Wellington Financial donates to EB Research Partnership

Over the past few years, our firm has raised and donated more than $600,000 to various local charities, community groups and worthy institutions. Names such as the Sunnybrook Hospital Foundation (several rooms in the new Women & Babies Wing), the Canadian Art Foundation, Covenant House (street kids), Jean Tweed Centre (women’s addiction treatment facility), Ronald McDonald House, Western University (an endowed scholarship in Technology Evaluation & Analysis)…. In most cases, our donations have stayed in Canada, despite the fact that ~80% of our portfolio companies are based in the USA.

Last year, we made out first significant commitment to a U.S. charity / community group in Stewardship Partners, a not-for-profit agency that helps landowners in the Northwestern U.S. conserve and protect the natural landscapes. That fit with our 10 year relationship with Toronto-based Bullfrog Power, Canada’s green electricity provider. That we have several portfolio companies, both present and past (Digital Fortress, Elastic Path Software, FINcad, Teradici, Vision Critical), in the Seattle and Vancouver area meant that Stewardship Partners gave us the perfect avenue to invest directly in one of our key markets.

Today’s newest partnership is with the EB Research Partnership. When an individual is struck with Epidermolysis Bullosa, they lack a critical protein that binds the layers of skin together. Without this protein, the skin tears apart, blisters and sheers off, leading to severe pain, disfigurement, and wounds that never heal. EB affects the body inside and out. Blisters occur all over the body, as well as in the eyes, mouth, esophagus, and other internal organs. EB causes severe pain, disfigurement, and in too many cases, an early death from an aggressive form of skin cancer. EB is not specific to any ethnicity or gender, and affects thousands of people across the U.S. and Canada.

You can learn more about the disease here. With two active kids, I can’t imagine how different their daily lives would be if either of them had EB. No school sports, no bike trips, no GTHL hockey. Missing the fun stuff is one thing, but then there’s the pain.

Our US$10,000 donation, if matched by a thousand others just like it, would fund a meaningful amount of research. Please think about adding the EB Research Partnership to your firm’s 2016 donation strategy.

MRM