Donor Impact at the Danforth Center

Danforth Center supporters are among the Center’s most valuable resources for they provide the Center and its scientists with the resources necessary to achieve its global and regional mission to feed the hungry and improve human health, preserve and renew the environment, and enhance our region as a world center of plant science.

Donors give the Center the tools necessary to perform fundamental research that will benefit humankind, and their gifts also give us the leverage necessary to receive substantial grants from places like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and generous support from individuals, corporations and foundations critical.

The competitive research grants we receive from the NSF, NIH, USDA and DOE only cover part of the cost of research.  The rest of the cost must be provided by the Danforth Center, which it can only do thanks to private support from the community for its daily operations and endowment.

“These donations are key to ensuring that we can seize the opportunities before us by assisting in funding our educational outreach programs which encourage science education in our local schools and share our mission with the wider community as well as enables us to purchase state-of-the-art equipment, continue to grow our faculty, maintain our building and core facilities, help support our summer internship program, license our technology, and create start-up companies,” said Tom Bander,  senior director and annual giving & constituent relations at the Danforth Center.

Above all, contributions allow the Center to have an even greater impact as they allow our world-class researchers to solve humanity’s greatest challenges to advance critical research developing clean, sustainable biofuels, increased and more nutritious yields for subsistence farmers around the world, and a reduced agricultural burden on our environment all while helping to create jobs in our region.

“The knowledge our family is supporting something greater than ourselves is tremendously rewarding. The Danforth Center benefits our region, state, nation and beyond,” said Cynthia Kramer, donor and recently elected, Creve Coeur Ward 1 Council member. “What a gift for our children to know they are part of making the world a better place from their own back yard. The Danforth family has defined its legacy not only through its generous provision of financial resources but also its role of service to others. It’s a lead our family wants to follow.”

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