fundraising ideas needed for a good cause.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

I'm connected with an integrative medicine foundation that is non-profit. Our emphasis is wellness, through nutrition, stress management,etc, and also in healing using traditional, homeopathic, herbal, Oriental, and hands on healing techniques.

Sometimes patients come who need to have lab tests to help deteremine the cause of their condition, but these people are unable to pay. The Foundation has a Laboratory Assistance Grant program that allows us to pay for the lab work for these people. Right now, we get in enough donations to be able to do this about once a month. We'd like to be able to do more, and are looking for people who'd like to donate (tax deductible) or places from which we could get grants.

Our MD does a lot of work with autistic kids, but we haven't found any grant money that covers our state (Arkansas).

Anyone out there got some ideas that could help us?

[Habibi]

1. Do you know any performing artists who could help?

Dancers, musicians? Put on a show and donate the proceeds to your grant program. Have some fabulous raffle items or do a silent auction. This can also raise the profile of your organization so more people are aware that it needs money.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Thank you, My Beloved

we do know several performing artists. And we've discussed auctions, etc, too. I'll let the other Board members know of your ideas!

[SoCalDem]

3. Draw up a letter explaining why you need the money

and take them around to local businesses. They will often donate new goods to the cause. they get to decide the value of what they donate, and can deduct it. After you collect all the goodies, see about a permit for a barbecue in a local park. Send out invites, and prepare a brochure "Thanking" all the donors, and then raffle off the stuff// Charge a small; amount for food (also donated) and you should have some money for those tests..

It's really quite easy to do. Tell the businesses that you plan to do a brochure that advertises their generosity, and will hand one out to all who attend your event..

Ca;l the local paper a month in advance and see if you can get some free publicity..be sure to include a contact number or bank that may have set up a special account to receive donations..

PM me if you need more help.. I have done this before for events..

[Habibi]

8. I'm trying to do a fundraiser myself

and that's what I figured I would do. In my case, I'm planning to get all the belly dancers and ME musicians in the area together to hold a fundraiser for a local women's organization.

Say, if you want, I'll send out feelers for belly dancers in your area who might want to particpate in your event. Belly dancers can be a big draw. B-)

Where in Ark are you? (PM me if you want.)

[Ian David]

4. Yeah. Stop spending my taxes to pay for alternative "medicine."

Thank you.

I thought you said "good" cause.

When Autistic children need so much help, why the fuck are people flushing money down the toilet on Voodoo and psychic powers instead of doing things that actually help them?

This is disgiusting.

[Habibi]

9. "Voodoo" and "psychic powers"?

Don't see those mentioned in the OP. Perhaps I need glasses?

[Ian David]

10. traditional, homeopathic, herbal, Oriental, hands on healing techniques

Sorry, what you're talking about is using "magic" to treat a real illness.

For example, Homeopathy:


homeopathy

Magical thinking in alternative medicine

Phillips Stevens writes "Many of today's complementary or alternative systems of healing involve magical beliefs, manifesting ways of thinking based in principles of cosmology and causality that are timeless and absolutely universal. So similar are some of these principles among all human populations that some cognitive scientists have suggested that they are innate to the human species, and this suggestion is being strengthened by current scientific research..." Some of the principles of magical beliefs described above are evident in currently popular belief systems. A clear example is homeopathy; the fundamental principle of its founder, Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), similia similibus curentur ("let likes cure likes"), is an explicit expression of a magical principle, of the sort called sympathetic magic by Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough. Alternative medicine broadly describes methods and practices used in place of, or in addition to, conventional medical treatments. ... Homeopathy (also spelled homœopathy or homoeopathy), from the Greek words homoios (similar) and pathos (suffering), is a controversial system of alternative medicine, notable for its use of remedies without chemically active ingredients. ... Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann, M.D. (10th April 1755 - 2nd July 1843), born in Meissen, Saxony . He was best known as Samuel Hahnemann, a Saxon physician who, beginning with an article he published in a German medical journal in 1796, founded homoeopathic medicine. ... Magic (also called magick to distinguish it from stage magic) is a supposed way of influencing the world through supernatural, mystical, or paranormal means. ... Sir James George Frazer (January 1, 1854 - May 7, 1941), a social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. ... The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a broad comparative cultural study of mythology and religion by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941). ...

The Placebo effect may help to explain the persistent interest in alternative medicine, especially as conventional medicine has largely ignored the role of the patient's mental state and faith in the treatment in affecting the outcome. The placebo effect (also known as non-specific effects) is the phenomenon that a patients symptoms can be alleviated by an otherwise ineffective treatment, apparently because the individual expects or believes that it will work. ...

