Gift extends Stacks’ long history of leadership in ULI, philanthropic support for community transformation, education, and health care
The Nancy and Geoffrey Stack Family Foundation has made a $5 million donation to the ULI Chair’s Fund, helping ULI continue to play a vital role in shaping sustainable, equitable communities worldwide. The Chair’s Fund, established in fall 2021, provides unrestricted funding for ULI’s programmatic and operational needs, with the goal of reaching a $50 million endowment.
“The purpose of the ULI Chair’s Fund is to give the organization the ability to thrive for the next 85 years, as it has for the last 85,” says Doug Abbey, former ULI Foundation chair, ULI Foundation Capital Campaign co-chair, and a founding donor of the Chair’s Fund. “While it is wonderful to have targeted gifts, an endowment provides ULI with the ability to respond to changes in the marketplace, and to new opportunities, in ways that restricted giving doesn’t.”
As part of the ULI Foundation’s fiduciary responsibility, donors who contribute $5 million or more, as did the Nancy and Geoffrey Stack Family Foundation, become members of the Chair’s Fund Advisory Committee, which reviews ULI’s annual budget and provides advice and recommendations to ULI’s Global Board of Directors. With this donation, the Nancy and Geoffrey Stack Family Foundation is now also included as a member of the ULI Foundation’s Marcus Vitruvius Society, the organization’s highest accolade.
A long history of leadership
For Jeff Stack—a longtime ULI member, founding partner of Sares Regis Group, and former ULI Foundation chair—the decision to make this substantial gift was deeply rooted in his decades-long experience with the Institute. “In the 1980s, several friends of mine suggested that I join ULI, and I did, but reluctantly at first, because I hadn’t been very involved in the organization before,” he recalls. “Then I went to my first ULI meeting. I was amazed at how much I learned. I became more and more involved.”
Stack’s involvement with ULI grew over the years, spanning various roles, including chairing the Multifamily Housing Council’s Silver Flight and serving as the chair of the Annual Fund before he eventually became the Foundation chair in 2014. “I got involved in the [nonprofit] development side of ULI because I realized [that] if an organization can’t raise money, it can’t accomplish its mission,” he says. “For me, it’s been a transformative experience. I’ve learned so much and gained so much from it.”
At the core of Stack’s commitment is a profound belief in ULI’s mission. “When you look at the challenges that we face in the environment today, many of which have been exacerbated by poor land planning and development, it’s an opportunity to improve the world. Applying the best practices for land use will greatly benefit the environment and our communities in the long run.”
Abbey concurs, saying, “Land use policies and practices are critical to solving the issues facing the world. And what organization is better positioned than the Urban Land Institute, with its more than 48,000 members and its District Council network, to come up with the best ideas for achieving decarbonization, building more affordable housing, and improving land use policies and practices?”
“I got involved in the [nonprofit] development side of ULI because I realized [that] if an organization can’t raise money, it can’t accomplish its mission.”
A key role in cystinosis research
The Stacks’ philanthropic journey extends far beyond their involvement with ULI. In 2003, the couple founded the Cystinosis Research Foundation. “Our interest in health care and finding cures for diseases stems from the fact that our own daughter, Natalie, was born with a very rare genetic disease called cystinosis,” says Nancy Stack, the foundation’s president. “It’s a metabolic disease that affects every cell in the body, and it’s a progressive, debilitating disease. The average life expectancy is the late 20s. To even get to that point, people must take a cocktail of medications around the clock. There are no days off from cystinosis.”
Right before her 12th birthday, Natalie made a wish “to have [her] disease go away forever,” Nancy Stack recalls. “That wish changed our lives. I said to Jeff, we need to do something.” Within weeks, they had raised more than $100,000 at a cocktail party of friends and community members, and by the end of that year, they had amassed more than $350,000 for research. Since its inception, the Cystinosis Research Foundation has raised $72 million. “Our pledge has been to underwrite all the expenses and operations of the foundation, so that 100 percent of what people donate goes directly to research,” she adds.
One goal was to find a better treatment for cystinosis, because at that time, the treatment “involved taking the medication every six hours, 24/7,” Nancy Stack says. “We focused on developing a delayed-release version of the medication and supported all the early research and clinical trials to develop that …. The medication was approved by the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] in 2013. So, we now have an option to take a drug every 12 hours instead of every six hours, which is significantly better.”
The Cystinosis Research Foundation’s ambitions didn’t stop there, though. “Our other mission was to find a cure for cystinosis,” Nancy Stack says. “We started funding stem cell research in 2007 with our first grant to Dr. Stéphanie Cherqui, from UC San Diego, who promised us that she would work her entire career [to] find a cure for cystinosis.”
