At the Neilsen Foundation, our values inform our choices.  They build on Craig’s resiliency and drive for greatness—and are foundational to who we are and aspire to be.  Our new normal allows Creating Opportunity & Independence applicants the ability to request longer grant terms, as well as increased funding levels in both of our research portfolios.  We now proudly provide funds so our grantee partners can include the cost of accommodations for people with a disability in their grants.  In the coming months, you’ll also see increased communication efforts because hearing from and collaborating with our grantee partners, is critical to the Foundation fulfilling its mission.

Over the last 2½ years, the pandemic forced us to change our practices, find creative solutions to new problems, and discover the strength to break through barriers.  These hard-fought lessons have informed who we are today. Now—together—as we work to create a future that ensures people affected by and living with spinal cord injuries can live full and productive lives, I invite you to Imagine What’s Possible.

Be well,

Kym Eisner
Executive Director

Ensuring our partners and grantees have the support they need, both time and money, and increasing relationship-building opportunities with the Foundation staff continue to be top priorities.  We recognize that smaller nonprofits fear they won’t have the capacity to keep the lights on, that researchers are challenged finding basic supplies for their labs, and that students living with spinal cord injuries are faced with the decision of going back to in-person learning, even when COVID is a threat to their health and wellbeing.  We remain committed to listening to and trusting in our partners.  Where there is an opportunity for us to reduce barriers, be more hands-on, and advance your opportunities, we’re in!

The Neilsen Foundation Board and staff have been looking ahead, thinking about what the world of SCI might look like a decade from now.  Here are a few topics we are currently discussing:

How has research been translated into practice?

How can individuals with a newly-sustained injury more easily re-integrate into their communities?

And, with every issue we are trying to solve, are people with lived experience engaged in the process?

If we are going to achieve our vision of a future where individuals living with a spinal cord injury, and those who care for them, live full and productive lives as active participants in their communities, we’ll need to be creative, inclusive, and collaborative.  Continuing to build a healthy and thriving community is only possible if we work together to imagine what’s possible.

Be well,

Kym Eisner
Executive Director

• Challenge your own assumptions
• Default to trusting one-another
• Engage with your community
• Partner with people who have lived experience
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help
• Share your knowledge
• Communicate freely
• Accommodations that promote equity are a right, not a privilege
• Lead by example
• And—Imagine what’s possible!

You may read this list and see some ideas that resonate.  Or you may read this list and think it doesn’t apply to you.  No matter how you accepted or dismissed the concepts above, I encourage you to read it again and ask yourself, “Can I be better, can I do more?”  Is there something that you rejected, but on second look, might not be so unreasonable?  Is there something you’re passionate about that wasn’t mentioned?  If so, find ways to share that message—you never know when your words will inspire others.

I am a firm believer that, together, we can create a future that ensures people affected by and living with spinal cord injuries live healthy and productive lives in their communities.  But, to make this vision a reality, we need to put our ideas into action.  In 2022, look for collaborative partnerships; challenge yourself to develop creative approaches; and break down barriers with more inclusive attitudes.

From all of us at the Neilsen Foundation, we wish you a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season.

With profound appreciation,
Kym

Our three 2021 awardees, Kim Anderson-Erisman, Wesley Hamilton, and Alice Sheppard, are exemplary individuals who are not afraid to take bold risks, foster collaboration, and advocate for new ideas.  The Prize recognizes the contributions and significant impact they have made and celebrates their influential voices.  Each winner embodies the Foundation’s vision and shows great potential to expand their work or advocate for new ideas for those living with a disability.

I couldn’t be more excited to share this news with you!  Please join us in congratulating Kim, Wesley, and Alice.  To learn more about these inspiring individuals, visit the Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize page of our website.

Be well and stay safe,

Kym Eisner
Executive Director

No matter how resilient a person is, if they don’t have a safe place to sleep, clean water, or access to basic personal care essentials, the thought of recovery or rebuilding after a natural disaster can be overwhelming.  For those whose homes survive, but without power, the impact can be devastating.  But for a person living with a spinal cord injury, losing electricity can mean inability to charge a power wheelchair or obtain supplies that they depend on daily.

