It was founded by Helen Coley Nauts and Oliver R. Grace with a $2,000 grant from Nelson Rockefeller.
CRI was created in honor of Nauts' father, William Coley (1862–1936), an American orthopedic surgeon and a pioneer of cancer immunotherapy.
It also funds clinical trials testing promising immunotherapies in a variety of cancer types and convenes scientific conferences for tumor immunologists.
The institute makes a number of awards for excellence in the field of cancer research.
Frederick W. Alt Award The Frederick W. Alt Award recognizes outstanding success in academia or industry for research that may have a potentially major impact on immunology.