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Co-Founder Deborah W. Brooks, Founder Michael J. Fox and Executive Vice President of Research Strategy Todd Sherer
From left to right: Co-Founder and CEO Deborah W. Brooks, Founder Michael J. Fox and Executive Vice President of Research Strategy Todd Sherer
From left to right: Co-Founder and CEO Deborah W. Brooks, Founder Michael J. Fox and Executive Vice President of Research Strategy Todd Sherer
Our Mission

Our Promise

The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today.

How Do We Get to Cures?

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) exists for one reason: to accelerate the next generation of Parkinson’s disease (PD) treatments. In practice, that means identifying and funding projects most vital to patients; spearheading solutions around seemingly intractable field-wide challenges; coordinating and streamlining the efforts of multiple, often disparate, teams; and doing whatever it takes to drive faster knowledge turns for the benefit of every life touched by PD.

In principle, it means leveraging our core values of optimism, tenacity, collaboration, boldness, adaptability and curiosity in problem-solving to work on behalf of the 6 million people worldwide living with Parkinson’s.

  • Illustrated people.

    We put patients first

    Our team works tirelessly every day with one urgent goal in mind: speeding breakthroughs that patients can feel in their everyday lives.

  • Illustrated Michael J. Fox Foundation logo.

    Our model is different

    We tackle the overall challenge of getting better treatments to waiting patients by serving as a critical catalyst in both the patient and the research communities.

  • Illustrated brain on a presentation display.

    We are risk-takers and problem-solvers

    We take risks other funders can’t or won’t in order to push the most promising treatments forward — an approach that in two decades has transformed the PD research field.

We aspire to go out of business

We deliberately hold no endowment or excessive financial reserves. We act with urgency, typically deploying funds raised within a few months for the fastest possible impact.

We work to steward donations wisely and keep a tight rein on expenses. We are proud of our track record of efficiency, with 88 cents of every dollar spent since inception going straight to our programs.

We operate with focus and determination in everything we do. We won't stop until a cure is found. We're on it.

We take pride in the accomplishments we've made so far. But ultimately we have only one definition of success: scientific solutions that produce tangible improvements in patients' lives.

Female researcher pipetting in lab.

Breaking Research Updates

Read the latest developments in the field’s understanding and treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

Read Research News
“When the cure for Parkinson’s is found — and it will be — it will be because of all of us.”
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