SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL FOUNDATION
Inspiring Progress in Medicine
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Southwestern Medical Foundation began with a question: “Why not a great medical center in the Southwestern United States?” In 1939, the Foundation was created to rally citizens in support of the highest quality health care possible in the Southwestern U.S. Today, the Foundation provides long-term, sustainable funding for: Medical Education: Scholarships for medical students and funding to attract and retain top faculty to inspire and educate the next generation of physicians who will serve our community and beyond. Medical Research: Funding work that will lead to tomorrow's cures. Patient Care: Supporting the delivery of high-quality patient care.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Supporting Exceptional Medical Education
The Foundation supports medical education at UT Southwestern and other academic medical centers in the following ways: scholarships and awards to medical and graduate students; funds that support top faculty to educate medical students; and funds that provide important student benefits.
Advancing Leading Medical Research
The Foundation is an important financial resource that helps fund innovative, internationally-recognized research and groundbreaking developments. The Foundation is dedicated to helping leader in medicine make discoveries that lead to lasting improvements in health care.
Promoting Quality Patient Care
Southwestern Medical Foundation helps fund the delivery of world-class patient care at UT Southwestern affiliated hospitals and others throughout the country.
Inspiring Progress in Medicine
As part of its mission to serve the public and to ensure access to credible health information, the Foundation offers a variety of programming and resources around key public health issues.
Where we work
External reviews

Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of endowments
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Endowed funds allow the Foundation to meet the health care challenges of today while also growing the capacity to meet the demands of tomorrow.
Total number of grants awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Southwestern Medical Foundation is a public charitable corporation and registered 501(c)(3) organization inspiring and advancing progress in medicine.
The Foundation’s mission is to connect the vision of donors with highly innovative programs and serve as a sustainable funding source for leading-edge research, medical education, and patient care.
In 1943, the Foundation started Southwestern Medical College on the same grounds that our office sits today, behind an early Parkland Hospital. That medical college is now known as UT Southwestern Medical Center. For over eight decades, the Foundation has helped transform the North Texas region from what was referred as a “medical wilderness” to a world-renowned medical district leading groundbreaking advances in medical progress.
Southwestern Medical Foundation currently manages nearly $1 billion in assets. With the support of donors, the Foundation has helped build Dallas’ health care infrastructure with its leaders involved in efforts since our beginnings.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The Foundation employs a variety of strategies to inspire, inform, and engage the community in advancing progress in medicine, including educational resources and programming, resource navigation, and public policy advocacy. The Foundation utilizes proven financial and investment strategies such as diversified asset allocation to responsibly manage and grow its endowment and assets.
As a responsible steward of its donors and financial assets, the Foundation combines sound business principles with process-centered thinking, leading to best outcomes and ensuring performance that meets the highest standards.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Through the guidance of its Board of Trustees, expertise of its staff, and insights from trusted partners, the Foundation has the necessary capabilities to advance its mission.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The Foundation has connected a visionary and generous community with brilliant medical minds for more than 80 years, resulting in extraordinary medical progress for the southwestern United States and beyond in the areas of mineral metabolism, cancer, cholesterol, brain injury and illness, and others. These incredible stories of impact can be found on our website: swmedical.org.
Currently, the Foundation manages over 1,000 funds and nearly $1 billion in assets that help sustain excellence in medical research, medical education, and patient care in our region. The Financial Review section on our website shares much more about the Foundation's role in advancing progress in medicine. Learn more here: swmedical.org/about-us/financial-review.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL FOUNDATION
Board of directorsas of 02/16/2023
Mr. Jere Thompson, Jr.
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/16/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.