Episode 99: Dana Dornsife
Join Lori as she chats with Dana Dornsife, Founder of the Lazarex Cancer Foundation, about her inspiring journey in philanthropy and healthcare advocacy. After witnessing the challenges of accessing clinical trials and patients' financial burdens, Dana established a nationwide foundation dedicated to making a difference. Her work has had a profound impact not only on cancer patients but also on their families!
Here are the things to expect in this episode:
Dana's personal experience that led her to create the Lazarex Cancer Foundation.
How the foundation has grown since it started.
What inspired Dana to give back, and how her work impacted her children?
The foundation's current challenges and its future vision.
And much more!
Dana’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-dornsife-83a7b56/
Dana’s Email: dana@lazarex.org
Lazarex Website: https://lazarex.org/
Lazarex Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LazarexCancerFoundation
Lazarex Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lazarexcf/
Lazarex LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lazarex-cancer-foundation/
Episode Transcript
You're listening to the positive impact philanthropy podcast, where we share the journeys of everyday philanthropists as they incorporate philanthropy into their lives. Philanthropy is a personal journey, and to the stories we share here, we hope that it sparks something in you and how you can make your own philanthropic impact in the world. I'm your host. Lori Kranczer, attorney, philanthropic advisor and legacy giving strategist. Together, we're going to explore what it looks like to be an everyday philanthropist and make a positive impact in the world. Before we get started, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode posted on Wednesdays. So everyone, I want to welcome you to the podcast today where we're interviewing just an Outstanding Philanthropist. I'm so excited that we're able to get this interview scheduled and so we can share her story. So I want to welcome Dana Dornsife. She's the founder of the Lazarex Cancer Foundation. So welcome, Dana
Speaker 2
Thank you so much, Lori, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1
I'm so excited to share your story. So I'm just going to just have you come into the you know, the interview and share, tell us more about who you are and what you do.
Speaker 2
Okay, great, I am Dana Dornsife. I am today the founder, Chief mission and Strategy Officer for Lazarex Cancer Foundation, and have been for the past 20 years. I founded the organization in 2006 prior to that, I grew up on the East Coast in Philadelphia, primarily Philadelphia area, and then migrated out to California in the mid 80s with my family nestled in here, made a life for myself as an entrepreneur in the design field, and then my family was struck with a cancer diagnosis in 2003 and that literally changed everything for me, and is what ultimately led to the founding of Lazarex Cancer Foundation.
Speaker 1
Okay, so tell more that, because that is founding, a foundation is a big deal. So can you share more about how you were able to do that?
Speaker 2
Sure, it is a big deal. And just I'm a person in very strong faith, and I believe, honestly, my mission is, has been divinely guided to some degree. I had mentioned I was an entrepreneur, in 2002 I decided that I really wanted an opportunity to be home with my two boys were entering high school, and also in the other one was in 10th grade, and I had been a working mom my whole life, and so I just felt this is an opportunity for me to really spend time with them, so I went to my business partner, and I asked him if he would be willing to buy me out. And in fact, he was, and that's what began my retirement, or my time off to be with my family. And it was during that time that my youngest sister's husband Mike, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in his early 40s. And pancreatic cancer is a very dire diagnosis, and this goes back again 20 years, right? So we've made some headway with it, but not a lot. There's a lot more work to do there. My sister Erin called me and said, Dana, while we're while Mike is on chemotherapy, could you please look into clinical trials for him? And I said, Sure, of course, no problem. So I thought, how hard could that be? Right? So I did that, and five weeks later, it took me five weeks of almost full time work. I emerged with a short list of opportunities that I thought Mike might qualify for, got him enrolled in the trial, and then began writing checks because of all of the out of pocket expense associated with his clinical trial participation. So two things it really dawned on me: one was how difficult the process was. My kids at that point were in high school. I had sold my business when I was really in the perfect position to be able to devote a lot of time and energy to this. And the second thing that was an aha for me was just the only reason that Mike was able to participate in his clinical trial was because he had a family who could write checks. And I just felt that fundamentally and morally, that was wrong. And I just thought, what does everyone else do? Like Mike was living and able to live an additional 19 months, which allowed his youngest daughter to remember him right? What did they do? How could this be? It was just very inequitable. So I just said to myself, someday, somebody ought to do something about this. And in my wildest dreams, I never thought that would be me. But we lost Mike, and during the course of his journey, he would be approached by other patients or other caregivers of patients to say, Hey, Mike, what are you doing? You seem to be doing. Okay, I want to do what you're doing kind of thing. Yeah, you always said, No problem. Just call my sister in law, Dana, she'll help you. So my phone started ringing, and I was talking to veritable, really strangers, but I knew who they were, because I was living their journey every day. And so, of course, I shared everything I had found out, everything I learned, and we lost Mike, but my phone kept ringing, and I just in 2006 thought, Okay, I need to do something about this. And that was really what prompted mission of Lazarex Cancer Foundation, and we've continued over the last 20 years, to help patients navigate through their clinical trial opportunities, connect them to the investigators of those trials if they're interested in participating and reimbursing them for the out of pocket expense for themselves and a caregiver, so they could actually get where they needed to be to take advantage of medical breakthroughs in clinical trials. And so we've always been about equitable access, creating a platform of equitable access, addressing cancer health disparities, and hoping to achieve better cancer health outcomes.