Many of the alternative medicine practices such as homeopathy appear to be little more than placebo treatments, yet it is well known in medicine that the placebo effect is associated with real physiological healing. Therefore, to the degree that the placebo effect causes real healing, and to the degree that conventional medicine continues to ignore methods of stimulating the placebo response, alternative medicine may continue to serve a purpose as a vehicle for this type of healing.

More:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Magical-thinking



Homeopathy

"Unless the laws of chemistry have gone awry, most homeopathic remedies are too diluted to have any physiological effect...."
---Consumer Reports (January 1987)

Classical homeopathy originated in the 19th century with Samuel Christian Friedrich Hahnemann (1755-1843) as an alternative to the standard medical practices of the day, such as phlebotomy or bloodletting. Opening veins to bleed patients, force disease out of the body, and restore the humors to a proper balance was a popular medical practice until the late19th century (Williams 2000: 265). Hahnemann rejected the notion that disease should be treated by letting out the offensive matter causing the illness. Instead, he argued that disease should be treated by helping the vital force restore the body to harmony and balance. He rejected other common medical practices of his day such as purgatives and emetics "with opium and mercury-based calomel" (ibid.: 145). In retrospect, Hahnemann's alternative medicine was more humane and less likely to cause harm than many of the conventional practices of his day.

Scientific medicine was developing in Hahnemann's time but homeopathy would not be part of that development. Scientific medicine is essentially materialistic. It is based on such disciplines as anatomy, physiology, and chemistry. While Hahnemann's methods involve empirical observation, his theory of disease and cure is essentially non-empirical and involves the appeal to metaphysical entities and processes.

Hahnemann put forth his ideas of disease and treatment in The Organon of Homeopathic Medicine (1810) and Theory of Chronic Diseases (1821). The term 'homeopathy' is derived from two Greek words: homeo (similar) and pathos (suffering). Hahnemann meant to contrast his method with the convention of his day of trying to balance "humors" by treating a disorder with its opposite (allos). He referred to conventional practice as allopathy. Even though modern scientific medicine bears no resemblance to the theory of balancing humors or treating disease with its opposite, modern homeopaths and other advocates of "alternative" medicine misleadingly refer to today's conventional physicians as allopaths (Jarvis 1994).

Classical homeopathy is generally defined as a system of medical treatment based on the use of minute quantities of remedies that in larger doses produce effects similar to those of the disease being treated. Hahnemann believed that very small doses of a medication could have very powerful healing effects because their potency could be affected by vigorous and methodical shaking (succussion). Hahnemann referred to this alleged increase in potency by vigorous shaking as dynamization. Hahnemann thought succussion could release "immaterial and spiritual powers," thereby making substances more active. "Tapping on a leather pad or the heel of the hand was alleged to double the dilution" (ibid.).

More:
http://www.skepdic.com/homeo.html

No offense to you, but this is just plain stupid.

[Ian David]

11. Fourth-grade science project casts doubt on 'Therapeutic Touch"

"Therapeutic Touch" is neither therapeutic nor touch



US study debunks claim that
theraputic touch
has health benefits
---

Published Wednesday, April 1, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News
================================================================
11-year-old's study debunks touch therapy

Journal prints her data from science-fair project

By Gina Kolata
New York Times

Two years ago, Emily Rosa of Loveland, Colo., designed and carried out an experiment that challenges a leading treatment in alternative medicine. Her study, reported today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has thrown the field into tumult.

Emily is 11. She did the experiment for her fourth-grade science fair.

The technique she challenges is therapeutic touch, in which healers manipulate what they call the "human energy field" by passing their hands over a patient's body without actually touching the patient. The method is practiced in healing centers and medical centers throughout the world, and is taught at prominent universities and schools of nursing.

Tens of thousands of people have been trained to treat patients through the use of therapeutic touch. Its practitioners insist that the human energy field is real and that anyone can be trained to feel it.

But Emily asked a sort of "emperor's new clothes" type of question. Could therapeutic-touch practitioners actually detect a human energy field? Her method was devilishly simple.

It was a question critics of alternative medicine had asked before. But only one practitioner agreed to submit to a test, said James Randi, a magician and anti-pseudoscience crusader who conducted the test.

Emily, however, was able to recruit 21 practitioners. Her mother, Linda Rosa, a nurse who is among the critics of therapeutic touch, said she believed Emily succeeded because practitioners did not feel threatened by a 9-year-old girl.

More:
http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/tt2.htm

Fourth-grade science project casts doubt on 'therapeutic touch'

CHICAGO (CNN) -- A study conducted by a 9-year-old girl for a science project and published in a distinguished medical journal concludes that "therapeutic touch," in which a healer supposedly manipulates a patient's energy field, is bunk.

