Colin Rowntree is an internet entrepreneur whose commercial online business has been active and growing since the early 1990s. His philinthropic activity, via personal and professional donations of his time and financial resources also dates back to the earliest periods of business activity.
“My wife and I decided early on that we had an important role to play in helping others through dark times because there are ways we can spread our good fortune that mean much more to us than buying another fancy car ever would” said Mr. Rowntree. “What’s ironic is that things seem to be going full circle now, as our work on behalf of the Michael J. Fox foundation supports a very well managed important charity whose namesake Michael J. Fox just happens to be one of the most popular actors from the era when our own business enterprise first began.”
Through their vast network of websites, the Colin and Angela Rowntree have created a monthly donation program that contributes a revenue percentage to a worthy cause selected in part by their website customers. This month that effort is being dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through funding the Michael J. Fox foundation and its research agenda aimed at ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson’s today.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease and is somewhat unique in that, unlike most private disease research charities where the most important decisions (how to allocate donor-raised dollars) are made by an external board of scientific advisers – they favor of an internal model that required building an in-house team of formally trained PhDs and business-trained project managers focused on efficiency and results.