Longtime critic Roger Ebert also criticized the company, according to Reuters August 6, Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy, Quentin Tarantino, and Alec Baldwin presented positive opinions of Lewis in a film called Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis that premiered in October , after a much-scaled down telethon was broadcast.
This is a shock to the world. People are stopping me in the street. Jerry Lewis receives no pay for his tireless year-round work for MDA. He is MDA's "number-one volunteer" and star of the Telethon. Hart's production company received an undisclosed payment for this event.
The amount of pledges was not revealed. People who did not have internet access could not see the event. I once worked as a stand-in for Jerry Lewis. For weeks our relationship was a bit awkward, but a turn of events changed everything. I'm even here to write about it only because Jerry came to my rescue in a very big way.
He announced publically that he would retire and share important information about MDA. The association had been making program cutbacks and made no excuses for quick, curtly announced cutbacks that culminated in removing Lewis from service.
MDA officials stated that too many TV station affiliates had dropped the annual telethon, the entertainment acts were no longer good, and immediate cutback action was vital. After the Lewis ouster, the hour telethon was shortened to six hours, then to two hours, and then eliminated by MDA leaders had been collecting a much smaller percentage of actual funds from pledges made since , and from through , line items in the company's annual report were troubling.
Specifically, the line item listing the dollar amount and percentage of telethon pledges collected became absent. These figures were absorbed into larger line items, effectively hiding the information. Many problems seem epidemic at MDA, according to Glassdoor reviews from employees, sampled below. Testimony by staff and executives on Glassdoor.
Increasingly, other pledge and collection systems have out distanced the new MDA "telethon. MDA employees also reported that the company maintains 30 National Vice Presidents with 6-figure incomes. Development Coordinator , October : " MDA started cutting services that we were giving to families. The benefits for employees slowly got worse.
It seemed as though the higher ups were only interested in the quickest way to make money instead of helping our families. Development Specialist , September "Stop saying you provide services to families living with muscle diseases, when all you do is cut services, staff, while paying executive salaries. Executive Director , June "Morally degrading, life consuming, thankless, need a self esteem class to get back on track.
Management by fear, everyone comes to work motivated only by the fear that they will be fired. Average tenure is 2 years, and I believe that is a stretch. It's harder and harder to raise funds because the entire model is based on building relationships, but sponsors and donors are so exhausted by having to meet different employees every year, that they are just not engaged any longer and stop giving or cancel events. While they offer lots of holidays, there is no comp time. So, there are times that I have worked 14 days in a row because of an event and they do not even allow us to come in late or have a day off.
You work until the work gets done and if it takes 10 hour work days, that's what it takes. It wouldn't be so bad if they paid decent, but not only have we not gotten a raise in over 4 years, we were just furloughed for the week of Thanksgiving. There is a revolving door - they cannot keep staff and they are not honest with staff about what the job actually entails time wise.
True that! I am angry over this matter still. An article in the news yesterday shows how MDA has collected smaller and smaller amounts of donations every year in , , , and Other research accompanies will put them out of business within the decade, imo.
I don't care what the reasons were for the ouster. I thinking those behind the scenes and "in charge" are ungrateful people. They don't an ounce of compassion for a person who kept them employed all those years. During - , the MDA "telethon" received far less in pledges than Jerry Lewis had done; and - collections of those were dismal. In , MDA removed the "telethon" line item from financial statements and added it to some other category. Now, we cannot find out the yearly dollar amount. Fate Therapeutics is making more progress in muscular dystrophy cures than MDA by growing new muscle fibers.
An MDA summer camp north of me charges much less for a week, so something is wrong. So, including the costs of high employee turnover, I think there is much waste in the use of MDA pledge funds. Thirty VPs at 6-figure incomes? I think that is absurd. The recipes are left from the original Hub on watching the Telethon and having related cookouts. That section is cacophonous when we reach it now, deafening in its eerie reminder of shocking losses and wasted pledges. Probably next year, I'll move the recipes somewhere else, but the dissonance still feels right to me at this moment.
It reminds me of Labor Day when Steve Irwin died by stingray wound and someone sold eerie T-shirts with only a stingray on the front. Taking the brand away, took away the icon that Americans grew up with. These past two years, was not a check, or cash to MDA from my family. Not that we want to see the children or adults stricken down to suffer but a decision that made to remove Lewis would be like eliminating Danny Thomas from the St.
Did Jerry do something that was inappropriate? His age made him more salty, and repetitive, but that is what people adored about him. A lot of money goes to salaries of non-profits, these groups seem to be just a scam at times, no better then the Wall-Street criminals. The telethon proved nothing more then it has gone out to pasture with just a couple hours of coverage, and I am afraid so has the MDA cause! Folks; if you really want to help someone, do it directly and bypass any and all organized charitable organizations.
So disappointed that there was not any word before about no telethon this year. I checked all stations all night and found nothing. From the looks of how much money you brought in, I would say not very well. Jerry Lewis made you feel you could trust him and that the money would be watched from him an advocate, like Danny Thomas and St. Put Jerry Lewis back into the picture. My friends and all my family members are no longer donating to this ungrateful organization.
We gave thousands in the past… but no more. All these years and still no cure for this terrible disease? Too much of my money must have been going into the pockets of the wrong people there. The annual MDA Telethon…. Without him….. My 4-year old son was recently diagnosed with Duchenne MD. Since then, I have dealt first-hand with the MDA and done quite a bit of research into the organization.
