American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities

The American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) has been the exclusive fund-raising organization of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital since 1957. ALSAC is the third largest healthcare related charity in the United States. The charity's National Executive Office is located in Memphis, Tennessee, across the street from the hospital itself.

St. Jude requires more than $1.5 million (American) in operating costs each day. Around $180,000 is covered by patient insurance, the remaining $1.34M/day is funded by charitable contributions to ALSAC.cite paper
title = Annual Report
version = 2005
publisher = St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
date= January, 2006
url = http://www.stjude.org/content/files/3/20651report05.pdf
format = PDF
accessdate = 2006-11-03]

To cover these costs, ALSAC raised more than $500 million annually for the hospital through its more than 30,000 fund-raising activities. These include the Stanford St. Jude Championship, a PGA Tour event, is one of the most visible fund-raising events for the hospital. Other fund-raising programs include the St. Jude Math-A-Thon®, Up 'til Dawn®, direct mailings, radiothons and television marketing.

St. Jude also has a merchandise catalog called the Hope Catalog. The catalog contains everything from shirts to office items, and from patient art to "Give Thanks" wristbands.

One of the hospital's most recent and successful fund-raising efforts has been the Dream Home Giveaway®. The giveaway allows contest entrants to reserve tickets for $100 each to qualify to win homes valued up to $420,000. The Dream Home Giveaway, one of the largest national fund-raising programs, is conducted in cities across the United States.

In November 2004, St. Jude launched its inaugural Thanks and Giving campaign which encourages consumers to help raise funds at participating retailers by adding a donation at checkout or by purchasing specialty items to benefit St. Jude. The campaign is supported by network television spots, advertisements in major publications, interactive marketing on Yahoo! and a movie trailer that runs on 20,000 screens nationwide. Corporations such as Target, Domino’s Pizza, the Williams-Sonoma family of brands, CVS/pharmacy, Kay Jewelers, K-Mart, 7-Eleven, Inc., American Airlines, American Kiosk Management, AutoZone, BJ’s Wholesale, Brooks Brothers, Busch Gardens, Casual Male XL, Catherines, Club Libby Lu, The Coffee Beanery, Diane von Furstenberg, Dollar General, Easy Spirit, General Nutrition Centers, Gymboree, Home Shopping Network, J. P. Morgan Chase, Marshalls, The Melting Pot, Memphis Grizzlies (NBA), Nine West, Rochester, Sag Harbor, Saks Fifth Avenue, SeaWorld, St. Louis Rams (NFL), West Elm, Westfield Shoppingtowns, Yahoo! give customers a host of opportunities to support St. Jude.

Chase Bank provides a [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_Dec_14/ai_n8568073 St. Jude Platinium Visa credit card] around .6% of all credit card holder's purchases are donated to the hospital. The card was first issued in 2002.

St. Jude has been named one of two International Philanthropic Projects of Epsilon Sigma Alpha International, a women's service sorority. As of July 2006, ESA has raised more than $100 million for St. Jude.

For the past five years, 83.7% of every dollar received by St. Jude has gone to the current or future needs of St. Jude. As of 2006, for the past two years 47% of program expenses have gone to patient care and 41% to research.

In 1999 Delta Delta Delta, ΔΔΔ, formed a partnership with St. Jude, which more focused TriDelta's philanthropic scope. Currently, TriDelta supports St. Jude nationally, as well as children's cancer charities at a local level. TriDelta donated the Teen Room within St. Jude, a room especially for teenage patients to relax and spend time with each other. This room is "off-limits" to small children and adults. Currently, TriDelta is committed to a 10 in 10 campaign, which is aimed at raising money for The Chili's Care Center/ TriDelta Patient Care Floor. This new floor will be located in the new building of St. Jude and will be used for patient treatment and brain tumor research.

ee also

*St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
*Thanks and Giving

References

External links

* [http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=9f6113c016118010VgnVCM1000000e2015acRCRD ALSAC News & Events]
* [http://www.stjude.org St. Jude Children's Research Hospital]