Alzheimer’s Groups Receive Lots of Attention From Reagan’s Death, but Few Contributions

Charities that fight Alzheimer’s disease have received plenty of attention in the wake of Ronald Reagan’s death, but so far haven’t received significant influxes of charitable donations to honor the 40th president’s memory.

Nancy Reagan, his widow, and other family members designated the Alzheimer’s Association, in Chicago, as one of three charities to receive memorial donations, along with Eureka College, in Illinois, and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley, Calif.

The designation reflects the family’s highly public attempts to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, which Mr. Reagan endured over the past decade. In the week following Mr. Reagan’s death, lawmakers began to take action to further that cause, as Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, and Sen. Kit Bond, Republican of Missouri, proposed legislation that would double the National Institute of Health’s $680-million allocation for Alzheimer’s research.

But, as of last week, few Americans seem to have been spurred by the former president’s death to give to Alzheimer’s causes.

“We’ve seen some donations, but not a huge upsurge,” according to Kathryn Kane, the Alzheimer’s Association’s senior vice president of communications. “We really didn’t expect it. While we do have this close relationship with the Reagan family, we’re not actively soliciting in the Reagan name.”

She added that because the group spends much of its $70-million budget lobbying for increased funds for researchers seeking a cure for Alzheimer’s, as well as wider education about the disease, Mr. Reagan’s death might have helped the group push forward its mission, even if it didn’t do much to improve its bottom line.

Nevertheless, the organization isn’t turning help away, and is considering using Mr. Reagan’s death as a way to energize donors who attend its annual conference in Philadelphia in mid-July. The organization’s biggest donors will be there, she said, and the name might very well be invoked.

“We’ll probably do that, but we haven’t really figured out how yet,” Ms. Kane said.

The Alzheimer’s Association also said goodbye to President Reagan, and thanked him and the rest of the Reagan family for their work in raising awareness of the disease with a full-page ad appearing in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today. The ads were sponsored by the Pfizer and Eisai pharmaceutical companies.

Seeking Contributions

At least one group has taken it upon itself to advertise on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association. The National Federation of Republican Women, in Alexandria, Va., has included a link on its Web site for members interested in donating, and also put a note in its newsletter about the organization, with ways for members to make a contribution.

The Alzheimer’s Association, as well as the American Health Assistance Foundation, which also directs money to Alzheimer’s research, holds out hope that, with Mr. Reagan on people’s minds, their direct-mail campaigns will garner donations from a bigger share of recipients than usual.

The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, a group in New York that seeks to provide training and counseling for the families of Alzheimer’s sufferers, reports that it has not seen any upswing in its donations, although some of its local affiliates reported that, following a nationwide candlelight vigil in Mr. Reagan’s memory organized by the foundation, they did receive a few checks.

At the University of Pennsylvania’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center, no money has come in specifically because of Mr. Reagan’s death, although the center is still celebrating a $6-million grant it received from Marian S. Ware in January, who was married to the chairman of the board of American Water.

Such large private donations are relatively rare in the world of Alzheimer’s research, where approximately 90 percent of research grants come from the federal government, notes John Trojanowski, a co-director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center.

But he still holds out hope that Mr. Reagan’s death might change that.

“I haven’t noticed a tremendous uptick in the last week or two, but I think it’s too soon,” he said. “Any donor who was going to make a really significant donation would take some time to work through the vetting process.”

The other organizations designated by the Reagan family to receive memorial gifts also reported that they had not seen a big increase in giving. “There has been a modest surge,” said Paul Lister, president of Eureka College. “But it’s probably been much less than $10,000. They are, for the most part, large numbers of small gifts, from people sending $25 or $50 as their remembrance of President Reagan.”