The Stories

“Any other ideas?”

That’s the question Eli Broad loves to ask in conversations about everything from improving our country’s public schools to reducing gun violence, reimagining museum experiences, and finding cures for diseases. We at The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation embrace that curiosity, asking this question liberally and deliberately. You never know who might have the next bright thought; buried in the dozens of wild, half-baked, off-the-wall ideas, there are unexpectedly brilliant ones.

One of the opportunities afforded by philanthropy is the freedom to try something new and see if it makes a difference. In the following stories we share how audacious, aspirational, essential, and at times controversial ideas become real, willed into existence by the tenacity and generosity of Eli and Edye Broad. Evident in these accounts is the intelligence and drive of our dogged team, the brilliant people we’re lucky to work with, and the incredible individuals— the patient in a clinical trial, the parent choosing a school, the artist speaking her mind—who took chances on untried ideas.

The stories capture inspiring grit, heartwarming selflessness, and motivating vision. Each in its own way demonstrates both the challenges and the opportunities in philanthropy. Collectively, the stories narrate a fierce, unwavering, and encouraged belief that together we can help change the world one school, one museum, one cure, one community at a time. In sharing them we aspire to learn, reflect, and open minds—our own, and hopefully yours too.

GERUN RILEY President, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation