Aftermarket Charity Chairman Touts Expense Free Fundraising

The chairman of Shad’s R&R, an aftermarket charity that has raised more than $3 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada (MDC), has declared that 100% of all funds raised have gone toward research.
“Shad’s R & R takes pride in the fact that we operate at a zero expense base with everything from prizes, to printing, to mail, to administrative being donated by participating companies,” says John Vanstone, chairman of the 30 year old charity orgazinzation.
The statement was made in the wake of some other charitable organizations being taken to task for the amount of money spent on fundraising, sometimes with less than 20% of the dollars raised going to fund the work.
For Shad’s R&R, the only expenses generated are the meals and golf fees at the annual golf tournament that marks the cheque presentation.
“For most organizations, you would be at the mercy of the charity to assure they are keeping their costs in line and in fact MDC has been cited by Imagine Canada and by the Association of Fund Raising Professionals as having excellent and transparent accountability standards and controls.
The important facet of our annual Shad’s R & R donation to MDC is that it goes into a ‘restricted’ fund whereby it is designated as 100% for Research Projects.”
In addition, the money raised is matched through other organizations, says Vanstone. “All of these monies become part of a combined Neuromuscular Research Partnership (a partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the ALS Society of Canada).
“Our annual donation of $150,000 is matched by both of these partners to in fact create a $450,000 pool of funds for MDC Research Projects. A tripling of our fund raising efforts.”