Our Mission

Goldman Philanthropic Partnerships (GPP), an Illinois private operating foundation, and registered as 501(c)(3), was founded in 1998 to establish a new philanthropic business model to accelerate the way cures are discovered. This business model has created innovative research funding partnerships between donors, researchers and medical institutions using five tools unique to our foundation.

Here's how Goldman Philanthropic Partnerships' strategic philanthropy model works:

First, through our foundation, each donor gives to a specific research project in his/her disease of interest to maximize the impact of the funding and increase donor participation, rather than general giving to an organization or institution that decides how to utilize the funding.

Second, we oversee the budgets on these projects so that there are no extraneous expenses and an appropriate amount is used for institutional overhead.

Third, for every charitable donation we secure a matching donation, at least dollar for dollar, from the research institution itself or another organization.

Fourth, each project is validated twice to insure, as much as possible, that there is an excellent chance the project will achieve the stated goals.

Fifth, we actively manage each project.

About the Foundation

Since our founding in 1998, Goldman Philanthropic Partnerships (GPP) has solicited, validated and helped donors co-fund innovative research with the potential to quickly find cures for life-altering diseases, and supported these donors using for-profit business tools to insure that the research and philanthropic goals are met through proper project and resource management.

GPP finds breakthrough research by motivating partner non-profit institutions and organizations to include more innovative research in their research solicitation processes, and by encouraging creative researchers to commit innovative research projects to paper and then submit them for funding.

GPP validates research first by using the highly qualified science advisory committees of partner non-profit organizations and the internal review committees at partner medical research institutions. We then convene with independent science advisors to re-validate each project before presenting it to donors for funding.

GPP supports innovative research through Inspired Ventures, which are partnerships between pioneering researchers, partner medical research institutions, partner non-profit organizations, corporate and family foundations, donor pools and dedicated individual donors. These Inspired Ventures are structured like limited partnerships, with the Inspired Venture donors targeting their funding to a specific project, researcher, institution, and patient population.

GPP uses business tools to help each researcher produce a project business plan defining aims and goals to use in managing resources and targeting the budget. Donors with significant business skills are asked to participate in the production of the business plan and/or the management of the project.

Board of Directors:
Nanci Goldman-Soriano, President
David Goldman, Secretary
Joanne Goldman Kay
Stephen Goldman, Treasurer

The Founders

George N. Goldman

George N. Goldman was the founder, chairman and CEO of both Goldman & Co., an Illinois-based merchant-banking firm and of Asset Partners, Inc., its associated real estate investment corporation. During his forty-year business career, he has assembled investments for numerous projects, some with values exceeding $100 million.

As an entrepreneur with extensive experience in a wide array of business enterprises, George recognized that he had an ideal background to make a significant philanthropic impact. He dedicated himself to applying his management skills and business acumen to seeking out groundbreaking research and treatment strategies and to generate funding for innovative ideas that may otherwise be passed over by more traditional funders, such as the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry.

From their own experiences at Mayo Clinic and from their early investigations, George and Judy came to strongly believe in the value of innovative research that challenges prevailing scientific tenets. But identifying the best concepts and ideas and moving such projects forward to the research laboratory required a totally different approach from what was currently in practice. George began developing unique research partnerships, now called Inspired Ventures, based on the business model of a limited partnership or venture capital investment and utilizing business disciplines and fundraising formats. Through Inspired Ventures, a philanthropic partnership is developed, joining motivated philanthropists with an innovative researcher to support unique research opportunities.

George passed away May 6, 2012 from Leukemia.

Judy A. Goldman

Judith A. Goldman was the Vice President of both Goldman & Co. and Asset Partners, Inc., responsible for investor relations. During her 40-year active involvement in the family businesses and investments, she managed much of the accounting activities as well as property management oversight.

After being diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1990, Judy participated in a two year clinical trial headed by the Mayo Clinic that involved an extensive chemotherapy regimen comprised of five different drugs administered both intravenously and in pill form. Following an exhaustive two-year treatment with many side effects, her physicians determined that her treatment was successful and that her disease was in remission.

Judy had dedicated herself to reaching out to those with cancer through a number of advocacy efforts and support groups. She has been a voice for multiple myeloma patients through her testimony on Capitol Hill and through Illinois events such as Cancer Survivors Day. Judy also has been instrumental in working with the International Myeloma Foundation ("IMF") by founding the Midwest Action Committee ("MAC"), a regional representative of the IMF, committed to multiple myeloma patient education and support. MAC sponsors public education campaigns designed to describe the impact of multiple myeloma on patients, identify treatment options, and validate the important role that physicians must play in this cancer's management. She played a critical role in four patient groups and published a monthly newsletter distributed to over 300 myeloma patients, doctors and nurses. She had personally maintained a hotline for newly diagnosed patients, and she had also been active in several advocacy organizations.

Judy Passed away January 14, 2016.

The Road Less Traveled

The memoir of GPP Founder, George N. Goldman.

Purchase the Digital or Print Version

100% of the royalties from the book go directly to the foundation.
Please note: While you can purchase the print version of the book from several sources, GPP would receive the highest royalty from purchases made from CreateSpace.com (An Amazon Company). If you would like the Kindle version, then you can purchase the physical book from Amazon.com and get the Kindle version at the Matchbook price of only $2.99.

The Road Less Traveled: George Goldman Cover

In a sweeping, honest memoir that begins during the Great Depression and takes readers into the new millennium, George N. Goldman recounts the people and experiences that defined, challenged, and inspired him in business and in life. His humble, Horatio Alger–style beginnings as the only child in a depression-era family struggling to get by taught him how to value hard work and seize opportunities provided by life. With these two early lessons in hand, a tremendous amount of energy, and bottomless determination, Goldman followed a circuitous path to higher education that resulted in an unanticipated change of major from journalism to accounting as well as the joyous addition of marriage to the love of his life, Judy.

With the woman he loved by his side and his family growing, Goldman embarked upon what would become a fascinating, innovative, and inimitable career that paired his natural talent for deal-making with his keen eye for opportunities. Management consultant, tax preparation service provider, and dog breeder represent a few of the diverse hats he wore on the road to the field of his greatest successes: real estate.

On his journey towards professional and personal success, Goldman faced numerous adversities. From the murder of his best friend to deals soured by double-dealing business partners, Goldman wrestled with numerous challenges and setbacks while building his business legacy, sometimes emerging bent but never broken. When Judy received a deadly diagnosis of multiple myeloma, the lessons learned from their triumphant fight for her life inspired the Goldmans to bring their out-of-the-box thinking to the most unlikely of fields: medical philanthropy. However, this journey to create a lasting legacy became a race against time after Goldman’s terminal diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome.