National Autism Association Wins $25,000 in Chase Giveaway

From our friends at National Autism Association:

Out of 500,000 nonprofits across the country, you helped us become one of Chase Community Giving’s Top 100 highest voted organizations on Facebook and earned us $25,000.00 for our programs. You also earned us a chance to enter Round 2 of the Chase Community Giving Campaign and a shot at winning $1,000,000.00 for the most amount of votes earned on Facebook, and $100,000.00 for positions two through six. The results are in, and NAA made it to the 7th place position.

While some may see this as yet another loss for our community, we believe it is an extraordinary win for our cause. We are incredibly overwhelmed by the amount of support, hard work, dedication and compassion that has occurred over the last seven days of this competition.

We've seen people working around the clock pulling for our children and loved ones. Many of the people who jumped in wholeheartedly aren't directly affected by autism, yet worked alongside us as if they were. We saw autism nonprofits come together and forego our organizational names for a week to simply became the name "vote autism."

The amount of press coverage and free media placement was unexpected. We saw ABC and Fox affiliates airing our 60 second autism PSA in the daytime, which is unheard of. We saw morning news shows airing our three minute autism video, and radio stations around the country donating free airtime to "Vote Autism on Facebook, the #1 Childhood Disorder in the Country." We saw high profile figures bringing attention to our cause. Jim Carrey, Jenny McCarthy, HollyRod Foundation, The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation, Kathy Ireland, Nia Vardalos, CNN's Jack Gray with over a million Twitter followers - all of them were bringing awareness to autism.

Most of all, we saw you fighting like mad to spread the word.

Colorful profile pictures with the words "Vote Autism" decorated thousands of Facebook news feeds and our “Think Autism” Facebook Group reached 1.3 million members. We saw Age of Autism, SafeMinds, Autism Speaks, Talk About Curing Autism, Schafer Autism Report, Autism One, Kim Stagliano for Huffington Post, Unlocking Autism, Autism Research Institute, Autism Action Network, Generation Rescue, Tommy Foundation, AutismLink, Houston Autism Disability Network, Easter Seals Miami, Spectrum Magazine, all NAA Chapters and so many other groups and advocates come together to help our cause win resources for our community.

All of this means that what happened in the last seven days is worth so much more than a million dollars. The kind of awareness we raised together as one united community is priceless for our children and loved ones with autism.

No sadness. No feelings of loss. This was a win for autism. It was one of the most intense, rewarding, emotional, exhausting and inspiring weeks of our lives in the name of our children.

With sincerest gratitude, continued hope and never-ending love for our autism family, we will keep fighting for our children’s future.

- All of us at NAA

Comments

[Former ASA Supporter]

NAA CONGRATS!!!!

At least someone in the ASD community was out there and representing all of us. Everyone should have rallied around you to get this front and center for even more awareness.

Those that didn't shame on you.

As far as ethics, look at 990s folks and at least NAA is transparent.

You deserve this so much! I also hope that this promotes membership for you and more support. Your campaign was beautifully breathtaking and provided hope.

That is what is comes down to. No matter what agency you are. Your vision should be to support the entire ASD community.

[Bruce]

Coming 1 place away from $100,000 is truly disappointing, frustrating and heart wrenching. Disappointment is nothing new to the autism community. From the beginning, it has been the utmost struggle to get people to listen and open their eyes in entrenched groups such as our government (esp. the CDC), mainstream medicine (esp. the AAP), mainstream media, and the pharmaceutical industry. These four powerful groups serve as big hurdles for the autism community as their primary interest is to preserve the status quo because this is most beneficial for them.
And yet, we continue to make progress. More people are aware of the dangers of an untested vaccine schedule, the arrogance of pediatricians who refuse to even question the increased number of vaccines and the neurotoxins in them, the conflicts of interest created by the revolving door of employees between our government health agencies and the pharmaceutical industry and the close ties between a dying mainstream media and their dependence on funds from the pharmaceutical ads to help them survive.
Better yet, biomedical treatments and other interventions are helping the underlying health issues these children have and improving their lives. The ability of children to recover from autism is a reality. There has been tremendous progress in these areas which has come from parents and parent run organizations, brave and dedicated doctors, researchers not afraid to seek the truth, and internet media and groups willing to spread the word. All of this has been done with the slimmest of resources.
So, in the end, this battle for our children and our children’s health will not be won in a “top down” fashion. The victory will come from people like you and me; communicating, working together, and searching and exposing the truth of every aspect of the autism issue. This is why your support last week was so important and I want to thank you again for that. Keep the faith, seek avenues to positively reinforce our progress, and above all, continue to fight for our children.
Lastly, I want to express my adoration and respect for the people of the National Autism Association. Never have I seen a group of people fight so hard, have such unimaginable dedication and selflessness, talent, and love for each other. The resolve of these people (mostly mothers of children with autism) is incomprehensible. Please follow with me, these leaders, and give as much time and resources as you can to help this organization and the children of this national health crisis.

Sincerely, Bruce Vanicek

[Lila White]

I was told that ASA chapters can lose their charters, since Bernie Rimland founded them, if they don't give equal time to biomedical intervention.

[michele i.]

NAA, you are a class act. I read your email this morning, & it has tears running down my cheeks & love filling my heart. I don't know which one of you amazing women wrote that email, but thank you. Thank you to you all. Instead of feeling rejected today, I feel inspired. Love you NAA & all of us, autism or not, who are fighting for our kids.

[vvvvv]

In FL, ASA never helps. They have workshops and some events but that's it. And when it comes to school issues they side with the schools.

[John Kirton]

Unfortuneately it's getting to the time where Autism parents need to group together for our own good, financially. If we wait on states or the federal government, insurance companies or non-profits (HA!) that are mainly in it for themselves. Nothing will happen. What can we do? Click my name, read the blog, let's do it ourselves!

[Jessica]

Oh right, ASA didn't join in because Chase violates their sense of ethics?

They didn't join in because they didn't want to be linked with a group - the NAA - that believes vaccines can contribute to autism. I figured this out when my local ASA chapter set up a booth at a "Vaccines and the Law" conference where Paul Offit was the keynote speaker. They were right next to the mental health people. Enough said.

[chantal Sicile-Kira]

Well done! We are still in the running for $$$!

[Lin]

Many thanks to NAA for their hard work and the hard work of many out in our community! Next time! I HOPE!

[Leslie]

Wonderful news! Number one would have been great, but number 7 really speaks volumes for how far our community has come. Congrats and great work!