Letter from the Chair
Dear Friends,
When we founded Cure Alzheimer’s Fund in 2004, I could not have imagined everything we would accomplish.
Beginning with three founding families and the work of a Dream Team of researchers led by Dr. Rudy Tanzi, our funding has led to remarkable discoveries changing the world’s understanding of Alzheimer’s disease.
Thanks to all of you, 2024 was a wonderful milestone year for Cure Alzheimer’s Fund as we marked our 20th year funding research to accelerate the end of Alzheimer’s disease.
We distributed a record $30 million toward our research program in 2024 and, as of the writing of this report, reached a total of $229 million in research funding since our inception. What a tremendous achievement, all made possible by your unwavering support and commitment to our mission.
Our team comes together around our shared mission and the principles with which we pursue it—principles that are recognized by the broader philanthropic world and that will hold us in good stead as we face new challenges in our fight against Alzheimer’s disease. In 2024, we received a 100% Perfect Score from Charity Navigator, an accomplishment earned by less than 1% of all rated nonprofits, on top of our 13th consecutive 4-star rating. This extraordinary accomplishment recognizes our commitment to transparency, financial responsibility and good governance—ensuring that 100% of general donations continue to support our research program.
We share this annual report at a time of much uncertainty surrounding funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest funder of Alzheimer’s research in the world. The NIH has slowed or halted funding authorized and, in some cases, already awarded by Congress. It also announced a policy change capping reimbursement for indirect costs at 15%, a significant reduction of $4 billion from prior levels, with huge potential to impact the research and operations of labs and their institutions. As of the writing of this letter, the policy change sits in the courts, and the impact of this NIH upheaval on our scientists, their labs and their research is not yet known.
The well of innovation from which biotech and pharma draw upon relies on a steady flow of great new knowledge and ideas. Future drugs and treatments can exist only if precompetitive research happens first, investigating key biological questions and providing proof of concept for new targets, delivery mechanisms, therapeutic approaches and more. For-profit entities cannot and will not support it. Any one drug that reaches the market is the result of decades of building block ideas and projects, each contributing necessary components to a successful treatment. CureAlz supports, identifies and tests the most promising new ideas, and NIH support then provides further demonstration of their value and feasibility.
As we look back on the research funded since our inception, all that we have accomplished together is truly remarkable. Yet we are acutely aware of how much work remains. On behalf of 50 million worldwide who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease—and an estimated 150 million who have cognitive decline not yet diagnosed—CureAlz remains steadfast in our commitment to understand the causes and pathology of Alzheimer’s disease so that researchers throughout the world can use the discoveries in their efforts to find therapies leading to a cure.
“CureAlz supports, identifies and tests the most promising new ideas, and NIH support then provides further demonstration
of their value and feasibility.”
IN GRATITUDE
I am personally grateful to my fellow members of our Board of Directors and am pleased to welcome five new directors to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Board. Brittany Bowlen, Mark Faggiano, Mary Greenhill Cagliero, Kumar Mahadeva and Christine Villas-Boas bring proven leadership expertise and success in business, and share a personal desire to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease. We will all benefit from their insights and passion for our mission. I want to thank our Trustees and other core donors who join our Board in supporting all of the overhead costs of Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. Together, with our dedicated staff, we recognize the thousands of researchers in labs around the world who are working tirelessly to understand this very complex disease.
And, of course, my deepest gratitude goes to each of you—our generous donors who make all of our research possible. Your support has fueled two decades of scientific progress, and your continued commitment gives us great optimism and confidence that, in the near future, the research we fund will lead to prevention and to effective therapies for each of the stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
Together we will continue this crucial work until Alzheimer’s disease is nothing but a memory.
Sincerely,
Henry F. McCance
Chair, Board of Directors