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Why Your Gift to SPRI is So Vital

In just a quarter century, SPRI has emerged as one of the most productive and respected centers of its kind, yielding new knowledge and pioneering surgical techniques that have had a profound impact on the quality of orthopaedic treatment available throughout the world.

SPRI must rely entirely on philanthropic contributions, competitively awarded grants, and corporate partner to support its research, advanced surgical training programs, and injury prevention programs.

Accordingly, those who value the importance of SPRI’s profound contributions to orthopaedics and sports medicine are invited to provide generous charitable support to ensure that SPRI’s important work continues uninterrupted.

SPRI’s Top Funding Priorities

As a nonprofit organization that relies entirely on private contributions, grants, and corporate affiliations to support its work, SPRI seeks gifts that underwrite all aspects of its operations. Following are SPRI’s highest priorities for private gift support:

General Support of SPRI

SPRI has a current annual budget of $6.5 million – all of which must be raised from private sources: individuals, foundations, and corporations. This budget includes all of SPRI’s annual operating and capital expenses for its personnel, equipment, facilities, and research and education programs.

Unrestricted gifts of any amount are greatly valued because they can be flexibly applied to achieve the greatest impact as well as to respond to important but unanticipated needs and opportunities that arise throughout the year.

Support of Promising Research Projects

Did you know that most significant advances in medicine were initially supported not by government grants but rather by contributions from private sources? Think of the polio vaccine; imaging devices such as CT, MRI and PET; statin drugs to lower cholesterol and reduce inflammation; arthroscopic and laparoscopic surgery; and many other lifesaving treatments. All of these medical miracles were funded initially by individuals, foundations, and corporations – not by government agencies.

Similarly, groundbreaking advances in orthopaedic and sports medicine treatment – the result of the close collaboration between SPRI and The Steadman Clinic – have been made possible by the generosity of thousands of individuals, foundations, and corporations over the past 25 years. At any given moment, SPRI has a sizeable backlog of formal proposals to pursue innovative research projects which can only be undertaken with the necessary funding committed in advance.

SPRI seeks gifts of all amounts to fund research projects that test the validity of promising new ideas put forward by SPRI’s scientists and The Steadman Clinic’s orthopaedists – ideas that could potentially result in dramatic breakthroughs in orthopaedics and sports medicine treatment.

Acquisition of Research Equipment

Cutting-edge medical research of the type conducted by SPRI requires the use of sophisticated scientific instruments and equipment that are exceptionally expensive to purchase or lease. SPRI seeks gifts that can be used to acquire new research instruments or equipment or to outfit a new or renovated laboratory.

Support of SPRI’s Fellowship Program

SPRI’s Fellowship Program is universally viewed as one of the world’s most prestigious advanced surgical training programs in orthopaedics and sports medicine. SPRI Fellows are carefully selected young physicians who have completed their orthopaedics or sports medicine surgical training elsewhere and spend one year in Vail working closely with Steadman Clinic orthopaedists seeing patients in the Clinic, assisting in surgery, performing research projects, and covering team sporting events for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Teams and local high schools.

Each year, only nine orthopaedists are selected as SPRI Fellows from nearly 200 highly qualified candidates. Following their one-year Fellowship, Fellows move on to establish their own surgical practices throughout the U.S. and other countries or they move into faculty positions at leading academic medical centers. Fellows receive a modest annual stipend of $55,000 from SPRI to cover living expenses while in Vail.

SPRI seeks gifts each year to offset the cost of the stipends provided to each SPRI Fellow. A donor may name a Fellowship with an annual gift of $50,000 or more.

Matching Gifts for Foundation Grants

Foundation grants are highly desirable because they underwrite the ‘direct costs’ for scientific personnel, supplies, and equipment. However, such grants generally do not cover the ‘indirect costs’ of facilities (e.g., utilities, maintenance, rent, etc.), equipment, and administrative support which are essential to the conduct of cutting-edge research.

At SPRI, for every $1.00 of research funded by foundation grants, the Institute must obtain an additional $.57 to cover the indirect costs to conduct the research.

SPRI seeks gifts of all amounts to underwrite its unfunded indirect costs, thus enabling the Institute to accept valuable foundation grants and enabling donors to leverage the financial impact of their gifts.

Recruitment of New Researchers

SPRI seeks to enlarge its research program by recruiting talented new scientists to build upon the Institute’s existing research strengths. However, recruiting a new researcher is an expensive proposition, often costing $2 million or more to attract a world-class scientist and his/her research team to SPRI. Such funds cover the cost of relocating the new researcher, outfitting his/her laboratory, and providing term support for the laboratory for the first two to three years. Because SPRI is competing with some of the nation’s most highly regarded academic medical centers and research institutes, such funds need to be committed before the Institute makes a formal recruitment offers.

SPRI seeks gifts that can be earmarked to help recruit new scientists to the Institute.

Honor or Memorialize a Loved One

What better way to honor the legacy of a loved one…to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, wedding, or holiday…or to simply recognize someone special, than by making a memorial or testimonial gift to SPRI?

A memorial or testimonial gift may be left undesignated, allowing it to be used where it might have the greatest impact, or it may be earmarked for a specific research or educational program at SPRI.

SPRI encourages prospective donors to consider making a testimonial gift as a creative and meaningful way to demonstrate one’s love or admiration for another.

For more information concerning a gift in support of SPRI, please contact:

Lee Jones
Vice President, Development & Patient Excellence Programs
Steadman Philippon Research Institute
181 West Meadow Drive
Vail, CO 81657-5059
Tel: (970) 479-5781
Cell: (970) 390-8126
Email:  ljones@sprivail.org

or

Lynda Sampson
VP of External Affairs
Steadman Philippon Research Institute
181 West Meadows Drive, Suite 1000
Vail, Colorado 81657-5059
Tel: (970) 479-1563
Email:  lsampson@sprivail.org

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