Speaker 1
That's amazing. It's been almost 20 years that you started. So what has been the progression of the foundation from the conception to now?
07:00
Speaker 2
I come from a for profit background.
Speaker 2 07:04
I'm a stubborn Irish woman, so it's hard for me to ask for help, okay, but honestly, had a really tough time moving into that nonprofit realm and putting out a tin cup and asking for donations as a public charity, we have to receive funding from the general public or else we lose our public charity status, right? So I'll share with you a story, and I'll try to give you the abbreviated version, but I was really struggling. It was almost a year after I had gotten our 501, c3, and I went to bed one night and I just said, God, why? I just felt paralyzed, like I just didn't know what to do. And I said, just, can you just give me a sign? Just let me know that I'm not crazy, that this really is a bonavide need out in the cancer community. And the next day, I came down to my home office, and my office phone rang, which was very unusual at that time, and I picked up the phone, and I kid you not tt was a good friend of ours, and he said, Dana I had, Nikki and I, his wife, watched a movie last night about a kid with cancer, and I woke up this morning with this like compelling need to support a child with cancer in a clinical trial. Do you have anybody that we can support? So the prior couple of weeks, and the reason I was praying for guidance was that I was contacted by a woman whose 14 year old son had osteosarcoma and wanted to participate in a trial and needed $25,000 and I said, look, you go on, Karen, do what you need to do. commit to it. I will figure this out. Even if I have to write the check myself, we're going to get this done so and so that day, when my phone rang, I said, Yes, I do have a child, and his name is Ian, and I need $25,000 and he said it's in the mail. That for me, was truly an answer to my prayers, and I just said, Okay, if I needed a God wink, that was one. And I just moved on through my journey. And the whole development of Lasarex was truly very organic. I didn't have a business plan, none of that. I just wanted to help people move forward with an end stage cancer diagnosis and connect them to trials. And so we've persevered, and 12,000 patients later, here we are, and we've now even dug deeper at the community level to address other barriers now for patients who need resources and services before they even get to the clinical trial stage, and we've made it happen. Are you in a particular geographical location, or where do you provide support? So really, we're a nationwide organization, and we can help patients from anywhere get connected to the resources and services they need as they're available. We have our Lazarex Cancer Wellness hubs operating in three geographic areas, physically, and that's the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, but we are able to assist anyone from anywhere who needs clinical trial navigation or connection to genomic testing, connection to resources and services. So really, our geography is the United States of America.
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's great. So we're going to include all the information at the end in the show notes, so anyone that's listening can take a look and do their own research and connect with you. But I want to talk a little more about you personally and your journey. I know you are an entrepreneur. You're a business owner, and I can absolutely see how this year the foundation became so successful under your leadership. But you could talk all about your growing up and any kind of philanthropy you dealt with outside of the foundation, because I find that people that do this that there are other ways that they're giving as well. We love to just uncover those patterns and see what inspired you to first start giving back.
Speaker 2
Yeah, so a couple of things. I would say that the primary avenue for my ability to give back was really my husband. And I was in my 40s. When that happened, prior to that, I mentioned, I've always been a working mom. I didn't have a lot of disposable income. I was single, trying to raise two boys and just get through everyday pretty much. And we were doing fine. We were able to travel and whatever, and have a good time together. I met Dave in the late 90s, and he happened to be a client of mine from my previous business. Things just clicked. And I guess the short version is we just brought out the best in each other. He was already at a point in his life, he's several years older than me, where he had achieved success as a businessman, and he was really interested in philanthropy and giving back, and so it was a natural progression for me to just join his philanthropic effort. And that's exactly what happened, right. But looking back on my younger years, was I really philanthropy oriented, or, I would say, as a youngster, and even in my teens and 20s and into my 30s, you're consumed with life, right, You're going to school, you're going to college, you're looking for your next job, you're working on your career with life, right. It's the cycle of life. And then as you get older and you're more settled, you have the bandwidth and the brain width and the heart width, I guess you could say, just start paying attention to what's going on around you. And I've always had a certain degree of empathy for others around me and the sensitive spot for people in need. And it was just really nice that in my 40s, I was able to actually listen to that and follow it up and actually do something about it.