Emily Rosa, the daughter of a registered nurse and an inventor, found that 21 experienced practitioners were unable to detect the field they supposedly manipulate to heal.

Her study was published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association and immediately drew fire from supporters of the practice, who say it is respected worldwide.

Therapeutic touch has been used to treat problems ranging from burns to cancer.
Technique widespread

The technique is practiced in at least 80 North American hospitals and taught in more than 100 colleges and universities in 75 countries, said the study, written by the Loveland, Colorado, fourth-grader, her parents and a Pennsylvania doctor who works to uncover quackery.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9804/01/therapeutic.touch/





Open Challenge from Emily Rosa and family
http://www.phact.org/e/tt/sarner.htm

From: Larry Sarner <[e-mail]>
Subject: simple challenge

I've read with amusement, in the recent digests of this list, the tangle
that list subscribers have gotten into in trying to define a "test" of
Therapeutic Touch or of its practice by real people.

I have been involved with TT for almost 8 years now and have more than a
passing familiarity with it. About 3-1/2 years ago, my stepdaughter
watched a video of Dolores Krieger and other TTPs at work, and asked a
simple question, "I wonder if they can really do that?" Afterwards, she
came up with a simple, yet unquestionably scientifically sound, test of
ability and proceeded to administer it to 21 TTPs. The results gave her an
answer to her original question: "In a word, no."

When we published Emily's experiments in JAMA, along with some analysis of
TT literature, we generalized Emily's question and answer to the following
carefully worded (and quite conservative) conclusion: "To our knowledge,
no other objective, quantitative study involving more than a few TT
practitioners has been published, and no well-designed study demonstrates
any health benefit from TT. These facts, together with our experimental
findings, suggest that TT claims are groundless and that further use of TT
by health professionals is unjustified."

After more than 15 months of controversy, a couple round of letters in JAMA
(the latest a couple of weeks ago), and despite several ex cathedra
pronouncements by Delores Krieger et al., our conclusion has held up. TT
claims remain groundless. The use of TT by health professionals remains
unjustified. Krieger and other TT apologists can blather all they want
about the alleged "parlor-game" inadequacies of Emily's protocol, but at
the moment it, and the conclusion derived in part from it, stands unrefuted
in the literature. They will remain so until someone can produce
persuasive evidence that supports the practice of TT as a "unique and
efficacious modality".

Nothing else will do. Elmer Green's fallacious (and inconclusive)
"copper-wall" experiments aren't going to do it. Innumerable testimonies
of TTPs or their "patients" aren't going to do it, either. Rudolf
Steiner-like ravings against the evils of reductionism, materialism, and
determinism aren't going to make TT any more plausible. Pretending that TT
is too noble an undertaking to muck after Randi's million bucks definitely
doesn't wash. The health-consuming public now has a fixed image of TT as
nurse quackery. We are seeing signs that TT is withering on the vine, and
it is simply because its practitioners do not even attempt to refute the
simple challenge posed to them by a nine- (now twelve-) year-old child.
They are showing themselves up as being close-minded to evidence, objective
reality, and the scientific method.

The problem with the suggestions for testing made in recent threads on this
list is that they've obviously been made by TT proponents who are hedging
their bets. In science you can't do that. You have to go for broke and
let reality tell you that you're wrong when you are. That usually means
conducting a scientific experiment on a falsifiable hypothesis. And that
means that if you believe x causes y, you come up with an experimental
condition where x MUST cause y, then find out if it does. If it doesn't,
you're wrong. Real scientists think this way all the time. Emily thought
this way at age 9.

THAT'S the kind of test you all on this list should be trying to come up
with. So let me cut to the quick. I have a challenge to put out to anyone
on this list (or anywhere else) who thinks TT is a unique and efficacious
modality, and who is open-minded to evidence, objective reality, and the
scientific method:

Please publicly state, in clear and unambiguous terms, ANY objectively
observable evidence which would convince you that Therapeutic Touch is NOT
a real phenomenon, or that it can NOT be practiced by living human beings.
Then you, I, Emily, mutually acceptable outside scientists, and perhaps
even James Randi, within the limits of our financial resources, will
devise, conduct, and objectively report the results of an experiment to
obtain such evidence. If we obtain the experimental evidence sought, you
will then be on public record that TT is not real or cannot be practiced,
as the case may be. Meanwhile, the significance of any inability on our
part to obtain such experimental evidence depends upon the nature of the
evidence that you yourself have posited; whether our inability qualifies
for you to get Randi's million depends upon a prior, separate agreement
with Randi.

