Rainwater Charitable Foundation Case Study and Giving Smarter Guide

SPARC’s longstanding relationship and collaboration with the Rainwater Charitable Foundation (RCF) reflects a commitment to advancing research on neurodegenerative diseases, including tauopathies. Tauopathies are a category of neurogenerative diseases caused by the accumulation and aggregation of a cellular protein called tau. While tau plays an important role in healthy cells, it can misfold and create tangles that disrupt cellular function. This can lead to a variety of diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, corticobasal degeneration, and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Though symptoms manifest differently in each of these conditions, tau plays a major role in all of them, making it an important target for research.

SPARC’s partnership with RCF began in 2017, focusing on a systems-based review of the biomedical landscape of tauopathies to investigate the state of tauopathy research as a strategic target for investment. The resulting Giving Smarter Guide identifies research areas where philanthropic investment could have an outsized impact on our understanding of tauopathies. By funding research into tau, philanthropists have a unique opportunity to make a transformative impact on treatment options for a range of neurodegenerative diseases. Philanthropic opportunities included:

• supporting basic research
• focusing on diagnostic tools
• increasing access to patient samples
• facilitating data sharing
• forming a streamlined collaborativeOne of RCF’s signature programs, the Tau Consortium, was initiated to foster a collaborative network of scientists and strives to accelerate discovery of treatment and prevention for primary tauopathies. This effort, started by RCF in 2018, addresses all the high-impact opportunities outlined in the Giving Smarter Guide and has been critical in building the tauopathy research field.

RCF continues to demonstrate leadership in this space through its dedicated medical research program, with a sustained focus on filling urgent gaps in primary tauopathy research. SPARC has continued to partner with RCF, providing strategic and operational evaluation and planning insight across the program.