Fundraising
The Well Spouse® Association has traditionally depended fairly heavily on the dues and donations of members, to the tune of about 75%.
Ways in which donations come are:
- Supporting Member Dues - ($30 a year in the U.S. or US$35 elsewhere - or for two years, $55 domestic / US$65 internationally)
- Annual Appeals - each year there are appeals in the spring and fall. These are open to donations from members (Supporting or Non-supporting), family or friends.
- Special Appeals - as the need arises, for special needs the organization has in its efforts to support spousal caregivers, or do public outreach.
- Annual Conference - this is staged on a break-even basis, from registration fees from attendants, who must be supporting members, combined with grants and/or advertising.
WSA also has applied for a number of grants from charitable groups over the years,
including in particular the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Foundation, Genentech,
and the National Alliance of Caregiving, to name but a few.
We are always looking in particular for grants that will help with outreach and publicity, or to mount our National Conference -- which is mostly paid for by members who attend. Many foundations approach grantees directly rather than solicit grants. Should you have a proposal for us or be interested in receiving a proposal from us, or even just know of another organization that could help out, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Note that spousal caregivers as a group are largely impoverished, due to the combination
of high out-of-pocket medical expenses and a one-income family, or even a little or no-
income family. All too often the ill spouse cannot work due to the effects of their
chronic illness or disability, and if the well spouse retires to stay home and care for
his/her partner, he/she foregoes work income in favor of income from a pension, long-
term disability for their partner if possible, or various other fixed sources of income.
Previously, we had support from Western Refining, Inc. that allows us to give one year's free WSA supporting membership (a $30 value) to spousal caregivers living in Arizona. We would be happy to talk to other groups in other states or provinces who are willing to replicate this type of corporate sponsorship.
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