That commitment paid off in 2018, when Dr. Cherqui received FDA approval for the first stem cell gene therapy clinical trial for cystinosis. To date, six patients have undergone the therapy, including Natalie Stack herself. “It came full circle for us—our daughter has a chance at a longer life,” Nancy Stack says.
Jeff Stack’s longstanding involvement in ULI also played a role in the Cystinosis Research Foundation’s successes. “We’ve been able to raise tens of millions of dollars for cystinosis research, and a lot of that money has come from the real estate sector, from friends and business partners and associates of [Jeff’s],” Nancy Stack says.
The Stacks’ philanthropic efforts are having a ripple effect far beyond this one disease. “Because cystinosis is so complicated, and because every tissue is affected, when you start discovering things about cystinosis, you can apply them to other diseases and disorders,” Nancy Stack says. “Not only does Dr. Cherqui have plans to cure Friedreich’s ataxia and Danon disease, but she also published a paper last year about her work on a treatment to reverse some of the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. So our donors, unbeknownst to them, were funding so much more than cystinosis research. Now, our work will hopefully help millions of people, with other diseases, around the world.”
Novartis has since acquired the stem cell gene therapy program for the treatment of cystinosis and is running the next phase. Meanwhile, Nancy Stack says, all the patients who underwent the first phase are doing very well.
Jeff Stack is quick to credit his wife’s determination for the Cystinosis Research Foundation’s remarkable achievements. “Nancy single-handedly took this [task] on in 2003, and she has created an unbelievable organization of research and medical advancement that is just unparalleled,” he says.
Support for other community programs
The Stacks’ philanthropic vision extends beyond the Cystinosis Research Foundation, as well. In 2007, they established the Nancy and Geoffrey Stack Family Foundation to support education, health care, and other community programs in Orange County—where they live—and beyond. “We’ve been very blessed financially over the years, and both Nancy and I have talked extensively about how we could use that money to do good things,” Jeff says. “We’re planning to give away the vast majority of the money that we’ve made over the years—ultimately, 90-plus percent of it will go to charity through the Stack Family Foundation.”
Their recent donations include $5 million to establish a gene therapy initiative at the University of California, San Diego, that will research gene-based therapies for people with genetic disorders; and $2 million toward the new UCI Health–Irvine medical campus, including the new emergency department and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building. They have also contributed funds to provide scholarships to numerous students; supported organizations that assist disadvantaged individuals in accessing education; and donated to ULI Learning, which offers courses in topics relevant to the commercial real estate industry.
Powering the future of ULI
Among their diverse philanthropic endeavors, the Stacks’ gift to the ULI Chair’s Fund holds a special significance for them. “The reason we decided to donate to the ULI Chair’s Fund is that, in the long run, it provides funds for ULI to continue to do its work and support the people who are running ULI, both the paid professionals and the volunteers,” Jeff Stack says. “We felt that this … incredible opportunity to give some money … would continue to keep ULI moving ahead to accomplish its mission, far beyond my lifetime.”
Abbey echoes this sentiment, highlighting the transformative potential of the Chair’s Fund. “This is the Urban Land Institute’s first capital campaign,” he says. “When we started out, we knew that people were attached to the Urban Land Institute for professional reasons but did not think of ULI as one of their priorities for charitable giving, [many] of which were [focused on] universities, hospitals, and faith organizations.”
As the campaign progressed, however, Abbey found that ULI’s three mission priorities—decarbonizing the real estate industry, increasing housing attainability, and educating future leaders—resonated deeply with members. “Many people in the real estate industry have had great success and are looking for ways to pay it forward,” he says. “A number of ULI leaders have elected to put ULI in the top three or four of their philanthropic priorities, given the critical opportunity for ULI to—as the late Jim Curtis, a past ULI Foundation Chair, was fond of saying—‘make a visible difference.’ We’re pleased to have $22 million committed to the ULI Chair’s Fund to date.”
The Stacks’ gift, Abbey notes, is the eighth donation of $5 million or more to the ULI Foundation and the latest contribution to the ULI Chair’s Fund. “We’re thrilled to welcome Jeff and Nancy as members of this important effort,” he says. “The Chair’s Fund will provide essential support for ULI’s programs and operations, empowering the organization’s mission and advancing the vision of its members.”
On a personal level, Abbey expresses admiration for the Stacks’ philanthropy. “Jeff and Nancy are wonderful friends,” he says. “Throughout their lifetime, they have been leaders in their community, in ULI, and in philanthropy. And specifically, they have single-handedly led a successful effort to tackle cystinosis.”
Abbey, a founder of IHP Capital Partners in Newport Beach, California, launched the ULI Chair’s Fund with James Klingbeil and Thomas Toomey via a combined total of $17 million in donations in 2021. Their generosity, along with support from others like Jeff and Nancy Stack, enables ULI to adapt and provide vital resources needed to navigate the challenges of our ever-changing world.
