Good cause... Terrible fundraising materials

The good cause? Diabetes prevention. Quick background... (scroll down if you have a MD or PhD) There's two types of diabetes, Type 1 which happens when people's own immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas... long story short they need to take insulin and it can't be prevented. Type 2 is more of a complex problem where gradually your body breaks down in a few different pathways that affect glucose and insulin, and sometimes you end up needing insulin. Diabetes can lead to blindness, amputations, and much suffering.

In the past I have supported the American Diabetes Association because anyone can get Type 2 diabetes, but the risk goes WAY UP if you're overweight and don't exercise. I don't beleive in absolutes, but for the most part, it's preventable by staying fit and relatively lean. Once the pathways start going haywire, it can't be stopped, all you can do is slow the progression. The ADA helps educate people about the benefits of weight loss and exercise and tries to prevent people from getting Type 2 diabetes.

Check out the terrible fundraising materials (sent to me by the ADA):
These people have no logic!!!!!! If a nickel really helps, why THE HELL does the letter they sent me have a nickel stuck to it? They just mailed ME a nickel. Don't they need it to help someone? Not only does this not convince me to give, it got me pissed off enough to visit charitynavigator.org to see if this was a single bad decision or if the organization's fundraising is chronically stupid. Well, they get 1 star out of five (bad), a 39 out of 100 overall (bad), and they spend 21.7% of the money they raise on trying to secure more money. Sigh... Which has me thinking: instead of giving them any more money, I might help more people out by upping the percent of my time preaching about exercise... But more on my exercise evangelism habits in future posts. =)