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The Chase Community Giving Contest is almost like a pot that never stops giving. Round II of the Chase Contest is over but believe it or not there is still one opportunity left and still plenty of money left in Chase’s pot.
Chase is now looking for a worthy cause which did not win $100,000 or more by popular vote which it will give up to $200,000 (plus another 300k all charities in round two are eligible for) and we can help them decide which one it it is by sending them a letter. Certainly there is no cause more deserving than a million ill people being ignored by the federal government.
This is from Justin – who spied this opportunity out
Dear Chase Community Giving,
I am a Chase customer. I support Whittemore Peterson Institute in the CCG contest. I am writing you to let you know how great WPI is and urge you to award them some of the discretionary contest funds.
I have had ME/CFIDS for ___ years. 17 million people worldwide have this devastating neuro-immune disease, with virtually no viable treatment options and little bona fide research.
That is, until the Whittemore Peterson Institute recently came along. One family, fighting for their daughter’s life, footed the bill and opened a state of the art institute to research Neuroimmune disease. As the New York Times noted, comparing WPI to Michael J. Fox’s Foundation and others, “Harvey and Annette Whittemore were not the first to start a research foundation out of desperation to find answers for an incurable disease…But few if any of the private groups have produced notable results as quickly as the Whittemore Peterson Institute has.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/gi…eterson&st=cse
Unfortunately, the Whittemore family can no longer cover all of the Institute’s costs alone. WPI needs help raising money to that will all go toward desperately needed research for a cure. This is where you can help. Please award this most deserving of charities as much of your discretionary funding as possible!
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Since the WPI is taken care of I will pen one for the CAA
All the charities in the Contest are well deserving of your funds and we gratefully acknowledge Chase for its generosity during such tough economic times. One group that represents almost a million Americans may stand out however. Center for Disease Control studies indicate that approximately a million Americans have a chronic illness called ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ that can be as disabling as kidney disease and multiple sclerosis. These same studies also indicate that this disorder causes as much as 20 billion dollars a year in economic losses.
These studies indicate that chronic fatigue syndrome is a major disorder in par in its effects with disorders such as asthma and multiple sclerosis yet reserach funding into this disorder, which tends to strike women after an infection, is paltry; a mere 4 million dollar a year from the NIH. That figure places chronic fatigue syndrome at about 206th of the 215th diseases and conditions the NIH funds in research funding.
The CFIDS Association of America is a small organization that is doing its best to make up for the slack in federal funding by funding innovative pilot research studies. Three of its investigators have gone on to win rare NIH grants. It was recently able to turn a $100,000 investment into a 4 1/2 million dollar grant.
Its rare that any organization has a chance to make a difference in such a large group of people but Chase has the opportunity to do this by awarding funds to an organization that has a proven track record of success in a disorder that has been shunted aside federal investigators largely because it doesn’t fit easily into traditional funding categories.
The federal governments inaction has had real consequences with jobs and careers have been lost and families turned upside down by the toll this complex disorder takes. Please assist the CFIDS Association of America in assisting this group of people.