By Bonnie O’Neil, 2019 JDRF One Promise Gala Fund a Cure Chair

The annual One Promise Gala is a highlight of our year together as a JDRF family, and it is also one of the highlights of the Philadelphia gala season. On April 13, 500 people will gather at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel for the 2019 JDRF One Promise Gala “Enchanted Night: Reach the Unreachable” and will bid on silent and live auction items, enjoy dinner and dancing with friends, and be inspired to continue the work to find a cure for type 1 diabetes (T1D).

But the most special aspect of the One Promise Gala is Fund a Cure. During Fund a Cure, guests are given the opportunity to raise their paddles at different donation levels, beginning at $100,000 and going down to $500. One hundred percent of all gifts raised through Fund a Cure go straight to research, making Fund a Cure one of the smartest ways to give to JDRF!

Even if you are not able to attend the One Promise Gala this year, you can still make a donation through Fund a Cure. There has never been a better time in our history than now to put 100 percent of your gift to research. With 159 research grants funded last year alone in 21 countries—including 70 human clinical trials—the demand to fund viable research projects that align with our vision and plan has never been greater.

To date, JDRF has funded more than $2.27 billion in research to cure, prevent, and treat T1D and its complications. Of that amount, $1.85 billion has been raised in the last 15 years, reflecting the confidence our donors share in our vision and plan to create a world without T1D.

Today, JDRF is the largest private funder of T1D research in the world and sets the global T1D research agenda. Over the last decade, JDRF has played a role in virtually every transformative change in T1D care, including the development of Artificial Pancreas systems, the creation of the Special Diabetes Program (which has contributed $2.4 billion in NIH funding), pioneering treatment for diabetic eye disease, the development of islet cell transplants, the development of beta cell encapsulation devices, and the list goes on.

An investment in JDRF is an investment with a real return. An investment in JDRF is an investment in a world without T1D.

We hope you will consider making a gift this year to Fund a Cure. Your gift to Fund a Cure is 100 percent tax deductible and will be used to fund even more critical research that will get us closer to a cure.

For more information about Fund a Cure, please contact JDRF Development Director Melissa DeFreece at mdefreece@jdrf.org or 610-227-0365.