About the Flinn Foundation

Program Interests

Biosciences

The Foundation has assumed two important complementary roles to help Arizona become a global competitor in the biosciences. One is to be a strategic investor, partnering with others to support the needs of a rapidly growing bioscience sector. To date the Foundation has committed more than $50 million toward this goal.

The second role is to function as an objective resource, facilitating and coordinating discussions among key leaders to encourage successful collaborations and achieve the goals outlined in Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap.

Grant projects aim to strengthen Arizona's biosciences infrastructure and thereby improve the state's capacity to compete nationally and internationally in the biosciences economy. The Foundation supports multidisciplinary, collaborative efforts involving research teams at the state's public universities and nonprofit research institutions.

The Foundation has committed significant grant funds to help the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) translate genomic discoveries into diagnostic and preventive tools in the fight against complex diseases; the International Genomics Consortium (IGC), which combines genomic analysis, bioinformatics, and diagnostic technologies, to discover biomarkers for complex diseases, such as cancer; and the Critical Path Institute (C-Path), an innovative research partnership with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and major pharmaceutical firms, to develop safer and more effective drug regimens. With the more sensitive diagnostic tools emerging from these research enterprises, physicians may more quickly determine how effective some medications will be for some individuals or ineffective for others.

In an effort to advance the commercial sector, the Foundation supported the Arizona BioIndustry Association, and also made direct investments in a few signature projects to translate new discoveries emerging from Arizona’s research investigators into more sophisticated clinical medicine and personalized patient care.

The Flinn Scholars Program

The Flinn Scholars Program, in partnership with Arizona’s public universities, annually awards 20 top Arizona high school graduates an educational package that covers the full cost of undergraduate study, plus other benefits including study-related travel abroad. The program aims to strengthen the ability of the universities to compete for Arizona's top students and to provide the students an outstanding academic experience. About 500 students apply every fall for the 20 awards.

Arts and Culture

The Foundation’s current initiative in arts and culture is anchored by a grants program to assist Arizona’s large arts and culture organizations in generating additional earned revenue to endure economically challenging times.  The program encourages strategies to expand and deepen audience and donor participation among 20 organizations with annual operating budgets of $2.5 million or more.

Arizona Center for Civic Leadership

In 2010, the Foundation launched the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership in partnership with the Thomas R. Brown Foundations to strengthen civic leadership in Arizona.  The Center involves three programs, including the Flinn-Brown Civic Leadership Academy that helps to expand the cadre of future state-level leaders with the knowledge, skills, and commitment to address Arizona’s long-term challenging issues.  The Center also features the Arizona Civic Leadership Collaborative of local and regional leadership programs and a communications and outreach program. 

For grant listings, see Annual Reports in Reports and Multimedia section.