At first, I was quite impressed. The regional representative was at the clinic when the doctors broke the diagnosis to us and spoke with us about ways MDA could help. After reading some reviews written by former employees, it is pretty clear that the regional staff are overwhelmed with fundraising duties.
For an employee of the organization, fundraising is the only thing that really matters in terms of keeping your job and advancing. The turnover at the organization is absurdly high with the extreme emphasis on meeting increasingly unrealistic fundraising goals, and the failure to meet the goals is evidently grounds for immediate termination.
This naturally cuts into the aid that the MDA workers can provide to families. The MDA Clinic is great, but it really boils down to a group of specialists meeting with MD patients at a set date and time.
Initially, I was led to believe that our son would get help from the MDA for a motorized chair when the need arose. In terms of actual aid for families, I think all that is left is the summer camps. The camps sound great, and we are excited to send our son once he is old enough. But really, how much money does it cost to run a week-long camp staffed with volunteers?
As far as I can tell, that leaves research grants. The six-figure salaries for the execs is probably just the tip of the iceberg of their total compensation once all of the miscellaneous perks are factored in. There is something about the numbers that just seems off. At Charity Navigator, the MDA barely clocks in at 2 stars out of 4, 0 being an outright fraud and 4 being a good, well-managed charity. Even Susan G. Komen for the Cure got 4 out of 4 stars, with all of the problems they have had in the media lately.
The MDA needs to do much better with financial transparency. To me, the biggest drain is the massive national organization based on Tuscon.
I think that they could dramatically reduce the size of that national HQ, or even eliminate it altogether, and little would be lost. If they could find a way to streamline their operation while at the same time empower their field-level workers, and get back to a place where the focus is primarily on helping kids and adults with MD and not solely about bringing in the money, things would improve greatly.
All of the power is based in the national level of the MDA, and they have feathered their nest quite nicely. What in all that is good is happening to our world!!! Things are just coming apart all over. A two hour lame broadcast. Shame on the people responsible for this decision.
Our country has changed for the worst. It is very sad for all of us. I volunteered for years to work the local broadcast of the telethon and raised money in the corp I worked for. It was a pleasure doing it for Jerry, not the morons in the glass castle.
Way to screw yourself MDA. These children deserves someone like Jerry Lewis who had strength, dedication and a big heart to do what he did every year for these children. They deserve to be heard and to show their strength even though they live with this disease and Jerry Lewis dedicated himself for these children to be heard and show how great they are.
I hope there is someone out there with the same huge heart that can find some kind of cure for these children who deserve everything in life because of all the money that has been raised and still being raised there needs to be some kind of progress out there.
And to Jerry Lewis i think your a wonderful man who struggled every year to make a difference i thank you for all those years. The MDA is a money hungry behemoth of a corporation. They have never helped my family whatsoever. They only show the stronger kids who are more marketable in their money making scheme. Here is the simplest way to put it. They represent neuromuscular diseases and have raised billions and billions of dollars over the years. With all that money they have never cured a single disease.
Then you can be certain they are doing it for the right reason and the money will go to where it is needed most. It is usually a parent who finds a way to get a cure for diseases. It will never be one of these salary top heavy organizations EVER! I have been involved off and on one way or another since ! I would sometimes work volunteer the entire duration of the telethon, on the phones, getting water, food or whatever for the different entertainers that would be here locally back then they were not ALL with Jerry.
I was every bit of 14 when I started with permission from my mother. As I grew so did my responsibilities. Again because of my struggles now…I did not realize that Jerry was fired last year? Lewis, as him and his God knows what he has done for this wonderful cause, however to the ones that DID feel his dismissal was needed…I hope that they never get in the position of needing the services of the MDA!!!
Sorry, my comment was not meant to be this long, and I guess I could have just said…. Jerry Lewis was the best thing that ever happened to the MDA, and it is the end of an era in many ways.
Another Labor Day, another year without Jerry Lewis. Sadly, this situation is only going to get worse with lack of viewership and lack of donations. Labor Day weekend and the end of summer will never be the same. Thanks for the memories Jerry, you are missed. Jerry Lewis was, is the best thing that ever happened to fund raising for MDA. He selflessly spent 50 years of his life raising money for those kids. Labor Day weekend is not the same without the telethon and Jerry there trying to raise money for those less fortunate than himself.
Without Jerry the fund raising is nowhere close to where it used to be. The heart and soul that breathed life into the cause and put it on the map has been disrespectfully silenced. We miss you Jerry and we miss your showmanship and talent for raising money. God Bless you Jerry, and everything you have done over the years for your kids. In our estimation, you are a saint. Perhaps its time to move onto other labor day traditions.
Bless Jerry for what the tried to do. I remember as a kid watching it till all hours on labor. Its sad to see Jerry gone from it. I dont think he would go back after what they did to him. The telethons changed that by humanizing the victims.
The shows were an amalgam of musical and comedy acts, Las Vegas spectacles, celebrity appearances, donation pitches and sentiment. Also surprises. Dean Martin, holding a cigarette, strode onstage with his usual nonchalance. The audience exploded, and Lewis was stunned. Help me to say something. In Lewis introduced Johnny Carson, expecting the king of night shows to appear as his usual dapper self. Instead, Carson waddled out dressed and wigged like the talkative octogenarian Aunt Blabby.
0コメント