New $10 million Nationwide Foundation donation to support Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s affordable housing initiative, groundbreaking genomics program

A new $10 million gift to Nationwide Children’s Hospital through the Nationwide Foundation’s Pediatric Innovation Fund will support the hospital’s work to expand access to affordable housing in the Linden neighborhood and its groundbreaking work in genomic medicine, including research and patient care.

The 2023 gift, which will support several key hospital initiatives, builds on more than a decade of philanthropic investments in vital programs that seek to help all children have a healthy future, whether they live in central Ohio or across the United States.

The Pediatric Innovation Fund will support the hospital’s ongoing efforts to create affordable housing units in Linden. Community factors such as access to housing, health care, education, employment, transportation, and healthy food can directly affect a person’s health. Nationwide Children’s Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families initiative helps to address these factors impacting health and well-being.

Healthy Homes, the affordable housing arm of Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families, will develop 80 high quality, affordable homes for purchase in Linden, in partnership with the Central Ohio Community Land Trust. Each house is sold at less than the cost to develop it. Twenty homes are complete, and eight are currently in construction.

Through the recently announced Linden Home Fund II, $50 million will support the development of 150 rental units. Nationwide is among the funding partners.

“Nationwide Children’s is committed to improving the health of families and neighborhoods by working with community partners to address the social and economic factors that can impact health outcomes. But it takes a community to make impactful change,” said Tim Robinson, Chief Executive Officer, Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “Nationwide Foundation’s generous $10 million gift and ongoing commitment to improving community health will help us strengthen our work in affordable housing to help families improve their health starting at home. It will also help advance our research in genomic medicine, create innovative ways to manage data, and attract and retain world-class talent.”        

Other programs benefiting from this year’s $10 million gift include:

• Genomics: Funding in 2023 will support capital and programming enhancements to process more genomes, more quickly and cost-effectively at the hospital’s Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Institute for Genomic Medicine. Established in 2016, the Institute is one of the leading programs in pediatric precision genomic medicine in the U.S., focusing on genomics as the key to diagnosis and to identifying treatments for a range of childhood diseases. Since its inception, the Institute has provided more than 63,000 clinical genomics-based tests for more than 17,000 patients with a wide variety of conditions.
• Biomedical Data Sciences: Funds will help the hospital develop a state-of-the-art centralized data analytics function. The newly established Office of Data Sciences will help the hospital to consolidate data and leverage it more effectively for treatment, cures, and other advancements.
• New Endowed Chair in Innovative Pediatric Care: Funds will support ongoing efforts to attract and retain best-in-class talent by creating the Nationwide Foundation Endowed Chair in Innovative Pediatric Care. The chair will be awarded to Alex Kemper, MD, MDH, MS, who is the division chief of primary care pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Sixteen endowed chairs have been made possible through the Nationwide Foundation. These endowed chairs are critical to the recruitment and retention of top medical talent, supporting the Hospital’s ranking as the sixth top children’s hospital in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

“The Nationwide Foundation is proud of our ongoing partnership with Nationwide Children’s Hospital,” said Nationwide CEO and Nationwide Foundation Chairman Kirt Walker. “Together, we’re helping to provide solutions for our community on critically important issues like affordable housing and research that make an impact and improve the welfare of children and their families.”

The Nationwide Foundation established the Pediatric Innovation Fund in 2014 to target strategic investments in pediatric and community health and to accelerate the most promising research and clinical discoveries at Nationwide Children’s. To date, the Foundation has contributed $100 million to the fund, including the 2023 gift. With the Nationwide Foundation’s initial $50 million donation in 2006, its contributions have now reached $150 million. In addition, Nationwide’s sports marketing programs, including the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, have raised more than $55 million since 2011 to support hospital programs.

“The research advancements and community impact made possible through the Pediatric Innovation Fund – whether in genomics, population health, pediatric mental well-being or data science – have allowed Nationwide Children’s Hospital to make meaningful contributions to the lives of children and their families not only locally, but worldwide,” Walker said.