News Around The Nation
The 25 Best Givers
Barron's, Suzanne McGee, November 30, 2009: In a search for the most effective philanthropists, Barron’s, America’s premier financial magazine, has named Maddie’s Fund founders Dave and Cheryl Duffield among the world’s 25 best. Innovation and the extent to which projects can be replicated were two of the selection criteria. The Duffields share the spotlight with the likes of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Bill and Melinda Gates. Read More
Shelter Medicine Conference Scheduled for October
Veterinary Practice News, August 18, 2009: The 2009 Shelter Medicine Conference will take place Oct. 23-24 in Gainesville, Fla. The conference, organized by the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida, is open to shelter veterinarians, directors, technicians and volunteers. Topics will include the use of veterinary forensic science to fight animal cruelty, how to improve the outcomes of impounded animals by controlling infectious diseases in the shelter and strategies for ending the use of euthanasia for population control. Read More
The Dog Will Have His Day in Court
The Economist, August 13, 2009: IN LIFE, she was the controversial “Queen of Mean”. In death, it is Leona Helmsley’s generosity that continues to make headlines. The billionaire hotelier did not hold a high opinion of her fellow humans; but she did love dogs. In her will she left a $12m trust fund to Trouble, her Maltese, and established the Leona B. and Harry M. Helmsley Charitable Trust, now worth an estimated $5 billion, which she said should be distributed to good causes, showing special preference for the care of dogs. Both these bequests have been struck down in court. Trouble must make do with just $2m, which reportedly pays for a security detail costing $100,000 a year. As for the rest of the canine nation, a judge ruled in February that Helmsley’s trustees were free to give the money to whichever charitable causes they saw fit. Read More
Animal Groups in Court Over Helmsley Fortune
Associated Press, Karen Matthews, August 11, 2009: Leona Helmsley's dog, Trouble, may be living quietly enough in Florida, but there's a lot of barking about the way the late hotel queen's millions are being given away. Three of the country's largest animal welfare groups on Tuesday accused the trustees of Leona Helmsley's estate of a "scheme to deprive dog welfare charities" of their stake in the real estate baroness' fortune. They filed a petition in Manhattan Surrogate's Court on Monday arguing that Helmsley, who died in 2007, specified in her will that her multibillion-dollar estate should be used to help dogs, and the trustees disregarded those wishes. The groups — the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Maddie's Fund — want the court to throw out a judge's February decision that gave the trustees for the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust sole authority to determine which charities would benefit from her estate. Read More
Charities Ask a Court to Direct More of Helmsley’s Billions to Help Dogs
New York Times, James Barron, August 10, 2009: In 22 pages of legalese, a petition concerning the will of Leona M. Helmsley claims that a surrogate judge used “faulty reasoning” and that Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s office issued “a cursory and incorrect analysis” before the estate’s trustees paid out millions in grants. There is only a hint of Trouble. Trouble, of course, is Mrs. Helmsley’s beloved Maltese, the $2 million dog and major beneficiary of her will. He was mentioned only in passing, once in the petition and once in supporting documents that weigh nearly a pound. The petition was filed by three animal protection groups that say Mrs. Helmsley’s money is not being spent the way she wanted it spent — on dogs. Read More
Contest Rewards Animal Shelters for Good Service
CatChannel.com, July 20, 2009: Maddie's Fund will award cash prizes to shelters and rescue groups as part of Shelter Pet Project. Read More
Maddie's Fund Featured in Voice of America
June 9, 2009: Maddie’s Fund President Rich Avanzino is featured in the American Profile series on Voice of America. American Profile focuses on Americans who have had a positive impact in their communities. Read More
Mayor’s No-Kill Initiative Reaches Midpoint
Jonathan Weeks - Epoch Times, January 22, 2009: New York City’s goal of becoming a “no kill” community is on track. This means that animals of reasonable temperament and health will be kept alive until they are adopted rather than being euthanized. Read More
Maddie's Fund is Featured in Nonprofit Profile
San Francicso Business Times, August 1, 2008: Non-Profit profile of Maddie's Fund President, Rich Avanzino. The promotion of community collaborations to achieve no-kill status; working with all the animal welfare groups and establishment of a new veterinarian science called shelter medicine. Read More
Curing Ailing Animal Shelters
Cindy Swirko - The Gainsville Sun, July 14, 2008: A new $1.7 million University of Florida program to improve the lives of animals in shelters couldn't have started at a more symbolic time - with dozens of sick animals turning up recently at Alachua County Animal Services and other area shelters. Read More
New Campaign Touts Vets Are a Pets Best Friend
Veterinary Practice News, June 17, 2008: To help promote regular veterinarian visits for pets, Maddie’s Fund® has launched the Pets Love Vets campaign in Northern Nevada. It includes a paid television advertisement, which began airing Monday and will run until mid-July on local network and cable stations, encouraging pet owners to visit their veterinarians and establish an ongoing relationship. Campaign fliers will also be distributed to veterinary hospitals and pet stores. Read More
Return of Dave
Victoria Barret, March 10, 2008: The software industry is known for rewarding some ruthless individuals. But David Duffield has always been one of the nice guys. How nice? Duffield, who's 67, had braces put on his teeth a few months ago so his teenage daughter wouldn't feel bad about her own. But now Duffield is doing something that is a bit hostile, though he would never, ever suggest that. The billionaire founder of PeopleSoft has come out of a second retirement to build a new company called Workday that sells software big companies can access over the Web to run most of their important back-office functions such as payroll, personnel, asset-tracking and financials. Read More
Call for Change
Gina Spadafori and Christie Keith, November 26, 2007: Where others see death, Richard Avanzino sees hope. Where others see an intractable problem, Nathan Winograd sees a solution. Together, the two men—one carrot, the other stick; one preaching evolution, the other revolution—are the visionaries of a grassroots movement to change the way the nation’s animal shelters do business. Their vision is a no-kill nation, where no pet is killed for lack of a home. They say it’s not a dream, and it will be a reality. Read More
Maddie's Fund to Honor Petfinder.com Member Shelters for Marketing Campaigns
Vetinary Practice News, September 18, 2007: Maddie's Fund and Petfinder.com have announced a $300,000 marketing competition for Petfinder.com member shelters and rescues. Animal organizations that have created successful strategies to find homes for hard to place dogs and cats are invited to apply. "Hard to place" includes elderly, blind, deaf, disfigured, black, shy, or plain pets, or cats and dogs that require in-home medical or behavioral care. The program seeks quantifiable measures of success, including percent and total numbers of hard-to-place animals adopted. Read More
