Children’s Environmental Health: A New Focus Area For Jonas Philanthropies

Earlier this month, Barbara and Donald Jonas, founders of The Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare, unveiled a new strategic vision and announced the launch of Jonas Philanthropies. Building on more than 10 years of high-impact investments in nursing scholarship, leadership and innovation, Jonas Philanthropies will expand the organization’s scope to include funding for other scalable solutions aimed at the most vulnerable and neglected, such as preventing children’s exposure to harmful environmental toxins.

“With quality healthcare often out of reach for our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, Barbara and I wanted to build upon what we began 12 years ago and expand our areas of impact,” says Donald Jonas, Co-founder and President of Jonas Philanthropies. “Jonas Philanthropies is an evolution of our work and personal passion, but it also reflects the broader needs of the healthcare industry, which will help ensure its impact and scalability for generations to come. We are incredibly excited to celebrate this next chapter.”

With more than $1 million to launch the Jonas Children’s Environmental Health initiative, the newly formed organization strives to increase awareness of how commonly used toxic substances are impacting the health of children. Jonas Philanthropies is working to educate the medical community, parents and families about the impact of toxic chemicals on children’s health by supporting doctoral nursing scholars focused on researching environmental pollutants, as well as investing in high-impact partnerships with groups such as the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine.

With generous support from Jonas Philanthropies, The Environmental Working Group launched The Jonas Initiative for Children’s Environmental Health, which aims to become the premier online source of information for parents searching for credible, science-based, actionable information about the impact of toxic chemicals, contaminants and pollutants on children’s health. Additionally, Jonas Philanthropies will support the Jonas Environmental Health Education Project at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, with a goal of advancing efforts to bring the role of the environment and toxic chemicals on prenatal and child health into the medical health professional field, and to connect this work to parents and families.

Jonas Philanthropies seeks to invest where it matters most. In addition to children’s environmental health, the organization focuses on advancing nursing and veteran healthcare, as well as preventing and treating low vision and blindness in children and adults.