Longtime supporters and civic leaders Carl and Renée Behnke have donated $15 million to help launch an ambitious comprehensive campaign and accelerate precision oncology research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. In recognition of the Behnkes’ extraordinary generosity, South Lake Union House — an 80-unit building that offers affordable short-term lodging to patients who travel to Fred Hutch for care — is being renamed the Behnke Family House.
The Behnke family has been involved as advocates and supporters since Fred Hutch’s earliest days, with three generations holding volunteer leadership positions. When Carl Behnke spearheaded a capital campaign in the early 1990s and chaired the boards of both Fred Hutch and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, he was following in the footsteps of his mother, Sally Skinner Behnke, who also served as board chair. Renée Behnke has been a longtime fundraising partner and the couple’s daughters, Marisa and Merrill, and respective sons-in-law, Corey Ginsberg and Ryan Broms, are members of the Innovators Network, a community of next-generation Fred Hutch supporters.
In 2025, Fred Hutch will mark its 50th anniversary. “It’s impossible to overstate how important this family’s guidance and generosity have been to Fred Hutch’s first five decades of breakthroughs,” said Fred Hutch President and Director Thomas J. Lynch, Jr., MD, who holds the Raisbeck Endowed Chair. “Their enthusiastic support will continue to fuel progress for decades to come.”
Personalized prevention and treatment
With this gift, the Behnkes join the Anniversary Challenge, an initiative to bring together Fred Hutch’s philanthropic community to support the cost of designing, building and equipping a new building to house the Stuart and Molly Sloan Precision Oncology Institute. The $225 million challenge, part of a landmark 2022 gift from the Bezos family, will match every gift of $1 million or more received by June 30, 2028.
“It’s an honor for Renée and me to be among the first to donate to the Anniversary Challenge,” said Carl Behnke. “Being on the leading edge of giving helps keep Fred Hutch on the leading edge of discovery.”
Much of that discovery in the next decade will be in the field of precision oncology, the science and practice of transforming a deep and ever-expanding ocean of data into effective treatments, diagnostic tools and risk-reduction strategies tailored to individuals.
Content Original Link:
https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2024/01/behnke-support-campaign.html