Health

There are literally millions of diseases — some fatal, some rare, some affecting children, some other demographics. And behind each of them is a group of people who are passionate about finding a cure. And most of them depend on private donations to fund their efforts.

Easter Seals. Everybody knows what it does, right? After all, it’s been around almost 90 years, and it has an instantly recognizable brand that’s been valued at upward of $5 billion.

But rewind to 2004, when the much-loved Chicago-based organization had just wrapped up a research project it embarked on to create a public service announcement campaign.

Development at the Lance Armstrong Foundation embodies seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong’s demon drive to empower cancer survivors.

Las Vegas: known for its high rollers, Elvis impersonators, and Siegfried and Roy. But now the glitzy city also is attracting attention for a major philanthropic success.

You don’t have to be a cyclist to know who Lance Armstrong is and what he’s accomplished. The seven-time Tour de France winner and survivor of testicular cancer is a mainstay in the media — whether he’ll compete for his eighth Tour de France win next year; his recent engagement to singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow; or his organization, the Austin, Texas-based Lance Armstrong Foundation, which raises funds to fight cancer through education, advocacy, and public health and research programs.

Organization: International Women’s Health Coalition, New York City, founded in 1984 by Joan Dunlop and Adrienne Germain to generate health and population policies, programs and funding that promote and protect the rights and health of girls and women worldwide. 

A one-week-a-year campaign that raises $200,000 over three years? Not bad.

More aggressive is increasing your development goal for that campaign to $100,000 in a single year.

There’s a gleam in Vaneeda Bennett’s eye that borders on mischievous and a lingering quality to her laugh that makes you wonder what she’s up to. What she’s been up to — for the past nine years, at least — is a major upheaval of the thinking in the development office at the American Diabetes Association. An upheaval that’s lead to a 100 percent cumulative increase across four development areas at the national, Virginia-based organization over the past eight years.

The American Lung Association currently is in the throes of redesigning, revamping and relaunching its Web site, www.lungusa.com. While the current site provides rich content on a whopping 60,000 pages, the infrastructure is very “last generation,” says Rusty Burwell, assistant vice president of the development division at the ALA.