The Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge has been made possible through a remarkable public-private partnership. The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, a private non-profit organization, received contributions to fund the facility's construction. Significant gifts from The Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation, as well as the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, The Merck Company Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, and many other generous individuals, corporations, and foundations have made the Safra Family Lodge a reality.
The Foundation for NIH hosted a ceremony marking the naming of the facility for Edmond J. Safra on April 17, 2002 , at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Considered by many to have been the twentieth century's greatest private banker, Safra quietly carried out many philanthropic activities. Rarely taking personal credit, he supported thousands of students, underwrote medical research, built and restored schools and synagogues as well as churches and mosques, endowed professorships and contributed to countless humanitarian, religious, educational and cultural causes.
After Safra's tragic death, the Foundation and his wife Lily, who is a founding member of the Foundation and serves on its Council, supported many projects consistent with his vision. With the dedication of the Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge at NIH, The Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation carries forth Safra's lifetime commitment to medical research and humanitarian causes.
A subsequent donation from the Safra Foundation funded design and construction of a healing garden named for Claudio and Evelyne Cohen and dedicated to the memory of Raphael Cohen.