The Michael J. Fox Foundation's unconvential path to fundraising success

By Cheryl P. Rose and Margaret Battistelli

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research seems to have it all wrong.

The organization does its work from a single office in New York City. It doesn't want to branch out and establish regional offices around the country. It doesn't spend a lot of time and effort prospecting. Or trying to get donors to commit to multiyear giving. Corporate giving is minimal. It doesn't have an endowment. (Nor does it want one, since one of the organization's core beliefs is that capital raised for the purpose of curing a disease has an obligation to be spent on research today, not stockpiled for the future.)