To recognize the desperate need for support of recovery and care efforts, the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation has made a million-dollar commitment to support immediate recovery needs.  In partnership with Team Rubicon, United Spinal Association, and Health Equity International, these funds will be directed to meet the urgent needs associated with rebuilding and to support community-centered organizations that provide services to individuals living with spinal cord injury.

For those that are still threatened by physical and/or emotional obstacles, I hope that you begin to find the assistance you need to make tomorrow better than today.  As we move forward, be kind and do what you can for one another.  Protect the planet, get vaccinated, and remember that we are all in this together.

Be well and stay safe,

Kym

———————————–

About Our Valued Partners

Team Rubicon’s primary mission is to provide disaster relief to those affected by natural disasters, pairing the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders, medical professionals, and technology solutions, and focusing on vulnerable and at-risk populations affected by disaster.

United Spinal Association has a strong track record for providing support to the spinal cord injury community.  It has provided emergency assistance to its national chapters and members to meet the relief and recovery needs of the spinal cord injury community, and is working to enhance emergency preparedness.

Health Equity International is a U.S.-based nonprofit, that is providing urgent surgical and emergency care to survivors as well as giving critical assistance to health care facilities in the earthquake zone.  It supports the Spinal Cord Injury Program at St. Boniface Hospital, the only comprehensive spinal cord injury rehabilitation facility in Haiti.

In April we announced that all active SCIRTS and PSR portfolio grants could use Neilsen Foundation funds to pay trainee stipends and staff salaries, even if progress on the project has been temporarily impacted.  No-Cost Extensions were adjusted as needed for grantees affected by institutional closures.  And, now that we are beginning to carefully re-engage, it is time to address the additional costs of these delays and the measures that will need to be taken to ensure the safety of personnel as researchers return to laboratory and clinical activities.

In an effort to help ensure that our research grantees have the capacity to complete the projects the Foundation has already invested in, our Board of Directors generously approved that supplemental funding will be made available.  In late June, current research grantees will be notified how they can request additional support.  Each request will be reviewed by the Foundation and, if a researcher is approved for the additional financial support, an additional year will also be granted to complete the project.

Re-opening will not be easy.  Establishing a new normal may take more time than we’d hoped for.  The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation is doing its best to understand the concerns of everyone in the SCI community and recognizes it is important that you remain focused on the critical work you were doing to help people living with SCI before the pandemic.

Please, be safe.

Kym Eisner

Executive Director

Image Source: Fusion Medical Animation

The pandemic forced us all to adapt and create systems to interact remotely. I am proud that the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation quickly jumped into action and allocated more than $2,500,000 in support for our partners and grantees in the SCI community. We trusted that our colleagues with “boots on the ground” knew how to best meet the immediate needs of their communities. To provide the resources they needed to respond, we built a funding process that was as simple and immediate as possible. Taking what we heard from our partners to heart, we focused on providing the SCI community with basic necessities; and, as the months went on, we prioritized solutions addressing isolation and mental health. To make remote engagement possible, we supported the purchase of basic equipment, the transition to virtual programming and peer-support, offset costs to build up Wi-Fi capability, provided adaptive devices, and even underwrote the cost of Zoom accounts. These grants, which the Foundation had limited in the past, became a necessity.

With our partners in research, our immediate response was to continue supporting investigators in whom we had already invested, even as they were barred from entering their laboratories. As shutdowns dragged on, we recognized that adding time to these grants would not be sufficient. We heard concerns about how labs would keep their staff members employed if there wasn’t additional funding. What would happen to the studies suddenly forced to shut down mid-stream? How could we support the field as weeks off campus turned into months? To help ensure researchers had the capacity to complete their projects, and to highlight the importance of SCI research, our Board of Directors generously approved up to $6,000,000 in support through supplemental funding to active Neilsen Foundation grants. The strong partnerships and trusted relationships that we built with our grantees became very apparent throughout this process. Staff was heartened to see researchers ask only for what was needed rather than every dollar that was available.

