In honor of JDCA’s Anniversary Week, today we are re-posting two other crucial blogs: Our report on the disconnect between the way diabetes non-profits market their fundraising campaigns (as focused on a cure) and the actual way the money is spent (the majority goes toward non-cure related research), as well as Cara’s (our Senior Editor) interview at diabetescare.net that goes deeper into the issue.
We focused yesterday on the shrinking funding for a type 1 diabetes cure, but today’s look-back is a good reminder of why we need to be concerned and vocal about this. After all, if the non-profits promise to work on something and collect money for that issue, isn’t it important that we hold them to it?
———————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Disconnect Between Fundraising Messaging and Use of Donor Contributions
The JDCA was established because our founder believed that many, if not most, people who donate to type 1 diabetes charities do so for the purpose of a cure. However, when he took a closer look at the diabetes non-profits’ operations and funding allocations, he found that cure research was actually receiving a minority of funding allocations.
It is our mission to shed light upon the disconnect between donor intentions and funding allocations. Why do we believe that many people give for the purpose of a cure? For one, many fundraising events use the goal of a cure in their messaging and promotion.
Our latest report, “The Disconnect between the Cure Message Used to Solicit Donations and the Allocation of Those Donations,” explores precisely this issue. It lists major fundraiser events for the JDRF, ADA, DRIF, and Joslin, and not surprisingly, a large majority of these events invoke and inspire the fight for a type 1 diabetes cure. This message seems to suggest that a majority of the funds raised will be used for cure research.
What is more, some fundraising initiatives, such as JDRF’s Walks for a Cure, guide family teams to write letters and make videos to encourage donations to participate on behalf of their diabetic child/children. This appears to send a message – that efforts going into the fundraisers will be used to help fight for a diabetes cure within our lifetime, so that these very children will be able to live a cure-free lifestyle.
However, as we point out in “Review of Expense Categories of the Major Type 1 Non-Profits”, the JDCA estimates that only 20% of aggregate donor contributions to three of the four major type 1 non-profits was directed to type 1 cure research grants in 2011.
It is our mission to inform donors of this disconnect so that they can take the necessary steps to ensure that their contributions reflect the intention of their giving.
We need to take action to make sure that this disconnect is adjusted and more money that is donated for the purpose of a cure actually goes towards projects working to achieve that goal. If you want to ensure that your donation goes solely toward type 1 diabetes Practical Cure research, please attach our Donor Action Letter with your contribution. Together we can make our voices heard to focus research toward a cure.
READ CARA’S DIABETESCARE.NET INTERVIEW HERE.
