Retinal Degeneration Fund Gets New Name and Logo

The Foundation Fighting Blindness has revealed that its venture philanthropy arm, previously known as the Retinal Degeneration Fund (RD Fund), will now be called the "Gund Vision Fund".

"The new name honours more than 50 years of leadership, advocacy, and philanthropic support from Gordon Gund and the Gund family, whose contributions to the Foundation have been immeasurable," says the North Carolina-headquartered organisation.

"The Gund Vision Fund name reflects both where this Fund has been and where it is going. Gordon Gund and the Gund family did not support this work from a distance. They helped build it, and this name honors that," further explains Jason Menzo, CEO of Foundation Fighting Blindness.

Adding: "Vision speaks to our mission of advancing treatments and cures for the diseases that cause blindness, and to the forward-looking way we deploy capital to get there."

Since its inception in 2018, the Fund has reportedly overseen over $140 million in strategic investments.

The Foundation itself, founded in 1971, is said to be leading private funder of retinal disease research worldwide, with nearly $1 billion invested since its founding and a patient registry that includes over 43,000 individuals.

The rebranding comes alongside a $100 million capital campaign aimed at speeding up the development of treatments and cures for inherited retinal diseases and dry form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

To further support the campaign, the Gordon and Llura Gund Foundation has pledged a $50 million lead challenge gift, which will match every new or increased donation to the Gund Vision Fund dollar for dollar, up to $50 million.

Source: Gund Vision Fund