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Gabe Grunewald Mission Brooks Partnership News Our Team Contact
Grantmaking Impact Fred Hutch Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
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Click here to read our 2024 Annual Report

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The Brave Like Gabe Foundation is committed to rethinking grantmaking

in ways that center the scientists and experts doing the work. We are dedicated to investing in research over several years with the understanding that science takes time.

Read more about our values here.

Grantmaking Practices:

 
 
 
“My goal is to raise awareness for these diseases, the research funding disparities, and other challenges that prevent these cancers from having effective treatment options. Through Brave Like Gabe fundraising efforts, we will support research and accelerate treatments for rare cancer patients.”
— Gabe Grunewald
 

Research Grantees

 

BRCA-mutation researcher Dr. Rosevalentine Bosire named 2023 Brave Fellow

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

As one of Brooks Running’s professional athletes, Gabe was on hand in 2017 as Brooks made a donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the conversation about a long-term partnership to support rare cancer research began. 

From 2020-2023, the Brave Like Gabe Foundation, in partnership with Brooks Running, granted $500,000 to support the Brave Fellowship at Fred Hutch. The fellowship is part of an ongoing effort to support the work of post-doctoral researchers who themselves have overcome barriers to pursuing a research career. In line with the mission and values of the Brave Like Gabe Foundation, the fellowship ensures retention and helps to foster a diverse community of scientists within rare cancer research. In 2024, the Brave Like Gabe Foundation supported a grant towards the TRACER Rare Cancer Initiative at Fred Hutch.

 
 

Gabe received treatment and care here at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

The folks at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City were part of Gabe’s treatment team, and were one of the first grants that Brave Like Gabe made back in 2019. 

Beginning in 2022, the Brave Like Gabe Foundation committed to a three year grant, totaling $600,000, supporting research into the outcome disparities for black women with endometrial cancers. Brave Like Gabe believes that multi year funding is critical to moving the needle on rare cancer and eliminating disparities. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with MSKCC in this work.

This grant is supported in part by the Brave Like Gabe Cycle for Survival Team.

 
 

Justin Grunewald and ACCRF’s Jeff Kaufman at the 2021 BLG 5K

Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation

When Gabe was diagnosed, one of her first calls was to Marnie Kaufman at the Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation, the superheroes funding critical research on Gabe’s specific type of cancer.

Marnie and her husband Jeff became invaluable resources for Gabe and Justin as very few people are diagnosed with ACC each year. As the Brave Like Gabe Foundation took shape, Marnie and Jeff were again there with generous advice and support. 

Since 2018, the proceeds from the annual Brave Like Gabe 5K have supported our partners at the Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation. As a result we have granted ACCRF over $450,000 to find better, more effective treatments for ACC and other types of rare cancers.

 
 

Gabe Grunewald and her sister Abigail Anderson are U of Minnesota alumni

Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota

Since 2020 it has been a great honor to support rare cancer research at the University of Minnesota, Gabe’s alma mater. Gabe, Justin, and Abby (along with so many of their friends and Brave Like Gabe board members!) ran track and cross country at the University of Minnesota. Their legacy is celebrated each spring at the Brave Like Gabe Invitational. Go Gophers!

Beginning in 2023, we are excited to announce a new, three year, $300,000 partnership that will focus on treatments and therapies for pediatric osteosarcoma. This grant will continue our support for the Moriarity Lab, led by Branden Moriarity, PhD, a member of the Masonic Cancer Center. The grant will be named the Abigail Anderson Postdoctoral Fellowship, in honor of Abby, a joyful artist, pediatric nurse, U of MN alumnae and Gabe’s younger sister. Ultimately, research discoveries from the Moriarity Lab are translated to new treatments benefiting patients at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital and beyond.

This grant is also supported in part by a generous donation from KLN Family Brands.

 
 

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

The Brave Like Gabe Foundation is thrilled to make a new grant to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute which will focus on head and neck cancers, specifically Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (ACC), the cancer Gabe Grunewald was diagnosed with. The grant will fund an incredible trial using implantable microdevices to analyze drug response in live ACC tumors. This is a novel method for evaluating multiple therapeutic compounds among ACC tumors with the goal of nominating one or more combinatorial drug regimens suitable for future clinical trial exploration.