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Scientists Stunned as Medical Non-Profit Group Abruptly Ends Research Grants (nature.com)
A major US non-profit group focused on improving child health has abruptly terminated US$3 million in research grants -- leaving nearly 40 scientists confused, angry and scrambling to secure new funding. From a report: On 24 July, 37 grant recipients received an e-mail from the March of Dimes Foundation in New York City informing them that their 3-year grants had been cut off, retroactively, starting on 30 June. Many of the researchers were only a year into their projects, and had had just enough time to hire and train staff, purchase supplies and generate preliminary results. Now, several say that they might need to lay off employees, euthanize lab animals and shelve their research projects if they cannot find other funding -- fast. The March of Dimes, which is supported largely by individual donations, made the decision to revoke the grants because of a budget shortfall, says Kelle Moley, the group's chief scientific officer. "I know this is harsh news," Moley says. "As a former grantee, this would be devastating to me as well." That is small consolation to many researchers whom Nature spoke to.
Obviously somebody has discovered a cure for polio and they're about the break the news. We don't need the March of Dimes any more!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
In this somewhat old post on how MOD spends money, it spent $96 million on salaries and benefits. If they really needed to save $3 million, why could that money not have come from there?
Salary and related expenses are 37% of every dollar MOD gets as a donation...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
And I ain't talking Teddy here!
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Handouts are not the most stable form of revenue. Unless by the government, of course.
Anyone else besides me remember the cardboard donation collectors at supermarkets when you were a kid? I remember putting a dime in at least a few times.
Even then it was amazing to think that anything could be accomplished with a collection of dimes.
By making memephones. shows the world’s priorties in money.
pfft, you are assuming anything useful would have come from this. A cursory review of such grants reveals the answer is no.
Quit imagining that randomly throwing money at a problem solves anything.
Holy Moley!
Thats pretty amazing you were able to review 37 grants in 3 minutes. Good job. I'll let the Google guys know their personal airships are a better place to spend their extra billions.
$3m seems like a pretty small sum to raise via crowdfunding for something able to impact so many things. There's kickstarter, patreon, and experiment.com that I know of offhand.
The abruptness suggests that March of Dimes staff is incompetent and couldn't see the shortfall coming, that some major funding source suddenly cut them off, or maybe some insider embezzled a bunch of money. In any case, this doesn't look like a typical, "Gee, we've been having some difficulties raising money" scenario.
The less science there is, the happier they seem to be. To hell with those pesky scientists, telling them that humans evolved through natural selection, that the earth is more than 6000 years old (and is round ! imagine that !), that human activity is the major cause of climate change, and that creationism is (gasp!) not science !
Aren't those scientists all part of a global conspiracy to increase their taxes anyway ? Off with their heads !
There are definitely some bad religious ones, but the Fear of the Lord tends to sharpen the minds of the organizations especially if they're more at the regional level where there are not enough fiefdom-building opportunities.
If you're a giver who wants to help babies--the MOD's ostensible justification for existence--go find the most orthodox church in your area. You know, the one where they believe abortion is straight up murder. Ask the head pastor or the priest who they would recommend you send your money to support. I can almost guarantee you that the percentage that will go to poor moms and babies will be significantly higher than anything sent to the MOD.
March of Dimes for you, March of Millions fro the CEO and cronies.
Surely scientists don accept grants like this without a contract for the full term pf the grant? So sue for breach of contract...
Now you know the origin of "STOPPED ON A DIME".
Maybe they need a name change.
The old dime ain't worth much these days.
They have a a two star overall rating on Charity Navigator and a one star for financials.
Their efficiency is for every dollar they raise, they spend $0.15 to raise it. And after admin expenses, $0.75 actually goes for the programs.
What a bunch of assholes, these researchers. I felt bad for them until they mentioned euthanizing their lab animals. I'm no animal rights activist myself, far from it. I completely, 100% agree that animal testing is very necessary in science and research. That being said, why the hell kill off perfectly viable, useful and valuable lab animals? Oh, I'm sure they're selling their microscopes, flasks, beakers, centrifuges, chemicals, safety gear, GC/MS machines and other assorted equipment as they liquidate their assets. The animals, however, the researchers understand to have political value, and that's what they're using them for now by threatening to euthanize them.
