Amid Scarce Funding, One of Philanthropy's Largest-Ever Gifts for Depression Research

Mental health, among the most complex and costly health issues in this country and around the world, has been a frequent topic of coverage here at Inside Philanthropy, with much of that coverage highlighting the need for a lot more resources—public as well as private. As we explored in-depth in our State of American Philanthropy paper on the topic, mental health is vastly underfunded next to its pervasiveness and negative impact. Mental health researchers and advocates are hoping that the funding spigots will open wider as the scope of the needs around mental health becomes better recognized.

It may be too early to say there’s a trend toward greater support for research and access to care, but a recent big gift is definitely a step in the right direction, focusing new research on one of the most widespread of mental health conditions: depression.

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) recently announced that it has received a gift of $57.75 million from the estate of Audrey Steele Burnand, a philanthropist who lived in the nearby community of Newport Beach, California. Burnand, who died in 2020, was the daughter of Harry and Grace Steele, whose wealth originated from the Los Angeles-based U.S. Electrical Motors, a manufacturer whose engines powered the pumps that helped irrigate California’s breadbasket San Joaquin Valley. For a time, Burnand led her family’s Harry and Grace Steele Foundation, which awarded $165 million over a span of about 50 years and closed up shop in 2006.

Burnand supported causes in Southern California, including the arts, education, the environment, and scientific and medical research. During her lifetime, she backed research into Alzheimer’s disease at UCI, which has long been a leading site of study into that form of dementia.

Some $2.6 million of Burnand’s big gift to UCI will support the UCI-managed Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center to continue its ecological research—one of Burnand’s longtime philanthropic interests. But the bulk of the gift, $55 million, is earmarked to fund research into depression. UCI says the money will foster multidisciplinary research by scientists from across the campus. The gift will also create the Noel Drury M.D. Depression Research Center, named for a psychiatrist who practiced in Newport Beach.

“Depression research really doesn’t belong to any one department or school,” said Frank LaFerla, dean of UCI’s School of Biological Sciences and director of the UCI Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “It’s biology, medicine, pharmacology, social sciences and psychology, and the rest of the institution. We will attack the problem from all sides.” That means research will dig deeply into the underlying biological mechanisms of depression.

LaFerla hopes the new center will let UCI become a leader in depression research. Some of the funding will be used to attract top scientific talent to the school, which, in turn, will draw younger researchers eager to work with top names in the field.

Depression is the most prevalent type of mental health disorder, affecting an estimated 5% of all adults globally, and responsible for an enormous global health burden. While medications, talk therapy and other treatments help some people with depression, many don’t respond to available approaches. In addition to the suffering directly attributable to depression, whether it’s major depression or persistent depressive disorder, the condition can contribute to other health woes and to lower levels of success in school and work life.

LaFerla said new avenues of science are generating real hope for progress toward understanding and treating depression, citing genetic tools such as CRISPR to enable study of the brain and its disorders, as well as high-resolution imaging tools like MRI scans. “It’s even quite likely that engineering will make a big contribution to the study of depression,” he said. For instance, engineers could develop devices to identify early when someone might be heading into a depressive state, possibly by sensing changes in blood pressure or other physiological markers to enable earlier and possibly more effective treatment.

Prior to this latest gift from Burnand, UCI has a long history of brain-related research. In fact, in 1964, it was the first university to establish an academic department fully devoted to the study of the brain. The university has since built a strong track record in brain research and mental health research, including on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Many who work in mental health advocacy and research believe that society is moving steadily toward greater acknowledgement of the need to develop better medicines and other treatments for mental health disorders, and to sharply increase the availability of care providers for issues like depression, addiction, schizophrenia and trauma, among others.

However, because mental health is such a complex issue, influenced by social as well as physical and emotional factors, it remains a difficult prospect for philanthropy to tackle. This isn’t an area where funders can count on quick, easily measurable results. And solutions are often complex, as well, with research being only one dimension involved.

“We’re seeing some improvement in terms of the level of funding. Of course, more needs to be done, but this wonderful bequest to UCI is a step in the right direction,” said Jeff Borenstein, president and CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, which funds brain science. “We’re seeing tremendous interest among young scientists and this is a very exciting time for research.”

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