The Sanford Consortium is an independent California not-for-profit public benefit corporation exempt from income taxes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and Section 23701d of the California Revenue and Taxation Code. 

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Sanford was founded in March 2006 as the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine by its Collaborating Organizations including the Burnham Biomedical Research Institute (subsequently renamed the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute), the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Scripps Research and UC San Diego to plan, permit, finance,  construct and thereafter operate a new research facility ("Collaboratory") to enable and expand collaborative stem cell research and to translate discoveries into clinical therapies and cures...to imagine the possibilities and accelerate solutions. In October 2011, the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology became the fifth Collaborating Organization .

In September 2008, philanthropist T. Denny Sanford of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, announced an extraordinary donation of $30 million. In recognition of this donation, the organization was renamed the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. 

With benefit of Mr. Sanford's gift in 2009 Sanford was awarded a $43 million grant by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded, that Sanford used to fund construction of the Collaboratory, which was completed and certified for occupany in 2012.
 

Sanford's is governed by a Board of Directors and operated by a Management Team