Giving Tuesday is December 3, and every donation made to The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) will be matched up to $4 million, meaning your donation will be doubled. Here’s everything you need to know about how the match works, and more importantly, how it will impact Parkinson’s research.
What is Giving Tuesday?
Giving Tuesday is a global effort to encourage individuals and businesses to support the charitable organizations and causes they care about most. An annual event, it falls on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, directly following two major shopping days — Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
What Donor Dollars Do for Parkinson’s Research
Parkinson’s research covers all aspects of the disease — from basic biology to symptom management to the search for a cure. Because of our generous supporters who give at key moments like Giving Tuesday, we can make significant advancements in that search for a cure. With donations on Giving Tuesday in 2023, we invested in the following projects:
Difficulties around walking, also called freezing of gait, is often highlighted as one of the most impactful for Parkinson’s patients. That’s why in 2024, MJFF launched an artificial intelligence (AI) competition to address mobility issues in Parkinsons, particularly freezing of gait. The competition offered researchers all over the world a chance to apply machine-learning to huge datasets, allowing for improved detection of gait challenges and more ways to study this symptom.
Relying on the input of people and families with Parkinson’s for research (as with freezing of gait) shows MJFF is committed to improving the everyday lives of those impacted by PD. MJFF research contributes to a bustling pipeline of Parkinson’s drugs, and the Foundation is presently monitoring 151 priority treatments in clinical testing for Parkinson’s disease. One such drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year. Crexont is a new, long-acting oral formulation for the treatment of PD, and aims to alleviate symptoms for longer with fewer doses.
The FDA also issued a Letter of Support to encourage drug developers to use the Parkinson’s biomarker (announced in 2023) in research and clinical trials. This letter of support is an important proof point that a biomarker has enough evidence and potential to move the field forward. Our Parkinson’s community made the biomarker discovery possible through participation in MJFF’s flagship Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative as well as through continued financial support for ambitious research initiatives.
Read more about the studies we fund through our research news.
All of this was made possible because our community came together at key moments, like Giving Tuesday. Without the dedication of our supporters, none of the research or steps forward listed above would have been possible. This Giving Tuesday we can take it one step further. The giving season is a critical time for MJFF to continue to fund high-impact research initiatives like the ones above that are transforming the Parkinson’s disease landscape and bringing us closer than ever to a cure. We can’t slow down now.
Join us on December 3 to fund the next research breakthrough. Help us maximize that $4 million match. Mark your calendars for December 3 or get ahead with your giving by donating now.