Hospitals, firms in healthcare back Kennedy institute

About $20 million has already been raised for the institute, which showcases the career of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. (Matthew J. Lee/ Globe Staff/ File December 2008)

Drug companies, hospitals, and insurance firms have helped to amass $20 million to finance a nonprofit educational institute in Boston that will honor Senator Edward M. Kennedy, using his career as a case study of a powerful senator.

The biggest donation has been $5 million from Amgen Inc., a national biotechnology drug firm based in California that depends heavily on federal healthcare policies and Medicare prescription drug reimbursements for its profits. One of Amgen's lobbyists, Nick Littlefield, is a former top Kennedy aide.

Other large donors have been Partners Healthcare, the Boston nonprofit corporation that is the umbrella for Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, with a gift of $1 million. The Dana- Farber Cancer Institute contributed $1 million. Kennedy's influence in Washington has been crucial for those institutions and other university-affiliated hospitals in Boston that rely heavily on research funding, as well as reimbursement policies.

Kennedy friends and former staffers formed the nonprofit organization, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, and launched an aggressive fund-raising campaign four months ago, spearheaded by prominent Boston businessman Jack Connors, who is chairman of Partners.

The goal is to erect a new building, complete with a replica of the US Senate chamber, on a 4-acre plot on Columbia Point in Boston that is owned by the University of Massachusetts, near the John F. Kennedy Library. The institute is expected to include a training program for incoming US senators, mock US Senate sessions for students, and museum space that will showcase excerpts from US Senate speeches and debates.

"We're off to a good start," Connors said in an interview. "But any credit belongs to the man's reputation. It's one of the easier fund-raising efforts I've ever been involved in."

Because the corporations and nonprofits making large contributions have significant interests in federal policies, the effort requires Kennedy's supporters to walk a delicate line as they help his cause. Kennedy has long been a major healthcare advocate and is currently laying the groundwork for major healthcare changes as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Kennedy, who is waging a battle against malignant brain cancer, declined to comment. Those involved with the institute say he has kept his distance from the process, particularly the fund-raising, to avoid any ethical concerns.

"In terms of the legal and ethical compliance, it's perfectly appropriate," said Paul Kirk, a former Kennedy aide who is chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. "What we intend to do is be perfectly transparent in what we've received in donations."

Family members are excluded from serving on the board that will oversee the institute, Kirk said.

"It was our sense strongly that all fund-raising be done by people outside of his office, and certainly not the senator or anyone in his immediate family," said Lee Fentress, president of the institute and longtime Kennedy friend. "He's had no role at all."

The Kennedy Institute disclosed the donations in a 2008 annual report that was provided to the Globe. The donations must also be filed later this month in federal disclosure forms.

"If you look back at Senator Kennedy's incredible career, the legislative accomplishments he's had, the number of lives touched by his passion, he's just a wonderful example of a leader in this country," said Sandra Young, a spokeswoman for Amgen who said there was no other motive than wanting the institute to succeed. "We're just really proud to be a part of something like this."

The Service Employees International Union gave $2.5 million, and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America pledged $1 million. The Novartis US Foundation gave $250,000, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts gave $200,000.

Several major law firms have also pledged $1 million, including the firm of Peter Angelos, who owns the Baltimore Orioles; and Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, which counseled Al Gore in the 2000 recount.

A portion of the money was raised during a November dinner in Boston, where nearly 500 people attending heard Phillip Sharp, a Nobel laureate scientist from MIT, talked about contributions Kennedy has made to the biomedical industry.

"There was a lot of enthusiasm in the healthcare industry about doing something to say thank you to Senator Kennedy," said Tom Glynn, chief operating officer at Partners Healthcare, who helped put the dinner together. "If this was the vehicle the senator came up with, people wanted to be involved."

Glynn said the senator did not attend the dinner, but was represented by his son, Ted Kennedy Jr., who is president of a New York-based healthcare consulting and investment firm.

Connors said the group seeks to raise $80 million more this year and plans to host dinners in Washington; New York, to target the financial industry; and on the West Coast, to raise money from entertainment executives.

By not personally soliciting money, Kennedy appears to be avoiding pitfalls other politicians have encountered while raising money for favored nonprofits.

President Clinton ran into controversy while raising money for the Clinton Foundation. He declined to release the names of the donors until his wife, Hillary Clinton, was vetted as part of her nomination for secretary of state. Still, some senators have contended that foreign governments could seek to influence US foreign policy by donating to the former president's choice cause.

US Representative Charles B. Rangel is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for his fund-raising efforts for an academic center that bears his name. Rangel, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, has said he may have violated ethics rules by using his House stationery to solicit corporate donations for the nonprofit center, which promotes diversity in public office and will house his official papers when he retires.

The Kennedy institute, which is still being designed, is expected to include classroom space, research rooms, and exhibits. Plans for the institute have been in the works for several years, but work kicked into a more aggressive phase over the past six months, in part because of Kennedy's brain cancer diagnosis last May.

The institute is searching for a chief executive, and a website will be launched next month. An advisory council is being established and will be chaired by two former senators, John Warner, a Virginia Republican, and Jim Sasser, a Tennessee Democrat.

UMass is planning to issue a bond for the building, which is expected to cost $40 million to $50 million. Connors is hoping to raise a total of $100 million that will be used for an endowment to fund operations at the institute, as well as to pay down the debt on the bond used to build it.

Planners have started searching for an architect to design the building and intend to choose a firm by next month. They are hoping to break ground on a building later this year that will be on par with the presidential library next door.

"When people drive up they ought to see two brothers standing together," Connors said. "It ought not be diminished in size compared to the JFK presidential library."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.