The mission of the Biogen Idec Foundation is to improve the quality of peoples' lives and contribute to the vitality of the communities in which we operate, with a special emphasis on innovative ways to promote science literacy and encourage young people to consider science careers.

The Foundation supports projects in Greater Boston, MA, Raleigh-Durham (Research Triangle Park), NC, and San Diego, CA. We also support several national science education programs, such as the U.S. Biology Olympiad. All organizations selected for Foundation support are qualified as not-for-profit agencies with tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Code. With the exception of a few national science-education programs, we regret that we cannot support programs and agencies outside our geographic operating areas.

The Biogen Idec Foundation also supports an Academic Matching Gift program, under which donations by Biogen Idec employees and our Board of Directors to qualified institutions of higher education in the United States (or United States affiliates of international universities) are matched dollar-for-dollar. Contributions range between $15 to a maximum of $5,000 per employee per institution per year.

Eligibility and Limitation

To be eligible for Biogen Idec Foundation funding, an organization must be:

• A non-profit agency with tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service code
• Serving residents of the Greater Boston area, Raleigh-Durham, NC and San Diego, CA

Eligible organizations must not:

• Advocate, support or practice discrimination based on race, religion, age, national origin, language, gender, sexual preference or physical limitation;
• Include the promotion of any particular religious faith as an explicit and primary goal;
• Have the nomination or election of candidates to political office as an explicit goal;
• Be government agencies, political organizations or individuals.