Cancer touches everyone, so all have a stake in defying it at every turn. Dana-Farber is leading the way in this global effort thanks to the help of a committed community of supporters and dedicated champions like Boston legend, Larry Lucchino.
Recently, Lucchino made a gift of $500,000 to The Dana-Farber Campaign, to support capital projects and strategic initiatives through the Presidential Initiatives Fund. His philanthropy underscores the campaign’s cornerstone priorities of supporting revolutionary science, extraordinary care, and exceptional expertise to create better outcomes for patients everywhere.
Lucchino’s generosity was recognized by naming The Imagine Display, a whimsical representation of Dana-Farber’s signature “bench to bedside” research model through the eyes of our youngest patients. Opening in November 2021, The Imagine Display, made possible by the Lucchino Family, offers an array of unique naming opportunities for all donors that will further generate critical funding for cancer research and care at the Institute.
Larry Lucchino has repeatedly risen to the occasion for Dana-Farber and its patients in an array of leadership roles. As president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox from 2002 to 2015, he deepened the Jimmy Fund’s partnership with the team by helping to establish such beloved annual traditions as the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon and trips to Spring Training for Jimmy Fund Clinic patients and caregivers. In 2016, Lucchino signed on as Chairman of the Jimmy Fund, serving as the lead ambassador and public spokesperson to increase grassroots support for Dana-Farber’s mission.
An Institute Trustee since 2003, Lucchino has been deeply involved in Dana-Farber’s fundraising efforts on many fronts. He served as co-chair of the Institute’s ambitious Mission Possible campaign from 2004 to 2011 and chair of the Trustee Philanthropy Committee from 2014 to 2020. He and wife Stacey walk in the Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk, Stacey rides in the Pan-Mass Challenge, and both are members of the Dana-Farber Society, a special family of forward-thinking supporters who have invested in the Institute’s future through planned giving.
Now, as The Dana-Farber Campaign continues to gain momentum, Lucchino is once again helping to lead the charge through his generous gift and his service as a member of the Campaign Cabinet. A longtime Dana-Farber patient who first came to the Institute for treatment while still living in Washington, D.C., Lucchino has personal knowledge of and gratitude for the Institute’s impact in New England, across the country, and throughout the world. And he believes that the campaign, along with all who support it, empowers Dana-Farber to make an even greater difference.
“New ideas can only be generated through new funding, and the campaign allows us to pursue solutions to the problem of cancer in new, better, and different ways,” Lucchino said. “I am proud of what Dana-Farber does in and beyond our community, and I am honored to support it any way I can.”