When Robert J. Beall joined the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 1980, he launched a program aimed at absorbing the early financial risk involved in drug development as a way to entice for-profit companies to get involved in cystic fibrosis research. That strategy was vindicated with the approval in January of the first small-molecule drug that directly interacts with the mutated protein responsible for cystic fibrosis. Elie Dolgin spoke with Beall to learn more about his organization’s pioneering approach to venture philanthropy. 'Venture philanthropy' has become a buzz term in the nonprofit sector over the past decade, but the concept was completely new to disease-focused charities when the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation decided to give it a try in 1998. Frustrated by the lack of progress toward targeted therapies for cystic fibrosis—a rare disease that afflicts just 70,000 people worldwide—Robert J. Beall, president and chief executive of the Bethesda, Maryland–based organization, added a bold new component to the foundation's research-funding strategy. Beall, who joined the foundation in 1980, launched a program aimed at absorbing the early financial risk involved in drug development as a way to entice for-profit companies to get involved in cystic fibrosis research. That strategy was vindicated with the approval in January of the first small-molecule drug that directly interacts with the mutated protein responsible for cystic fibrosis. The drug, formerly known as VX-770 and now branded as Kalydeco (ivacaftor), has been a long time in the making. Yet all along the way there was Beall and his foundation, which has committed $315 million to for-profit companies for cystic fibrosis research over the years. Elie Dolgin spoke with Beall to learn more about his organization's pioneering approach to philanthropy.