Sure, the researchers could have sold them to other labs and recouped some of their losses, as anyone can be certain they're doing with everything else in their lab that isn't nailed down, but instead they decided to use these animals' lives as a political bargaining chip. They're probably hoping that if they can convince the public they had no other choice but to kill them, maybe the animal rights activists will form a Twatter mob and shame the non-profits into giving them their money back.
Euthanasia costs money, too. So does cremation. These researchers apparently ran out of money, but still have enough to perform all these euthanasias and cremations. Oooooookay.
No, these euthanasia threats are entirely political. It's not about business or money, it's a vengeful PR move done by morons who ran up a debt based on empty promises they were gullible enough to put their faith in. Maybe these brainiac scientists should have made sure their money is secure. You'd think someone working in a science lab would have the smarts to figure this shit out. Get your money, THEN spend it. In that order.
Quit imagining that randomly throwing money at a problem solves anything.
Cease and desist from empty assertions that the money for these grants was randomly distributed.
In the 1950s, my mother was putting actual dimes into slots in donation cards for this organization. So, whence that legacy?
Let me choose how to spend your money
They stopped getting MY dimes when I got that 1st shot of Salk vaccine. I use MOD as a counterexample whenever anyone talks about the superiority of the private sector vs the public. All bureaucracies are equally self-serving.
I'm going to go 'way out on a limb here and bet that none of the top people at MoD have had to worry about getting laid off because of the "budget shortfall".
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
$ 3mil is like peanuts money for most well established charities like March Of Dimes, in the US. I am just wondering how much they pay to their top brass as compensation. This sounds like a ploy to garner public outcry and *encourage* people to donate more to them. Otherwise it doesn't really make sense. I very much dislike charitable organizations which go such cloak and dagger ways to get attention.
__________
The more I know people, the more I love animals
Ok, that's fine as far as a correction goes (I was just quoting the page I found).
However percentages mean very little when we are talking absolute numbers. They trimmed out $3 million of grants, how much money TOTAL is 10.7$ of the money they receive? It still seems like there would be a lot of admin overhead they could trim, before they cut programs.
Also of course, the numbers you are using are before they dropped $3 million of grants. The new administrative percentage is quite obviously higher than any listed number because now they are not using as much of the money they manage on programs.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You don't have to go very far into the financial statements to see the problem:
https://www.marchofdimes.org/materials/march-of-dimes-2017-audited-financial-statements.pdf
The balance sheet discloses they have $88.8 million in total assets and $60.7 million in pension liabilities. They were too generous with pensions and it bit them.
Additionally there is a generational problem. Up until the 70's and 80's their fund raising activities were based on stay at home mom's who were leaders that would go door to door and sign up other mom's to pledge to prevent Birth Defects. The situation that made this possible no longer exists and they have since had to turn to other means of fund raising (outbound call centers, etc) that cost significantly more. Lacking a local character and a cogent reason for asking for money (keep other mom's like yourself from having to deal with the heartbreak of a child with a serious birth defect), fundraising has tanked.
I might not turn away a neighbor asking for money for charity, but I would for sure hang up on a call from a random boiler room call center.
Support a very christian ideal of helping babies inutero
Support science that is often used to kill or dehumanize those same babies thus alienating a large portion of your donar base.
Profit?
https://www.lifeissues.org/200...
http://www.roseandherlily.com/...
Kind of makes you wonder why their donations are declining. Maybe they need to figure out a better way to appeal the the sympathy atheists naturally have to not yet human blobs of flesh.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
Is there a website where researchers can post research projects and I can donate per project depending on what I think is important?
That's the important info to retain, here. They have families to feed which makes them as vulnerable as us to money pressure, and therefore as corruptible as we are. This means the science they uncover is very much biased and when they don't find cures, you know why.
