Genentech shifts corporate giving toward community‑driven health equity, exec says

Genentech is retooling corporate philanthropy to prioritize measurable, community‑driven health equity work rather than one‑off grants, Lavanya Harden Wright, head of giving and social impact at Genentech, said during a New Hanover County webinar. Wright said the company is aligning philanthropy with both business priorities and local needs, tailoring investments by site and committing to longer funding horizons when required.

Wright said Genentech’s site giving model looks at the full patient journey and seeks to remove barriers to care through partnerships, data and policy engagement. “If health equity is your ministry, then I’m a part of your ministry,” Wright said, describing the moral and business rationale for the shift. She argued that some grants need to be multiyear — “3 years because that’s how long it’s gonna take for us to gather the data to truly have an impact in that community” — and that grant design should…