The Ulman Foundation

The Ulman Foundation changes lives by creating a community of support for young adults, and their loved ones, impacted by cancer. With an unwavering mission to enhance lives by supporting, education, and connecting young adults, their families, and friends who are affected by cancer, The Ulman Foundation has accomplished a great deal in the way of providing crucial support to thousands of young adults with cancer — through education, scholarship programs, a network of human and health care resources, and fundraising for program and support services provided free of charge.

We envision a world in which no young adult faces cancer alone.

Goal One: Impact 90% of all locally treated young adult patients.

Goal Two: Double our impact through expansion.

Goal Three: Increase the diversity and inclusivity of our staff, board, programs and community.

In spring 2021, Ulman Foundation hired Blue Water Advisory to provide DISC assessments to all staff members. The DISC assessment shared information about an individuals communication, leadership and management styles while offering feedback on how the rest of the staff can communicate with one another based on their DISC assessment scores. Additionally, all staff members are involved in our current strategic planning sessions that will help determine the future direction of the organization. Staff are also given time and the support to pursue job specific leadership training through a variety of channels including conferences, classes, webinars, and trainings. In spring 2022, Leadership Team members will be participating in an intensive communications training to help develop their own interpersonal communication skills.

We have four partner patient navigation sites (Johns Hopkins Hospital, University of Maryland Medical Center, Walter Reed Medical Center and health sites in Anne Arundel County) and we have a patient navigator at each location that provides support for resources and care to patients impacted by cancer. We often will present at national conferences, including AONN and at AVBCC (Association of Value-Based Cancer Care)around the impact of cancer on young adults. We additionally participate in national cancer councils including AONN. Ulman House is located in East Baltimore and we are directly immersed in neighborhood groups and with one of our community members and partner, BGE, we created a mural on our building to help enhance the neighborhood. Ulman encourages our community to share their personal stories that we add to social media and our blog. The organization has also helped with legislative efforts in Maryland to improve access to fertility treatments for cancer patients.

Like all businesses and nonprofits, the Ulman Foundation continues to wrestle with the major upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have navigated it well, nimbly making changes to our operations and programming, and continually adjusting our budget projections and expectations. With the vaccine allowing for safe, well-controlled in-person events, we will regain the ability to operate several revenue-generating events and programs we were forced to cut in 2020. Our individual donors have remained loyal and generous, and combined with PPP funding, have enabled us to continue our client services without interruption. We have adopted a hybrid remote/in-person work model which we think will serve us well for the long term, and were able to end the lease at our office to save funds as a result. We figured out how to host a variety of our programs virtually or safely with outdoor social distancing in mind including: support groups, our art therapy program ATO Project, Cancer to 5K, and our hospitality home Ulman House stayed fully operational during the pandemic.