Pictured: Gamma brothers from NYU raising funds for The B+ Foundation around New York City.

 

Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity is thrilled to announce a national partnership with a new official philanthropy. The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation will help ZBT brothers have a stronger impact on more kids with cancer and their families.

The B+ (“Be Positive”) Foundation provides financial and emotional support to families of children with cancer nationwide, and it funds critical, cutting-edge childhood cancer research. College students and young philanthropists are the main drivers of the work of The B+ Foundation, through dance marathons, campus activities and fraternity chapter events.

Several ZBT chapters have worked with The B+ Foundation in an unofficial capacity for the past decade. Alongside fundraising efforts, many ZBT chapters have been paired with a B+ Hero, kids who have battled cancer or who are still in the fight. The work of these chapters has had an incredible impact on many children and their families.

“The B+ Foundation is one of those organizations whose mission is so relatable to the interests of so many of our brothers. The story of how the brothers of our New York University chapter brought 7-year-old Christian Guzman into their lives, into their activities, into their chapter and into their hearts is as moving testimony to what ZBT is all about,” said ZBT International President Barry M. Aarons, Gamma Tau (Arizona State University) 1971. “It had a profound effect on the brothers.”

Watch

The incredible story of the Gamma Chapter at NYU and their brother and B+ Hero, Christian Guzman.

The potential for more ZBTs doing more to better the world is the driving factor in the adoption of The B+ Foundation as a new Zeta Beta Tau official philanthropy.

• ZBT’s University of Texas at Austin chapter has raised $65,000 in the past two years. “I decided to get involved with The B+ Foundation as so many people in my life have been impacted by cancer. (This work) feels close to home. I love the mission behind everything that B+ does and I could not be more grateful to be a part of it. Everyone should get involved,” said David Gichner, Lambda  2027.
• ZBT’s NYU chapter has hosted a B+ Hero for 12 consecutive years. Since 2013, the chapter has raised more than $125,000 for B+. “For me, supporting The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation has been synonymous with being a brother of ZBT. I first heard about B+ at Meet the Greeks, when a ZBT brother told me B+ Hero Christian’s story. I was so inspired to hear all that a group of ZBT brothers had done to welcome Christian and his mom into the ZBT family as he fought cancer,” said Steve Parlamas, Gamma (NYU) 2018. “I was confident that any group of college kids who supported Christian and his mom in such amazing ways would be the right group for me.”
• UDance, the dance marathon at the University of Delaware, is the fourth largest in the nation, benefiting The B+ Foundation. ZBT’s Delaware chapter raised $7,000 last year through UDance.

“ZBT brothers will do truly meaningful work through B+,” said Chief Executive Officer Libby Anderson, CAE. “We have already heard from several undergraduates how excited they are for this new partnership that will expand their philanthropic capacity.”

Read more on the ways ZBT chapters worked with The B+ Foundation this past semester in Chapter News.

The B+ Foundation honors the life of Andrew McDonough. Andrew battled leukemia, septic shock and complications of childhood cancer for 167 days before passing away on July 14, 2007, at the age of 14. Andrew’s B+ blood type became his family and friends’ motto throughout his fight against childhood cancer – to “Be Positive.”

“The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation is honored to be an official partner of ZBT. Since we first met over a decade ago, ZBT has been a champion and a friend of The B+ Foundation and it seems so fitting that we can work together in an official capacity to help kids fight cancer while giving brothers the opportunity to be part of something bigger than themselves,” said Carly Bergstein, The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation Executive Director. “We thank ZBT for their belief in our mission and we are excited to make such a meaningful impact together.”

The new formalized partnership was adopted as part of the 2025 International Convention and announced to the brothers in attendance at New Orleans.

The B+ is now the fourth official philanthropy of Zeta Beta Tau, alongside Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Jewish Women International and the Zeta Beta Tau Foundation. ZBT also has a service partner, Gift of Life Marrow Registry. For information on working with The B+ Foundation, contact Carly Bergstein at carly@bepositive.org or ZBT’s Julian Albright at jalbright@zbtnational.org.

• Share this article