Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive health network, recently announced a historic $125 million gift from an anonymous donor. The donation is the largest in the network’s history, the largest of its kind in New Jersey healthcare and among the largest to any hospitals in the United States.
The gift helps bring Hackensack Meridian Health closer to its goal of bringing the best possible care to local communities through the expansion of the Jersey Shore University Medical Center. The donor has asked that the gift honors the legacy of the late John K. Lloyd by naming a pavilion at Jersey Shore University Medical Center after him. Lloyd was named the president of Jersey Shore University Medical Center in 1982 and played an integral role in building the hospital into one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers. In 1997, Lloyd led the merger that created Meridian Health and later, in 2016, helped bring together Hackensack University Health Network and Meridian Health to form Hackensack Meridian Health. Lloyd also served as co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health with Bob Garrett, until his retirement in 2018.
“John devoted his life to Jersey Shore and to the people of this community. He believed a hospital was more than a building — it was a promise to your neighbors,” said Maureen Lloyd, wife of the late John Lloyd. “To see his name on this pavilion, and to know that a gift of this magnitude will care for patients here for generations, would have meant everything to him. Our family is profoundly grateful to this donor, and to the doctors, nurses, and team members who carry John’s mission forward every day.”
A donation of this scale is rare, making it one of the largest of the year. Making it exceedingly rare is the fact that it was made anonymously and the donor chose not to have any buildings named after them, instead honoring one of the core contributors to the medical center’s success.
“In a year when the largest gifts in American healthcare have come from some of the most recognizable names in the country, someone chose to give $125 million and ask for nothing — no name on the building, no announcement, no recognition,” said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, chief executive officer of Hackensack Meridian Health. “They asked us to honor John Lloyd instead. That tells you everything about what this gift is really about. As a not-for-profit network, we put every dollar we receive right back into caring for our communities. Hackensack Meridian Health is home to the #1 adult and children’s hospitals in New Jersey and the #1 and only nationally ranked cancer center in the state. We save more lives than any other health network in New Jersey; our patients return home faster and are less likely to experience complications. This gift allows us to keep getting better, every single day, for the families who count on us. And naming the John K. Lloyd Pavilion is deeply personal for all of us — John’s fingerprints are on everything we have built together.”
As a not-for-profit health network, every dollar that Hackensack Meridian Health earns and receives is invested back into its patient care. The donor of this generous hopes that it will inspire others to make philanthropic commitments a priority. Philanthropy allows not-for-profit hospitals to move beyond the restraints of its budget, dedicating efforts to bold ideas that can help provide the highest quality of care. Donations of any size go directly towards helping local New Jersey communities.
“Philanthropy changes what is possible,” said Joyce Hendricks, president and chief development officer, Hackensack Meridian Health Foundation. “A gift of $125 million — the largest in our history and the largest of its kind ever made in New Jersey healthcare — reflects a donor’s deep confidence in our doctors, nurses, and other clinicians. It will help us expand access, advance the most sophisticated treatments available anywhere in the country, and ensure that world-class care is not something families have to travel far to find. It’s already in their backyard. When we launched Be the Difference, we set out to prove that New Jersey families should never have to leave this state for world-class care. A gift like this one moves us decisively toward that goal — and I hope it moves others to join us.”
The gift comes during the most ambitious fundraising effort in New Jersey healthcare history. In 2021, the Hackensack Meridian Health Foundation, launched Be The Difference, a campaign to innovate healthcare, with a goal of $1 billion.