Children’s Hospital Colorado launched the largest fundraising campaign in its history Thursday, hoping to bring in $400 million for pediatric research, clinical-care improvements and statewide partnerships and initiatives.
The scope of “Courage Is … The Campaign to Transform Children’s Health” outstrips even the $273 million that the hospital raised in 2007 to help it move from Denver to its current location on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
Officials, who already have gathered $190 million of their target total, hope to bring in the rest of the money by the end of 2018.
Rather than going to construction of a new building, as many hospital fundraising campaigns do, the money will go to ongoing efforts that officials believe will keep the facility ranked among the top children’s hospitals in the country.
Those include breakthrough research into disease cures, the ability to treat more children and local partnerships offering preventive services and advocacy for children’s health across Colorado.
“Courage is, to me, the connective tissue that brings together all of the young patients and families in need, all of the caring health professionals, all of the technological marvels, and all of the pioneering research at Children’s Hospital Colorado,” said Steve Winesett, president and CEO of Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation. “It is through philanthropy that we all can courageously partner in transforming pediatric healthcare.”
Officials announced the campaign at a ceremony that included hot-air balloons and a performance by "American Idol" winner Phillip Phillips.