This is the official Audited Financial Statement from the March of Dimes for the year of 2017:
https://www.marchofdimes.org/materials/march-of-dimes-2017-audited-financial-statements.pdf
According to Page 6:
$7.1 million went to pay the salaries and benefits of management. That's a lot of money for pushing paper for a non-profit. Considering that this is an organization consisting almost entirely of unpaid volunteers, that $7.1 million is probably being distributed among a very small group of top executives.
Over $57 million went towards "public and professional education". $14 million of that is just the cost of printing supplies, postage and shipping alone. What do you want to bet that's almost entirely junk mail? Also, who the fuck hasn't heard of the March of Dimes by now? Do they really need to spend so much money on making the public aware of their existence by this point?
$22 million dollars were fundraising expenses. Again, who the fuck hasn't heard of these guys? You'd think they could operate on word of mouth by now. I've seen the "fundraising expenses" of large charities before. I'm reminded of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, where they do shit like renting banquet halls and hosting big, elaborate gala ball events to put on a big show for the media. They'll have rich assholes who want a tax break and a PR boost to come to these events at a cost of $600 a plate, yet with all the money they pour into making these events so ritzy, they still barely break even.
And yet, the March of Dimes can't afford to go forward with a promised $3 million dollars that was meant to be paid over the course of several years? Fucking really?!
So yeah, I know how to fix that budget. Stop the damn gravy train. Stop being a tax shelter for rich philanthropists. Stop being one of those do-nothing, multi-million dollar "charities" that only exists to perpetually sustain itself, rather than actually tackling the issues you promised to fix.
If "euthanize lab animals" is an option for you, then I hope you don't get any more funding.
RE: organizations with horrific records of systemic abuse of vulnerable people
Wait, he was talking about Film and TV studios?
Which of them are the most Orthodox? Probably Fox I guess.
I can't support liars.
Anyone pushing any religion (outside Jediism), is a liar. Hindus believe in thousands of Gods, yet Christians, Jews and Muslims dismiss all of them except 1?
I dismiss all Gods, God, and Dogs. Angels, ghosts, and spirits too.
There is no Santa Claus either.
The Pope is the head liar. Just think of all the money wasted on religion that could be used to do amazing, real, things.
Stop lying.
Sadly, this is just part of the ongoing effort to deprioritize science in America. Watch for more stories like this, if the media even cover them. The technological edge of the scientific revolution is moving overseas fast.
The March of Dimes was a charitable foundation to find the cure for polio. The cure has been found. But you will never end a 'foundation' when there are paying positions and a powerful fundraising mechanism in force.
Shut it down. It was a success.
they've been skimming the top 40% off of donations for decades, what's with your puny 37 grants?
Yeah... It's a generous donation that obviously ran out or perhaps they want to put their money elsewhere else. Who knows. But getting angry because your source of free money dried up?
In 2014, out of every dollar they raised, $0.15 was actually passed on through grants and support to research.
85% is eaten up internally. They are bordering on a scam.
Not to mention prostate cancer, that gets even less support, and kills more people.
Breast cancer researchers have actually BLOCKED prostate cancer researchers from sharing their data, because....
Oh right, the old âoeonly religious people can be moralâ argument. Makes sense.
CEOs, CFOs, etc. all claim they deserve their gigantic salaries because of the value they add.
What value?
You so poorly managed the finances of your company that you didn't see this coming? A CFO worth their value should have been able to predict this and taken appropriate measure to prepare for it, rather than just spasticly react to it when it jumped up and surprised them.
A worker bee that made such a monumental mistake would be vilified and lose their job, but members of the ruling class just get an extra bonus 'cause they had such a tough year, po wittle things.
If I remember correctly, Dr. John P. A. Ioannidis (yo-need-ees), a Professor of Medicine and Health Research and Policy at Stanford University School of Medicine and a Professor of Statistics at Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences. He reports that 99% of medical research is hog-wash, and that everything stated in any given "study" is proven wrong within 15 years. He went on to state that the quality of researchers has fallen dramatically over the last 70 years, and that "studies" must have scary outcomes to get published and future funding.