JDRF under investigation

I've done the walks for the past three years. In fact, I've done a few of them each year -- in Rhode Island, in D.C., and in Connecticut. I do what I can to help raise money and awareness in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the one organization designed to help the estimated 1 million people in the U.S. living with type 1 diabetes. People like NBA star Adam Morrison. People like actress Mary Tyler Moore. People like my fiance.

This is why I felt incredibly disheartened by a story that appeared in yesterday's New York Times about the alleged misappropriation of funds by the JDRF. An internal audit led to the dismissal of two high-level employees with the organization after it was discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars were unaccounted for. It appears as though these two employees created a scheme involving the use of fake receipts to justify phantom expenses.

Will this absence of funds bring the JDRF organization to its knees? That's extremely unlikely, considering the JDRF raises hundreds of millions of dollars annually to fund diabetes research. What it may do, however, is make people think twice about donating, or sponsoring a walker at an event, or even lending credibility to an organization that now walks the streets with a very big black eye. When it comes to raising money for a charity, people give with their hearts, not their minds. Thinking twice means thinking too much, and thinking too much all too often means thinking about other ways to part with money. And with the heart removed from their decision, a person who at one time may have been willing to help becomes just what I have: disheartened.