We’d like to open this message with gratitude. We are so grateful to you, our community, for the overwhelming support you’ve shown us during this unprecedented time.
While we have all lived through a year of challenge and change, thanks to your generosity it’s also been a year of innovation and advancement in patient care.
Philanthropy fuels leading-edge care and discovery at Sinai Health, and earlier this year we became the grateful recipients of a transformational $21-million gift from philanthropists Shawn Kimel and Kate Schatzky. This life-changing gift is already at work — helping to revitalize Sinai Health’s Intensive Care Unit and providing critical support to the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI), enabling future discoveries. Our heartfelt thanks to Shawn and Kate.
Also powered by donors, and launched within the first few weeks of the pandemic, is the “Sinai CEO Fund.” This COVID-19 emergency response fund supports our health care heroes on the front lines of the pandemic, helps patients stay connected to their loved ones and has seed funded research to improve COVID-19 testing and treatment. Furthermore, support from the fund enabled meals and refreshments for our care teams, along with free hotel rooms downtown to accommodate staff putting in long shifts. We have your fast action to thank for its success.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the demand for up-to-date, credible information significant, and Sinai Health’s experts have been happy to share their expertise. This commitment to sharing led to the establishment of Sinai Live, our virtual Town Hall series. Since 2020, we have hosted 12 virtual events, reaching a combined total of more than 10,000 people. The average registration for our Town Hall events is 2,250, with more than 1,500 people watching the recordings. Sinai Health Foundation takes seriously its connection to its community and to the broader public, and we’re pleased our Sinai Live Town Hall events are connecting with new and established audiences.
Sinai Health Foundation’s philanthropic community has repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to our cause is unwavering. You helped us find new ways to support important initiatives by reimagining some of our fundraising events virtually. Although we had to postpone many of the annual events that typically bring us together, we hosted a number of virtual events, including our first-ever live streamathon. “Champions of Sinai” raised more than $64,000 for the Sinai CEO Fund and introduced us to 1.7 million new people. And in a year of non-stop change, support from our community has been a constant. Thanks to your belief in the work of Sinai Health, we were able to raise an astonishing $72 million, including life insurance policies and bequest intentions.
Thank you, everyone, for your ongoing commitment to Sinai Health. We remain optimistic about the future, and look forward to celebrating a Sinai Health milestone together when Mount Sinai Hospital turns 100 in 2023.
Thanks to your continued commitment and unwavering support, the care provided across Sinai Health is changing lives and pushing the boundaries of discovery.
Sincerely,
David Cynamon
Co-Chair, Board of Directors
Maxine Granovsky Gluskin
Co-Chair, Board of Directors
Howard Sokolowski, O.Ont.
Co-Chair, Board of Directors
Louis de Melo
Chief Executive Officer
David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski have made an indelible mark on Sinai Health Foundation (SHF). Their tenure as foundation co-chairs will be remembered for many things: their strategic acumen, savvy succession planning and an unwavering commitment to the advancement of SHF. But what we at the Foundation might remember most is their genuine warmth and willingness to always make time for the people of Sinai Health.
David and Howard work in harmony, complementing each other’s strengths. Sinai Health has benefitted immeasurably from their combined vision and tenacity. The impact they have had on the Foundation has been vast and has helped transform our organization. Today, we have an exciting, relevant and motivating strategic plan that outlines the steps we must take to realize our goal of being a world-class hospital foundation. The countless hours of work behind this were led by David. His commitment to workplace culture and the need for good governance has left its mark on how SHF plans and acts. His doubling down on the importance of transparency and accountability has increased our appeal to donors. His work has forever changed SHF, and cannot be understated.
Together with David’s invaluable contributions have been those of Howard. Moving us toward our goal of being world-class, Howard uses the combination of his genuine and deep commitment to Sinai Health with his unparalleled roots in the community to attract new donors and partners to our vibrant, philanthropic community, as witnessed in the Builders’ Campaign. Our future is brighter because of Howard’s commitment to our major gift successes. His work has resulted in fundamental shifts in SHF’s fundraising capacities and has had a direct impact on Sinai Health’s capacity to deliver world-class care to every patient who walks through our doors.
David and Howard’s combined contributions are too many to list, and have improved the organization in every way. Their belief in the importance of diversity has seen broader representation on the SHF board, alongside a commitment to continued diversification in board recruitment, an essential achievement that represents the organization’s desire to reflect the hospital community. This work has helped position SHF to properly commemorate Mount Sinai Hospital’s 100th anniversary in 2023. But more than that, they each have changed SHF, and have ensured our world-class goal is one we are well-positioned to achieve.
I also know how proud they are at having attracted our incoming board co-chairs, Maxine Granovsky Gluskin and Richard Pilosof, to lead us into the future.
By any measure, SHF has excelled under David and Howard’s incredible joint leadership. They have left the Foundation in a stronger and better position than when they began their tenure as Co-Chairs. We are truly grateful to them for charting our past, present and future and guiding our foundation’s evolution as a progressive and inclusive organization, pushing to its goal of being world-class.
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From top: David Cynamon, Howard Sokolowski
