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Is there a place in the John Templeton Foundation for the American Cancer Society?
John Templeton was born in 1912 in Tennessee. He worked his way through Yale, some say by playing poker and winning.. He won on Wall Street too in 1939 by buying 100 shares of 104 companies selling at a $1 or less. He turned a large profit in an average of 4 years.
Named the greatest global stock picker of the 20th century by Money Magazine, in 1992 he sold his various Templeton mutual funds for $440 Million .
The Foundation based in Pennsylvania gives away about $40 million a year. Sir John, at 92 is still active with the Foundation. Can the American Cancer Society find a topic that would interest Mr. Templeton? It is worth a try.
Templeton definitely has deep pockets. But they are focused on grantmaking to projects that involve both religion and science, I believe. They do have a “spirituality & health” grant program.
I’m personally fascinated by some Templeton Foundation projects, and in my opinion their outlook is pretty ecumenical. They’ve funded projects that study Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and New Age/Wicca-type movements in some capacity, and probably other religions as well. However, has ACS funded research on spirituality as it relates to cancer patients in the past? My division has only recently started making social and behavioral research grants along with our basic-science grants, and I wonder if we want to focus our attention on this area–particularly when so many other foundations and individuals are also interested in funding religion-related projects.
Amy, you are right about the T. Foundation.
John Templeton is one of the most interesting men I have had the pleasure to meet. But he is quirkie too and perhaps we can cloat some research project in a way that might interest him.
Ed