About Purple Community

Purple Community is Van Andel Institute’s grassroots community awareness and fundraising program that connects individuals, schools, teams and businesses to the resources needed to join the fight against cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

Individualized tools and customized assistance are available to create events and programs that help raise funds for biomedical research at Van Andel Institute.

When you fundraise through Purple Community, your efforts go further. Thanks to a generous endowment from Jay and Betty Van Andel, every dollar of every donation goes directly to the cause—that’s 100% HOPE!

Research is expensive and government funding of scientific research is at a historic low. It currently takes more than 10 years and a billion dollars to bring a new drug or treatment from the laboratory bench to a patient’s bedside. We need your help to make this process go faster. When you hold a Purple Community fundraising event, 100% of your funds support Van Andel Institute scientists who are studying more than 20 different diseases, including: