Ginsburg Family Foundation awards $40 million to local organizations

Ginsburg Family Foundation announced grants totaling $40 million to three local organizations focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion in the Central Florida community. The social impact grants were awarded to Nemours Children’s Health, Holocaust Museum for Hope & Humanity and the University of Central Florida.

“Our family loves the Central Florida community and we are proud to support these organizations which not only celebrate our diversity, but also improve the quality of life for our community,” said Alan H. Ginsburg, prominent Central Florida philanthropist, community leader and Chairman of Ginsburg Family Foundation. “Our hope is these grants inspire our growing community to continue to prioritize equity and inclusion, but also inspire others to give in any way they can to support these important initiatives.”

The Ginsburg Family Foundation provided $10 million toward the construction of the new world-class, 40,000-square-foot Holocaust Museum for Hope & Humanity, which will be located on a lakefront site in downtown Orlando. This museum, which is the transformative evolution of the existing Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida, will be a first-of-its-kind destination built around the stories of survivors, with a mission to educate and inspire a community free of antisemitism and all forms of prejudice and bigotry. USC Shoah Foundation, founded by Steven Spielberg and a world leader in testimony-based research, education and interactive experiences, serves as a content and creative partner in the development of the new museum. This is the first time it has teamed with a Holocaust museum to design, develop, and implement a ground-up and permanent museum-wide exhibition. The new museum will include innovative and interactive exhibits centered around the stories of survivors, including Dimensions in Testimony, which enables people to ask questions that prompt real-time responses from pre-recorded video interviews with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses to genocide. This pioneering project integrates advanced filming techniques, specialized display technologies and next generation natural language processing to create an interactive biography. Now and far into the future, museum-goers, students and others can have conversational interactions with these eyewitnesses to history to learn from those who were there.

“The Ginsburg Family sets an example that inspires each of us to actively participate in the creation of a just and caring community where bigotry and antisemitism have no home. Our vision is to create in the Holocaust Museum for Hope & Humanity an enlightening experience for students, residents and the tens of millions of visitors from around the world who come to Central Florida each year,” said Ellen Wise Lang, Past President, Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida. “We are immensely grateful to the Ginsburgs for their generous investment in our mission of preserving the past in order to protect the future by helping to create the first Holocaust museum truly built around the powerful stories of survivors, like my mother, Tess Wise, founder of the Holocaust Center.”

The University of Central Florida is receiving $5 million to establish the Ginsburg Center for Inclusion and Community Engagement, which will serve UCF students, faculty, and staff and members of the greater Orlando community. The Center will engage and strengthen the community with a focus on education aimed at building cross-cultural and global competencies, as well as opportunities to learn about and effectively serve various populations such as those with differing abilities and disabilities; veterans; those who are the first in their families to attend college; and people of varied socio-economic statuses, cultures and beliefs. Additional initiatives and areas of emphasis include a renewed focus on civil discourse and civic engagement; creating inclusive teaching, learning and work environments; and developing strong partnerships with community and industry partners.  

“Universities have always been places where people of differing viewpoints and backgrounds come together to learn, innovate and engage with respect and civility,” UCF President Alexander Cartwright said. “Thanks to the generosity of the Ginsburg Family Foundation, this new center will enhance our efforts to lead with care and compassion, promote a culture that leverages our collective strengths, and allow the campus community to discover solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.”

Nemours Children’s Health received $25 million to address Children’s Health Equity. This first-of-its-kind initiative will advance health equity for children in medically underserved communities by building a world-class interdisciplinary program that goes beyond medicine alone.

This gift will establish the Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity at Nemours Children’s Health which will advance Nemours Children’s mission to provide the leadership, institutions, and services not readily available to improve children’s health. The Ginsburg Institute will further this mission by incubating new and innovative programs, engaging in national policy discussions, and providing intellectual and practical leadership through clinical care, research, education, and quality improvement initiatives. 

The Ginsburg Institute aligns with Nemours Children’s focus on a “pay-for-health” model to promote health by building community relationships and infrastructure, tackling risk factors, and allocating resources for prevention, rather than just trying to fight the symptoms of disease through procedures and interventions. This marks a shift from the current sickness-and-disease-based model that is not only expensive, but deeply unsustainable. 

“Establishing the Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity at Nemours Children’s Health is a turning point in addressing the profound health disparities that have hurt our nation’s children for decades,” said R. Lawrence Moss, MD, FACS, FAAP, President and CEO of Nemours Children’s Health. “Part think-tank, part health-pilot incubator, the Ginsburg Institute will spur discovery and innovation to expand the health and well-being of children everywhere.” 

“… At the same time that we look forward towards the next generation, it is critical that we also remember our history, especially tragedies like the Holocaust, as we work to prevent anything similar from ever happening again. The new programs and research funded by this grant will save lives, open doors of opportunity, and help us to build a community that lives up to America’s promise as a land of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people. I am excited to see all that Nemours Children’s Hospital, The Holocaust Museum for Hope & Humanity, and UCF will accomplish in the years ahead thanks to this generous grant,” said Congresswoman Val Demings.