Giving Doctor - Medical Research

Q: I want to make a donation to medical research but will my little bit of money make any difference at all?

Medical research in Australia is renowned across the world. From Howard Florey’s role in the discovery of penicillin to the development of a landmark vaccine for cervical cancer and pioneering of the cochlear implant, Australian medical innovations have brought enormous health, social and economic benefits to people globally.

Behind the laboratory doors all across the country scientists are striving for knowledge and understanding of the human condition to either prolong healthy lives or prevent ill health though detection, treatment and cure – exciting stuff when the Eureka moment hits the news but the reality is usually a lengthy, labour-intensive, incremental process.

Researchers spend years studying cells in laboratories, applying “bench-top discoveries” to patient care, trialling new procedures and diagnostic tools, and developing new medicines which can take an average of 15 years to get to market.

It’s an expensive business.

WHO’S PROVIDING THE FUNDS?

•  State and Federal governments award grants for research and its infrastructure and are increasingly developing biotechnology hubs through joint ventures with corporate and private entities.

•  Private investors and corporates like pharmaceutical companies also sponsor clinical trials and fund their own research and development programs.

•  Other non-health sector companies sponsor key positions at research universities or donate a percentage of their retail sales to medical research.

•  Thousands of individual Australians also give to medical research. Most of them are keen to support the critical role it plays in public health, but many others are motivated by personal experiences with illness and disease.

MEDICAL RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA

•  With just 0.3% of the world’s population, Australia contributes around 3% of the OECD’s medical research publications, according to a 2004 report.

•  A 2009 Research Australia opinion poll found that 90% of Australians believe medical research into prevention, treatment and cures for illness and disease plays an important role in Australia’s future.

•  Three out of five Australian adults give to medical research, compared to just one in four who give to aid and development organisations, according to the Australian Government’s 2005 Giving Australia research.

•  Donations to medical research are on average smaller than those to other not-for-profit sector recipients: $77 per person per annum compared to $234 to aid and development

•  The National Health and Medical Research Council – Australia’s peak body for supporting health research – has increased its funding five-fold since 1995

WHERE YOUR MONEY COULD GO

The money you donate to medical research could be spent in a variety of ways, depending on the recipient organisation:

•  The Australian Cancer Research Foundation states “every dollar of every donation received goes directly to cancer research”.

•  The Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital will allocate your donation to a “Tied Fund” if you choose to nominate a specific area of research such as Alzheimer’s or motor neurone disease.

•  The Cancer Council suggests that $50 can help fund clinical trials, while $500 can go towards research into the causes and improved treatment of cancer.

•  Your donation could also be funding administration, which is no less vital to the process of discovery.

ONGOING FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Medical researchers rely on long-term funding and welcome commitments to ongoing financial support:

•  Find out if your employer can administer Workplace Giving – a convenient and effective way to donate regularly to a registered charity or organisation through automated payroll deductions.

•  Join GiveNow and create a My Giving portal to set up and manage all of your one-off and regular donations.

OTHER WAYS TO SUPPORT MEDICAL RESEARCH

If your giving capacity is already stretched, start by getting into the spirit of the annual appeals: buy a pink ribbon or a daffodil to support the Cancer Council’s research funding, or a red nose for SIDS and Kids’ cause and prevention research. Change your corporate culture on Jeans for Genes day, attend a Biggest Morning Tea event or sponsor kids taking part in the MS Readathon . If you have more time than dollars, any of these high-profile campaigns provide great opportunities to enlist your fundraising efforts.

Alternatively you could offer up your precious self! Volunteer for a research study, donate blood at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases or register to become an organ donor. You might make a bequest or direct donations to a research organisation in lieu of gifts on your birthday, wedding or, for that matter, flowers at your funeral.

GREAT GIFTS

January 2008 – Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer pledged $100 million towards the establishment of a new medical research foundation in We stern Australia and support of Indigenous communities in the Pilbara. Last month he was appointed Chairman of the development board of Griffith Institute for Health and Medical Research. He is ranked by BRW magazine as Australia’s fifth richest person.

July 2009 – Major philanthropic giving to medical research in Australia falls significantly behind US trends. But the strength of our research industry’s reputation hasn’t failed to attract the likes of American Chuck Feeney, founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies, who bestowed $102 million to three Queensland-based projects leading the global charge against a spectrum of diseases. The gift was the largest ever donation in Australia’s history and since the State and Federal Governments matched the pledge, the multi-million dollar projects have been fully funded.

December 2009 – Paddy Pearl, 84, the widow of celebrated writer and journalist Cyril Pearl, sold one of Tasmania's oldest homes and contents for more than $1.5 million and donated the proceeds to the Walter and Eliza Hal l Institute of Medical Research. Mrs Pearl told ABC Radio, "It should be important to everybody because these wonderful scientists do nothing else but find reasons why humanity shouldn't die."

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