A child no one else would help.
Seven-year-old Brooke is 1 of 10 children in her family. Yet her family was still turned away by other private organizations and government agencies for assistance.
Her parents were denied help because their income was just over poverty level and they had some insurance. But even with insurance much of their income was going to cover medical costs and they had a hard time paying for insulin and diabetes supplies necessary to keep their daughter alive.
With ten children to care for (which includes children adopted by Brooke’s parents when other family members tragically passed away) they were already struggling to make ends meet. When Brooke was diagnosed with diabetes their monthly out-of-pocket costs for medical care added another $400 to their already-stretched budget. Yet, they were still denied assistance because of income “rules” by other assistance agencies.
But thanks to generous donors like you who care we were able to meet Brooke's needs when no one else would.
| Is IPump.org for real? |
Is IPump.org, Inc. a 501(c)(3) public charity? Yes! We are and can provide you with a tax receipt for financial gifts and in-kind donations.
Why isn't IPump in the IRS data base? We are working hard to increase our online visibility but can assure you that even if we do not yet appear on the IRS site and in many registries we are a 501(c)(3) exempt organization. We invite you to view a copy of our IRS Tax Exemption Approval Letter (.pdf) until the IRS adds it into their data base (this can actually take longer than getting the approval letter!).
Can I get financial reports for IPump? Yes. We post our financial reports and Form 990 filings on our website. This is not an IRS requirement but we have nothing to hide from the public so not only want you to see where our money goes we are proud of our spending practices! (See Financial Reports.)
How come IPump doesn't get listed in national charity registries? We may not appear on some charity registrations yet because many do not list charities that take in less than $500,000 or even $1 million in public support annually (in cash, and most of our donations come from in-kind goods donations).
Some, organizations like Guidestar.org offer a very valuable service (and we have applied for membership) but may charge $300 or more annually to register a charity. Still others have registration deadlines or do not even offer open memberships.
Most registries use a selection process of who they choose to rate that favors only the largest charities. This may be because more people are giving larger amounts to bigger organizations so it is important that someone "watch dog" these large charities -- but it does hurt us "little" guys because we make less we don't get rated so fewer people know about us or worse -- when they cannot find us listed decide we are not a legitimate organization.
Also, many small nonprofits may not even be required to file a Form 990 with the IRS so there is no reporting data for registries to look at. There are many reasons why IPump does not make it into "big" registries but not because we have done anything wrong.
For example, one major registry we requested to be listed with replied:
"Our basic criterion to consider a charity for a rating is:
1. The charity must take in at least $1 million in public support annually (excluding In-Kind contributions & government contributions).
2. The charity must have a budget of at least $500,000 per year (excluding In-Kind expenses).
3. The charity must have been in existence for at least 3 years, and be of national interest to donors (we do not rate charities of local or regional interest, with the exception of groups that have a large, national office, and/or a consolidated audit including the financials of all of the local/regional affiliates).
Once a charity meets these basic criterion we decide which groups to add to the Guide based on member requests and/or the donor interest; i.e., if we receive many requests for a particular charity over time we consider them for a rating. We add between 15-20 organizations to our Guide each year. With over 1.8 million charities in the U.S., however, we do not have the resources to rate all groups, even those that meet the basic criterion to be considered. "
Someday IPump will be large enough to meet all of their critieria, but for now, we simply hope that we meet yours!
We have been using Hocks Online for a while and were pleased with their service and prices. Because of our good relationship with Hocks we agreed to accept them as IPump's first affiliate sponsor. While it is not our policy to specifically endorse or recommend any company, we can state that we do use Hocks Online, and that for any order you place through one of their links on our site, they will make a donation to us.
Thank you Hocks, for contributing to our cause!
If you still have questions or concerns about donating to IPump, please let us know. What we do is truly unique in the diabetes assistance industry. We provide a comprehensive resource for people of all ages with any form of diabetes and look at each client's situation one at a time -- not using pre-set formulas to exclude people.
We also are one of only two organizations that receive and recertify insulin pumps for all makes of pumps and then give them away for free. And we are the ONLY organization that provides all of the following:
- Free diabetes supplies
- Free insulin pumps
- Financial assistance
- And free comfort quilts to children who have diabetes.
We rely on the support of others because so many in need rely on us. I hope that you will consider IPump a worthy cause to contribute generously too.
Warm regards,
Lahle A. Wolfe
Founder/Acting Executive Director, IPump.org, Inc.
How to make a donation
Use your credit card or PayPal via the following donation button to make a donation online:
You can also send tax deductible donations (make checks payable to IPump.org, Inc.) and in-kind donations of diabetes supplies, insulin pumps, and quilts to:
IPump.org, Inc.
2250 Alyssum Avenue
Upland, CA
91784-7384
