The Largest Donation in Mass General Hospital History is From a New England Icon

Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions, or personal experiences.

Back in 2011, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, donated $25 million to Massachusetts General Hospital.

At the time, according to a CBS sports article, the donation was "revolutionary."

The donation helped create the Kraft Center for Community Health, with the goal of expanding access to high quality and cost-effective healthcare for disadvantaged individuals and families, according to CBS Sports.

That was just the beginning.

11 years later, in October of 2022, the Kraft family donated $50 million more to Mass General Hospital. It is the largest donation in the hospital's 212 year history, according to CBS sports.

The 50 million will be used for a few things.

1. It will continue to help support the Kraft Center for Community Health and allow the hospital to expand its blood donation facility, according to CBS sports.

2. The money will also create a permanent position: "Robert K. Kraft Endowed Chair in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion," according to CBS Sports. That role will be in charge of  addressing health disparities in clinical care.

Furthermore, "the position will be held by the medical director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Center," according to CBS. That center, the hospital said, "focuses on researching a serious genetic blood disorder that has primarily impacted minorities and has been 'historically underfunded.'"

From the hospital to the greater New England fanbase, thank you, Robert Kraft. It is outstanding to see someone with so much money use their wealth for good. No, just because you have money does not mean you need to give it back...but you did.

We commend for your service to New England and the accessibility and quality of our healthcare.

“By creating an endowed position focused on addressing clinical health care disparities, Robert Kraft and the Kraft family are creating important pathways for patients living with sickle cell disease to receive comprehensive medical care which has not traditionally been available to them,” said Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH, Sumner M. Redstone Endowed Chair in Health Equity and senior vice president of equity and community health at Mass General in a Mass Gen press release.. “I am grateful to the Kraft Family for their longstanding commitment to improving health care access and outcomes for patients and residents of our community.”