A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

A thousand pictures are worth a million words.

Here's an idea for an ALS organization.

1. Buy a bunch of inexpensive 3x5 frames at Michael's or Hobby Lobby or some emporium with lots of inexpensive frames.  Buy a model that is pretty standard because you'll probably need to buy more soon.

2.  Every time you meet with a new person with ALS, get a picture.  Print it and frame it and hang it on an office wall.

The wall will fill.  You will be amazed at the the people you will have worked with over the years. You will not forget them.  They will remind you and everyone who enters your office why you're there.

Keep going down the hallway and around the supply closet if need be.  If you fill up ever inch of wall space, perhaps it's time to reevaluate the fight.

Let's Have The Ultimate Hat Tip Competition

This probably won't happen, but Sleepy can still dream.

Dear ALS Organizations,


We're having a contest for you.  


A mystery donor has recently won $1,000,000 to invest in the fight against ALS.  Your help is needed in designing a diversified portfolio for that donor.  Here are the rules:

• Design a portfolio of recipients of the entire $1 million that will best serve the battle against ALS.
• Your organization may receive up to half of the funds.
• You must pick four other IRS-recognized charities to be recipients of the remaining funds.
• If yours is an umbrella organization, the four others may not be under your umbrella.

The spirit of this contest is to recognize that there are a lot of good organizations that can complement one another in the fight against ALS.  There are different research organizations.  There are social service organizations.  There are advocacy organizations.  There is so much to be done in the fight against ALS that one organization can't do it all.  There is so much to be done in research that a single approach surely isn't a wise investment.


Please design and enlighten us.

Think of it as the ultimate hat tip.

Unfortunately People Won't Pay To Sit To Defeat ALS

Many years ago I was at a meeting where an ALS fundraiser was being discussed.  It was to be a lovely gala in a beautiful location.  There would be delightful hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and desserts in an evening of dancing.  Something bothered me about raising funds that way for a disease that steals your ability to eat and drink and dance and dress yourself in party clothes.  I understand the realities of fundraising, but the ironies of celebrating a cause that way still bother me. 

Perhaps sometime we should have an new kind of fundraiser where healthy people would pay to sit for three hours in a wheelchair without moving.  There could be dinner fundraisers where hungry guests would dine on puree and assorted vintages of chilled Ensure.  Or maybe some olympic-style events where individuals lift others off the floor and back into a chair.  Ah, the gravity games. The possibilities are limitless.

The realities of fundraising are that certain kinds of events like walks and galas work.  It still bothers me.  ALS is a disease like no other.  Perhaps it needs some new ways to raise funds and attention like no other.

Perhaps.