Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health

Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health

Founded in 1996 by David and Lucile Packard, the foundation is the fundraising engine behind Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford and child and maternal health programs at the Stanford School of Medicine. David Packard co-founded Hewlett-Packard Company; Lucile Salter Packard was a lifelong advocate for children's health. The foundation's endowment originates from the Packard family's technology wealth, making it one of several vehicles — alongside the David and Lucile Packard Foundation — that steward the family's philanthropic legacy. The foundation's investment portfolio spans buyout, growth, venture, distressed debt, mezzanine, natural resources, real assets, secondaries, and fund-of-funds commitments. Geographic exposure extends across North America, with additional capital deployed in Europe and Asia. The foundation holds investments in trust, real asset funds, and natural resources exposure. Confirmed co-investment relationships include TPG Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, where board members Jonathan Coslet and David George serve as vice chairman and general partner, respectively. The portfolio uses a hybrid structure — direct co-investments, fund commitments, and secondary transactions — to support its grantmaking activities and the hospital's operating needs. A 34-member board governs the foundation, chaired by Susan Ford Dorsey, who also leads the Sand Hill Foundation. The investment and finance committee includes Jeff Chambers, senior adviser at TA Associates; Jane Dunlevie, partner at Goldman Sachs; and Bill Thompson, director of institutional consulting at Beacon Pointe Advisors. Additional board relationships extend to General Catalyst, TPG Capital, New Enterprise Associates, and Stanford Management Company. May 2024: The foundation's investment committee maintained its multi-asset allocation while continuing to fundraise against its multi-year campaign target — cumulative giving surpassed $2.6 billion since 1997. The foundation operates as an independent public charity, not a private foundation — a structural distinction that shapes its fundraising model and regulatory posture. It is the sole corporate member of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, giving it governance authority over the institution while maintaining a separate independent board. This architecture creates a tight feedback loop between fundraising, investment returns, and direct healthcare delivery, with the endowment serving both as a permanent capital base and as a liquidity pool for the hospital's operations.