I’m the kind of person who likes to get things done, so one of the things I most appreciate about the Foundation is its emphasis on doing things efficiently without losing quality.

 

The first time I attended an MJFF grant review meeting, we were discussing a very promising proposal. There were just a couple of things I thought the applicant should do differently. I said, “I wish we could just tell her that if she changed these small things she would very likely receive funding.”  Todd Sherer looked across the table at me and said simply, “We can.”

 

That sounds like common sense. But as researchers, we deal with funders who take years to get the money out. You submit an application, and it moves from office to office for months before it’s even reviewed. By the time you get any feedback, you’ve missed an entire funding cycle and nearly a year has passed before you can resubmit your revised application.

 

That moment in the review meeting was just one in a long string. I’ve learned how different The Michael J. Fox Foundation is. It is an entire team of people who are truly committed and motivated to make a difference for people with Parkinson’s — both in the long term, and in the here and now.