Philanthropist Tom Golisano donated $30 million to the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Health, Dartmouth Health announced on Sept. 10. The hospital, located in Lebanon, N.H., will be renamed to the Golisano Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Health in recognition of the donation.
Dartmouth Health will use the donation to “modernize critical spaces at the children’s hospital and … expand services at Dartmouth Health Children’s clinics,” the press release reads. It will also join the Golisano Children’s Health Alliance. The alliance, founded in 2025, “provides strategic funding and brings together leading children’s hospitals to expand services, strengthen collaboration and ensure that children and families have access to the highest quality medical care close to home,” according to the Golisano Foundation’s website.
Golisano, an entrepreneur and founder of payroll company Paychex, told Dartmouth Health for the press release that he made the donation with “great pride.”
“This investment is intended to elevate pediatric care by advancing services and building a new, modern Intensive Care Nursery and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit to address the needs of the sickest babies and children and their families,” Golisano said.
Golisano was unavailable for an interview with The Dartmouth, a representative said.
According to the press release, the donation to the GCHaD Health is part of the Golisano Foundation’s donations to five other children’s hospitals, totaling $225 million.
Dartmouth Health child health initiatives development director Polly Antol said in an interview with The Dartmouth that Dartmouth Health became “very intrigued by the idea of becoming part of the alliance” following Golisano’s to regional “neighbors”
“We reached out [to the Golisano Foundation] and we said, ‘We would love to tell you a little bit about us, and why we would love to be a member of the alliance and receive support in order to achieve our goals here,’” Antol said. “They were very receptive.”
Golisano plans to expand the alliance to 40 children’s hospitals across the country, Antol said. The foundation has funded and renamed 21 children’s hospitals, including six announced this month.
The Golisano Children’s Health Alliance will increase research opportunities and knowledge sharing, including models of best healthcare delivery, among member children’s hospitals. It will also enable the hospitals “to advocate” as a “collective group,” Antol said.
The donation is the largest philanthropic donation the Dartmouth Health system has ever received, according to the press release.
“There’s so much wonderful opportunity that this gift is providing us in terms of the shared knowledge we’ll have access to as a part of the Alliance, as well as the opportunity to raise additional funds, to support children and family throughout the region,” Antol said.
Golisano Foundation communications and digital engagement strategist Natalie Burrows said in an interview with The Dartmouth that Golisano hopes to “elevate” pediatric care in “small- to medium-sized hospitals so that children in every community can get the best possible healthcare.”
While many donations tend to be restricted to certain initiatives, Golisano “trusts through this relationship building that the hospitals know best” when spending, Burrows said.
Antol said the donation will “kick off” a “larger” fundraising campaign for the remaining $30 million of necessary funding for Dartmouth Health’s modernization project, which will enhance the Intensive Care Nursery and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Mira Wissman '29 is a reporter from Bethesda, MD., and is majoring in Neuroscience.
