Carol Berne
Senior Vice President of Development
As I write this report I am reminded that we are six months along as an independent New York City charity focused on care and support for individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Sometimes I think we have been a stand-alone charity for years and at other times it seems that we are just starting on our journey. What I do know and value is the singular dedication and commitment of our Board, our staff and the donor community who have advised us, advocated for us, and endorsed and supported our independence. The motivation behind all of this has been to ensure that there is a viable resource in New York City, staffed by professionals with extensive expertise in all facets of dementia care, to care for New Yorkers when they have no place else to turn.
Alzheimer’s can be very lonely and isolating. And at some point, it is not medical care that is the answer. It is social services that will lead the way to ensuring a better quality of care for the person with the disease and a much better quality of life for the caregiver. But this care comes with a price. For us to keep our programs and services free of charge and to be able to continue to meet the needs of the ever-growing New York City Alzheimer’s community, every year we have to raise an increasing amount of money to meet our operating budget. For fiscal year 2017, which started July 1, that figure is over $10 million.
We are not a college, university, or medical center that is able to augment philanthropy with tuition and hospital fees, patents and licenses on research advances, and numerous other financial revenue streams. We are 100% dependent on you.
You generously supported our Spring Mother’s and Father’s Day Campaign, which this year raised over $128,365 and represented a remarkable 320% increase over the year before. You supported special programs, including our palliative care initiative which is transforming how care is provided to residents of nursing homes who have late-stage dementia. We now move forward to implementing this model of comfort care in other settings. And it is you who have left us in your estate plans to make sure that we can plan ahead, understanding that Alzheimer’s is not going away anytime soon.
So in keeping with the theme of this newsletter, it is never too early or too late to donate: to honor someone important in your life, to support a program or service that has meaning to you, to name a room at CaringKind, to support our upcoming CaringKind Alzheimer’s Walk, or to make a planned gift to help us in the future. We count on you. As always, please contact me directly at 646-744-2905 or cberne@caringkindnyc.org if you would like more information or would like to discuss a gift. Thank you.
Planning Today for Tomorrow
When CaringKind expanded to the third floor in March 2013 to build our Program Center for Education, and Training, and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Early Stage Center, we were able to do so because of the generosity of individuals who had planned ahead and left us in their estate plans. The bequests that we receive are from grateful clients who wish to give back in appreciation for the support and help they receive during the very difficult journey of caring for, or knowing, an individual with dementia.
Planned giving is a way to support CaringKind through your will, a retirement account, a trust, or other vehicles to make a charitable contribution after your death. Through estate planning, you can make a meaningful impact helping others who are heartbreakingly affected by a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. For more than 30 years we have been a leader in dementia care, setting the gold standard for care.
Though we all hope for a cure or an effective treatment or therapy, we know that in its absence, the best course of treatment is good care. Your contribution enables us to plan ahead so that we can develop innovative, creative, and leading-edge caregiving initiatives to ensure that caregivers today and tomorrow have a place to turn for the best in dementia care.
Gifts of any size are appreciated and every single gift is important to helping us. Please see the Ways to Give section on bequests on page 18 for further information or please contact Carol Berne at 646-744-2905 or cberne@caringkindnyc.org.
Know Your Charity
The following organizations ARE NOT affiliated with CaringKind:
- Alzheimer's Association
- Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter
- Alzheimer's Disease Resource Center (ADRC)
- Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation
- Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA)
- Bright Focus Foundation
- Long Island Alzheimer's Foundation (LIAF)
- Staten Island Alzheimer's Foundation (SIAF)