Health Care Origin Story

Tom Yawkey donates five ambulances to the American Red Cross to be shipped to the Middle East to support the war effort. Later that same year, Tom donates $10,000 to the American Field Service, the ambulance organization carrying casualties during World War II.

One year after their wedding in Georgetown, South Carolina, Tom and Jean Yawkey make a significant charitable gift to support the construction of Georgetown Memorial Hospital, helping bring a hospital to this underserved rural community.

Tom Yawkey begins privately supporting the work of Dr. Sidney Farber, a pediatric pathologist regarded as the father of modern chemotherapy. The following year, compelled by Dr. Farber’s belief that “the only thing standing between science and a cure for cancer was sustained research, sufficient funding, and the national will to bring it about”, Tom decides to designate Dr. Farber’s Children’s Cancer Research Foundation, otherwise known as the Jimmy Fund, as the official charity of the Boston Red Sox. 

Tom Yawkey is elected to serve as a Trustee of the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation, now known as The Jimmy Fund, founded by Dr. Sidney Farber. Throughout the next half-century, the Yawkeys would serve in various leadership roles on the board of the foundation that would ultimately become the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Tom serves as Trustee until his death in 1976, as President from 1960 – 1969 and Chairman of the Board from 1969 – 1976. Jean is a Trustee from 1976 until her death in 1992, serving as Chair from 1976 – 1979. The Yawkeys and their Foundation continue to provide consistent and sustained funding to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through annual gifts for patient support services and cancer research.

Jean Yawkey purchases property to help establish The Family Inn in Brookline, a home away from home for families of patients receiving medical care in Boston.

With gratitude for the exceptional medical care Jean Yawkey received throughout her lifetime, the Yawkey Foundation provides a $25 million transformational capital grant to Massachusetts General Hospital for the construction of a ten-story outpatient treatment center that will provide cancer, cardiac, orthopedic, pediatric, and women’s health care. A longtime patient of Massachusetts General Hospital, Jean Yawkey passed away at the hospital in 1992. 

In honor of Boston Medical Center’s steadfast commitment to providing exceptional care to the neediest Boston residents, the Yawkey Foundation makes a $15 million transformational capital gift to the hospital to help centralize all cancer care and support services in BMC’s J. Joseph Moakley Medical Services Building and adjacent Yawkey Ambulatory Care Center.

The Yawkey Foundation begins providing program funding for Brockton Neighborhood Health Center’s Certified Medical Interpreter Program helping support the Health Center’s efforts to increase equitable access to healthcare in Brockton and surrounding communities.

The Family Inn in Brookline, originally founded with significant support from Jean Yawkey, is donated to Boston Children’s Hospital together with a $3 million transformational capital grant from the Yawkey Foundation. The funds are used to support the new 22-room Yawkey Family Inn at Boston Children’s Hospital on Kent Street in Brookline.  The Yawkey Family Inn has hosted thousands of families visiting Boston for medical care since 1986, in supportive, comfortable, and convenient accomodations. 

With the support of patients and families dealing with cancer as a legacy priority, the Yawkey Foundation becomes the Presenting Sponsor of the Pan Mass Challenge “Kids Rides” Program and their efforts to raise funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute across Massachusetts.

The Yawkey Foundation makes its largest gift to date: $30 million to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in honor of Tom and Jean Yawkey’s lifelong commitment to the Jimmy Fund. The Institute dedicates the 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care and the gift helps Dana-Farber remain a worldwide leader in cancer care while giving the Institute the ability to increase the number of patients who receive life-saving treatment by 40%.

The Yawkey Foundation makes a $200,000 capital grant to Franciscan Hospital for Children for the purchase of specialized medical equipment as part of the Kennedy School renovation project. 

In appreciation of the exceptional care Tom Yawkey received throughout his lifetime, the Yawkey Foundation provides a $2 million transformational capital grant to the New England Baptist Hospital for the renovation of the Hospital’s surgical suites named for Tom Yawkey’s longtime personal physician, Dr. Russell Boles. Tom Yawkey passed away at the hospital in 1976 from leukemia, a disease he dedicated so much of his lifetime to help eliminate.

In order to improve healthcare access for residents across Cape Cod, the Yawkey Foundation awards a $3 million transformational capital grant to Cape Cod Healthcare for the renovation and expansion of the emergency departments in both Hyannis and Falmouth.

After many years of program support to Smith Medical Clinic’s efforts to provide free medical care to low-income and uninsured residents of Georgetown, South Carolina, the Yawkey Foundation provides a capital grant to the Medical Center to support the construction of their new patient care facility, and specifically the new on-site pharmacy.

The Yawkey Foundation awards a $500,000 strategic investment grant to Boston Medical Center to support design and planning for BMC’s Ambulatory Behavioral Health Clinic, which includes new outpatient psychiatric care and comprehensive behavioral health services in a more patient friendly setting.

The Yawkey Foundation provides a $2.5 million transformational capital grant to Rhode Island Hospital’s Hasbro Children’s Hospital to support improvements to the Emergency Department and specifically, the increasing number of patients arriving in need of psychiatric care. This grant builds upon a relationship established in 2007 that included program support as well as small capital grants for pediatric equipment.

In honor of Tom and Jean Yawkey’s consistent funding for Georgetown Memorial Hospital in Georgetown, South Carolina over the course of many decades and their desire to always provide access to the highest quality care to the Georgetown community, the Yawkey Foundation provides a $10 million transformational capital grant to what is now known as Tidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital for the construction of a new surgical pavilion. 

The Yawkey Foundation provides a $1 million transformational capital grant to Brockton Hospital to support the Brockton Hospital School of Nursing and the organization’s mission of providing high-quality and accessible healthcare to individuals in Brockton and the surrounding areas. This gift honors the Foundation’s deep and humble appreciation to nurses – and all healthcare workers.

The Yawkey Foundation supports more than 60 organizations in the Greater Boston area with more than $4 million to help them respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Grantees include organizations providing access to healthcare, as well as the many other nonprofits that support the basic human needs of individuals and families impacted by the pandemic, including access to healthcare, food and housing.