Speaker 1
I love that for listeners out there that want to do something, and then maybe others in the same sort of cycle of life, like doing all the things with family career, what advice could you give to listen to that inner voice to do something?
Speaker 2
I think the first thing is that in order to have an inner voice about something, you have to actually observe it, right. You have to start to move beyond your inner circle, yourself, your kids, your husband, your immediate family, right, and just start to really see what's going on out there. And when you do that, and when you're consciously aware of that, things just show up, right? You observe things, and you notice and go, I never know, I never realized that, or I never thought about that, right? And that's when you start to, within yourself, develop that sensitivity and that desire to really do something about it, if you can. And a lot of people assume that philanthropy relies upon having the financial resources, right? And that is truly a big part of it. But there are lots of things that people can do who don't have a lot of financial resource, being kind, helping someone out, having a good, supportive conversation, connecting people to other people, or to resources and services that you're aware of that they may be in need of. There's a lot that we can do.
Speaker 1
I want to talk about your legacy, but before we even get into that, and we'll also talk about what you have in store for the future for the foundation. Curious about your children? Are they involved with the foundation? Many times that we see parents that it's sometimes their passion project that they're working on and become a little more than just a project, and sometimes the children follow suit. So I'm curious where yours are,
Speaker 2
Yeah, so I think that leads into the legacy question, and carrying on our philanthropic endeavors, and there are several that we're involved in is really important to Dave and to me,
Speaker 2 16:26
and we have involved our children, and most of our children are involved in diff in various capacities and in the different organizations that we have come to know and love and support. So yeah, we're trying to, well, not trying we are passing down that opportunity, but also trying to share the return on human investment that Dave and I have when we support others right in whatever capacity, because that's the true joy, I think, of philanthropy is understanding and witnessing firsthand the difference that you've made in someone else's life, right? And it's almost like an addiction. You go, gosh, I was able to help
17:17
that individual.
Speaker 2 17:19
I could do more of this. I could, right? And it's hard to find ways and develop avenues of seeing opportunities to get that done. So that's what we're trying to instill in our children, and I think it's a safe bet that our legacy will be carried on through them.
Speaker 1
That's great. I have to. I really just love that. But Okay, so let's get back to the foundation. So I'd love to know what's in store for the future. How do you anticipate it growing? Are you looking to do anything different?
Speaker 2
I will say that the current political environment has created some upheaval, not just for Lazarex, but for a lot of other nonprofits and other institutions in general, just because corporate America and our government is abandoning dei doesn't mean that we've solved all of the problems around cancer health disparities and cancer health outcomes, right? So I feel like we need to dig in, right? This is not a woke idea. This is not something that you can just adopt one day and dispose of the next, right? These are people's lives. The need is real. It's been real for decades and decades, if not centuries. And so our work now is more important than ever in relation to engaging with our at risk community members and helping them to find and get connected to the resources that they need.
Speaker 1
Dana, thank you so much for sharing your story. There is so much information here. We're going to have so many things in our show notes, but can you just share where people can either find out more information about you, about Lazarex, or your anything you want to share Sure
19:15
Speaker 2
So our website is lazarex.org
19:19
my personal email is dana@lazarex.org
Speaker 2 19:24
you can also reach me on LinkedIn, and that should do it. You can find your way to me from those avenues.
Speaker 1
Great, and so we're going to put that all in the show notes. Everyone that's listening can be able to find that information. I want to thank you again for joining us and sharing your story. It's so important to share the stories of people that are giving back in so many different ways, and the fact that not everyone may be able to create a foundation like you did that's been so successful, but there are so many ways that people give back even let's be kind to each other so everyone can do something absolutely all right. Dana, thank you again for joining us and for everyone else, thank you for joining us. Listen to new episodes posted on Wednesdays and until next time.
Speaker 2
Thank you so much, Lori. I really appreciate this opportunity. Thank you for joining us. I hope we provided some insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. You can tune in every week.
Speaker 1
On Wednesdays, when new episodes are dropped, we'd love to hear your feedback, so leave a comment and a rating you like and what you'd like to hear more about. And if you liked the episode today, make sure to share it, to raise awareness about the story, to inspire other women to take action. I'm Lori Kranczer, and until next time you can make a positive impact through philanthropy every day. Thanks For Listening.