Volunteers
New York Times Lauds JDRF Volunteers
On May 17, 2006, JDRF was profiled on the front page of the New York Times. Among the many superlatives used to describe the organization and its volunteers, the article said that "the foundation typically outperforms, in lobbying and fund-raising, nearly every other interest group built around a particular disease." Read the article.
Volunteer Programs and Opportunities
Ours is a Volunteer-Staff partnership, unique in the annals of nonprofit organizations. Ultimately, it is the passion of our volunteers that sets JDRF's tone and agenda. This has been true since our founding in 1970 by the parents of children with juvenile (type 1) diabetes, who were determined to find a cure for this disease. Now we number tens of thousands of volunteers working through more than 100 Chapters, Branches, and Affiliates in the U.S. and around the world.
JDRF volunteers may be found throughout the chapter territory. The organization is a largely volunteer driven. Volunteers help newly diagnosed individuals connect with JDRF support services and others who live with diabetes. Volunteers connect JDRF to donors and provide most of the manpower for each fundraising event. Our research funding decisions include the extensive involvement of volunteer lay reviewers, most of whom have a personal connection to type 1 diabetes. Volunteers lower administrative costs by assisting office services with varied clerical duties. In this way, we our ability to fund more research is achieved.
If you'd like to explore the varied opportunities that exist in the Greater Bay Area for volunteers and join us in this "journey to the cure," please contact Office Manager, Eric Guida. We welcome your ideas!
Here are some of JDRF's unique National programs that have come directly from volunteers and been implemented through our unique volunteer-staff partnership:
- Online Diabetes Support Team: JDRF volunteers providing one-to-one support, a sympathetic ear, and practical suggestions to families affected by diabetes
- Bag of Hope: a chapter-based program of materials for families with a loved one newly diagnosed with diabetes
- BETA Society: JDRF's Planned Giving Program
- Branding: a new name, a new visual identity, a new focus
- Children's Congress: bi-annually, children with diabetes from every state come to Washington to advocate for a cure for diabetes
- Clinical research guidelines
- Coffee Outreach Program: a chapter-based program
- Federal and local advocacy efforts for additional research funding
- National Diabetes Stamp: a grassroots effort created a postage stamp; further efforts can create a "semi-postal" stamp that will raise funds for research
- Organizational restructuring
- "Promise to Remember Me" Campaign: bi-annual grassroots visits to federal elected officials
- Public Service Advertising
- Research program restructuring and review
If you'd like to explore the varied opportunities that exist in the Greater Bay Area for volunteers, please contact Office Manager, Eric Guida.
Help with registration, setup, accounting, passing out t-shirts, and more! Contact the JDRF office to speak to someone for more information. 415.977.0360
We have 4 Walk events held in October.
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49 Stevenson St. Suite 1200, San Francisco, CA 94105
Phone: (415) 977-0360
E-mail:
Website: http://www.jdrfbayarea.org