Blog
The FasterCures blog is designed as a place where ideas and actions can be shared, a place where innovation can be highlighted, and a place to learn more about how you can be involved.
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Recent Blog Entries
When It Comes to Nonprofits, Does Location Really Matter?
7/2/08
Recently, Charity Navigator published its sixth annual Metro Market Study. The study ranks 30 different metropolitan areas based on the financial performance of nonprofit organizations in each area. Based on the aggregate performance of nonprofits for each metropolitan area, the areas are ranked according to CEO compensation, level of financial reserves, volume of funds raised, and other Charity Navigator financial metrics. Some nonprofit experts and concerned individuals have highlighted, in various venues, the limitations of Charity Navigator's focus on financial performance in evaluating nonprofit organizations. Financial metrics based on data from tax forms have the advantage of being available for most organizations, but they provide limited insight into an organization's actual impact or potential...read more
NIH Asks How to Create a More Effective Clinical Trials System
7/1/08
The National Institutes of Health recently held a town hall meeting to brief patient advocacy groups and other external constituencies about its initiative to remove barriers to more efficient conduct of clinical trials at the Clinical Center on the NIH campus. The Clinical Center is really a national jewel, the largest hospital in the world dedicated exclusively to research (and therefore a major sponsor of clinical trials). It has almost 2000 active protocols in which tens of thousands of patients participate with the goal of advancing our understanding of disease and, one hopes, developing more effective treatments.But even though the Clinical Center has spectacular resources compared to many clinical trials sites around the country -- starting with its beautiful new building and state-of-the-art lab space in Bethesda -- it experiences all the same frustrations with the process as everyone else...read more
Nonprofits Find and Fund Big Ideas in Small Spaces
6/30/08
Katie Hood, Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) CEO in a recent blog post discusses getting higher returns on medical research philanthropy, and asserts that "private philanthropists need to break out of the collective comfort zone of a traditional, 'academics-only' approach." Her organization and several others were profiled at the recent Biotechnology Industry Organization convention in two panels and via the partnering database. Although the models pioneered by groups such as MJFF, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) and Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation continue to garner attention and are looked to as best practices, Ms. Hood also raises the important question of why there are not more examples being proliferated...read more
