Over sixty years ago, our founder, Julius S. Rippel, specified in his Will the objects and purposes of the Foundation. However, recognizing that contexts change, the Will gave broad discretion and responsibility to the Trustees to determine how to use the assets and best address his intent over time.

J.S. Rippel established the core purposes of the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation to include: research and treatment related to cancer and heart disease, the health of women and the elderly, and the quality of our nation’s hospitals. In today’s health environment, the Trustees have determined that major advances in these areas will come from substantially new ways of thinking about how we maintain our health, as well as how we define, structure, and deliver health care. New paradigms are needed that embrace the wholeness of the individual, the power of science, the globalization of medicine, and the challenging dynamics of our health care system.

Knowing that purposeful actions can produce significant results, our mission is to strategically invest our limited resources to seed innovation, catalyze change, and create model processes that will lead to improvements in health.