Any takers? Or do we get bragging rights that no one is confident enough
in their beliefs about the reality of TT or its practice to put it to the
test, or alternatively are not so open-minded that they can think of
anything that can change their minds?

Ball's in your court.

Larry Sarner
Chairman, National Therapeutic Touch Study Group
[e-mail]

More:
Back to: Is Therapeutic Touch valid?
http://www.phact.org/e/tt/

[notadmblnd]

5. Strange, I was just looking up info on Grants

here is one of the very resource page I found that isn't looking for a fee up front. It has listings by states or foundations that give grants for different things.

http://fdncenter.org/learn/useraids/women.html

[Coexist]

6. exactly how much do you need to raise and is it ongoing?

I fundraise A LOT and these two questions are critical. For a One-Time-Only thing to raise about $3,000 I would suggest a golf tourney. Of course, I live in Florida and that is what money in this state is all about.

Here, you can get a group of people (if you form a non-profit org. which you can, a "Friends of insert cause here" group) and work a concession stand at a ball stadium for a couple times during the season and keep a portion of the profits. You will need a big, serious-minded group for this, otherwise, they could inadvertently give-away your profits with their mistakes. Do you have a MLB or NFL stadium nearby? Contact their community outreach program.

Also, major grocery chains will sometimes give out grants. And (don't flame me) but Wal-Mart will let you sell hotdogs, sodas and chips (for 501 c3 orgs) outside their stores on a weekend, and match up to $500 of your NET PROFITS. I actually got $20 gift cards from several Winn-Dixies, bought the food with them, sold them at Wal-Mart over two Saturdays (bring your own grill, E-Z ups, tables and chairs) and cleared $1400. We needed to raise the money for specific equipment, so that was the goal. Figure out your goal and I can help you more.

[Me.]

7. Tee Shirts & Calendars

Everyone buys them especially if they are cleverly or, beautifully designed. Don't cost that much to produce so you can make some nice money.

[Ian David]

12. Forget T-Shirts. Here's an EASY $1 Million for your program

If you're going to ask for MY TAX DOLLARS to pay for homeopathic magic to be used on desperate autistic children, then you should at least be willing to prove that homeopathic preparations at least EXIST.

There's an easy $1 Million for you.

Simply prove that someone can distinguish between a homeopathic preparation and distilled water.

http://www.randi.org/research/index.html

James Randi is offering a $1 Million Prize if you simply demonstrate that this is more than just faeries and phantoms.

You don't have to prove that homeopathy works. You just have to be able to demonstrate an ability to distinguish a bottle of homeopathic "medicine" from a bottle of distilled water.

There you go.


An easy $1 Million for your cause. Not to mention a Nobel Prize for you.

"The JREF has for years offered the homeopathic community a simple challenge — one that we also made to Benveniste: simply show us that you are able to differentiate between homeopathic and non-homeopathic preparations, by any means, and you win the million-dollar prize. By "any means," we mean chemical (qualitative or quantitative analysis), biological (in vivo or in vitro), physical (polarization, spectroanalysis, microanalysis), or metaphysical (Tarot cards, intuition, vibrations, auras, Kirlian, I Ching, guessing, spirit communication), or any other means. None of the homeopathic community has accepted the challenge. There's a message in there, somewhere."

http://www.randi.org/research/index.html

Prove that there is SOMETHING IN THE BOTTLE that you're making the taxpayers foot the bill for.

You owe us AT LEAST that much. Not to mention the poor, desperate families of the autistic children you are trying to help.

You can also get the $1 Million if you can demonstrate any of the following:

Dowsing. ESP. Precognition. Remote Viewing. Communicating with the Dead and/or "Channeling". Violations of Newton's Laws of Motion (Perpetual Motion Devices). Homeopathy. Chiropractic Healing (beyond back/joint problems). Faith Healing. Psychic Surgery. Astrology. Therapeutic Touch (aka "TT"). Qi Gong. Psychokinesis (aka "PK"). The Existence of Ghosts. Precognition & Prophecy. Levitation. Physiognomy. Psychometry. Pyramid Power. Reflexology. Acupuncture. Applied Kinesiology (aka "AK"). Clairvoyance. The Existence of Auras. Graphology. Numerology. Palmistry. Phrenology.

See:
http://www.randi.org/research/faq.html

Maybe you yourself don't know what all this clap-trap really is. If not, then someone in the foodchain above you is an idiot.

Instead of spending money on spells and incantations, how about therapy, support groups, medical research, anything based upon what goes on here in the corporeal world.

See also:
A Classic Case of Challenge, Acceptance, Stalling, Misrepresentation, and a Final Retreat.
http://www.randi.org/jr/08-24-01.html