foundation was founded in 1985 by Dr. Joseph Walther, who lost his wife to colon cancer. Walther “realized that insights into this family of diseases go beyond initiatives that seek to unlock fundamental secrets of the transfigured cells that give rise to cancer.” Dr. Joseph E. Walther, born and raised in Indiana, earned his M.D. from Indiana University. He served as a physician and a member of the medical staffs for various hospitals in the Indianapolis area, as well as in Hawaii.
The foundation supports both basic cancer research and efforts to “test new therapies and focus on human behaviors as well as ways patients and their families respond to a diagnosis of cancer.”
Grants for Disease and Cancer Research
This foundation’s grants for cancer research have two primary goals: to “support research to understand the biology of cancer with the aim of better treatments if not cures,” and to “develop a comprehensive approach for supporting patients with cancer and their families.” In general, Walther prioritizes “high-risk, potentially high reward efforts in basic laboratory, clinical, and behavioral cancer research.”
The Walther Cancer Foundation is laser-focused on local universities, so grantmaking centers on specific hospitals and institutions. As a result, WCF conducts its grantmaking through the Walther Supportive Oncology Program at Indiana University School of Medicine, which is meant to “grow a robust supportive oncology program in Indiana,” and bioinformatics work at the cancer centers at Indiana University and Purdue to create a joint bioinformatics program.
That said, WCF has partnered with the American Society of Clinical Oncology to help further “promote the area of supportive oncology" by creating, in 2017, the Walther Cancer Foundation Supportive Oncology Award.
Important Grant Details:
The Walther Foundation made about $7 million in grants in a recent year. Grants range from around $60,000 to over $1 million.
Nearly all of Walther’s grants are awarded to principal investigators and programs at major universities in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
Past grantees include Indiana University, Notre Dame, Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan State, and the University of Michigan, though in the past it has also supported research at the University of California, San Diego.
Grantseekers can learn more about Walther’s grantmaking history by reviewing its past grants.
The Walther Foundation no longer accepts unsolicited proposals. Grantseekers may contact the foundation with general inquiries via its contact page.
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