As we move forward, we should use the knowledge we’ve gained to shift our collective mindset. I hope that employers see that working remotely is not only possible, but sometimes more efficient, and that it provides additional employment opportunities for people living with spinal cord injury. I hope that universities, our partners in research, see their spinal cord injury laboratories as institutional priorities and that they ensure continued support for those labs. And, I hope that the concepts of Trust-Based Philanthropy are embedded ever more deeply into our culture, with the understanding that we can best meet our goals when we build trust with one another.

No one will come through this pandemic unscathed. Our mental health has been shaken, trust in science questioned, and we have seen those we love impacted in unimaginable ways. But I am an optimist, and I believe that we will use these hard-earned lessons to strive to do more, to do better, and to remember that being willing to change “business as usual” might just make us stronger.

With gratitude,

Kym Eisner
Executive Director
Craig H. Neilsen Foundation

The pandemic forced us all to adapt and create systems to interact remotely. I am proud that the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation quickly jumped into action and allocated more than $2,500,000 in support for our partners and grantees in the SCI community. We trusted that our colleagues with “boots on the ground” knew how to best meet the immediate needs of their communities. To provide the resources they needed to respond, we built a funding process that was as simple and immediate as possible. Taking what we heard from our partners to heart, we focused on providing the SCI community with basic necessities; and, as the months went on, we prioritized solutions addressing isolation and mental health. To make remote engagement possible, we supported the purchase of basic equipment, the transition to virtual programming and peer-support, offset costs to build up Wi-Fi capability, provided adaptive devices, and even underwrote the cost of Zoom accounts. These grants, which the Foundation had limited in the past, became a necessity.

With our partners in research, our immediate response was to continue supporting investigators in whom we had already invested, even as they were barred from entering their laboratories. As shutdowns dragged on, we recognized that adding time to these grants would not be sufficient. We heard concerns about how labs would keep their staff members employed if there wasn’t additional funding. What would happen to the studies suddenly forced to shut down mid-stream? How could we support the field as weeks off campus turned into months? To help ensure researchers had the capacity to complete their projects, and to highlight the importance of SCI research, our Board of Directors generously approved up to $6,000,000 in support through supplemental funding to active Neilsen Foundation grants. The strong partnerships and trusted relationships that we built with our grantees became very apparent throughout this process. Staff was heartened to see researchers ask only for what was needed rather than every dollar that was available.

As we move forward, we should use the knowledge we’ve gained to shift our collective mindset. I hope that employers see that working remotely is not only possible, but sometimes more efficient, and that it provides additional employment opportunities for people living with spinal cord injury. I hope that universities, our partners in research, see their spinal cord injury laboratories as institutional priorities and that they ensure continued support for those labs. And, I hope that the concepts of Trust-Based Philanthropy are embedded ever more deeply into our culture, with the understanding that we can best meet our goals when we build trust with one another.

No one will come through this pandemic unscathed. Our mental health has been shaken, trust in science questioned, and we have seen those we love impacted in unimaginable ways. But I am an optimist, and I believe that we will use these hard-earned lessons to strive to do more, to do better, and to remember that being willing to change “business as usual” might just make us stronger.

With gratitude,

Kym Eisner
Executive Director
Craig H. Neilsen Foundation

Image Source: Fusion Medical Animation

Dear Valued Friends, Colleagues and Partners,

I am thrilled to announce the Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize! The Prize, which has been established to honor the memory and legacy of Craig H. Neilsen, celebrates individuals who exemplify the values that were important to Craig during his lifetime. His remarkable determination, inexhaustible passion, and an ability to inspire, are all traits reflected in the recipients of this million dollar, unrestricted Prize.

The three 2020 awardees: Andrea Dalzell, Dr. Brian K. Kwon, and Reveca Torres are exemplary individuals who are not afraid to take bold risks, foster collaboration, and advocate for new ideas.  They are influential voices who are consistent with the Foundation’s vision sharing a dedication to a future where individuals with spinal cord injury live full and productive lives as active participants in their communities.

Please join me in congratulating Andrea, Brian, and Reveca!  To learn more about these inspiring individuals, visit the Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize page of our website and you can also see their reactions when they learned they were awardees below.

All my best,

Kym Eisner
Executive Director
Craig H. Neilsen Foundation

Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash