(Alameda, CA – Jan 2002) Dave Duffield is bucking a trend. Although the economy is down and philanthropic donations are dwindling, Duffield's commitment to giving is growing. The PeopleSoft Founder and Board Chairman has just contributed an additional 37 million dollars to Maddie's Fund, the $200 million foundation he and his wife Cheryl established to save dog and cat lives.
Maddie's Fund is the nation's largest foundation devoted strictly to animal giving. Last fiscal year, Maddie's Fund distributed $10.2 million in grants to animal organizations. An additional $17.7 million was committed to funded projects for distribution over the next five years.
The goal of Maddie's Fund is to build a no-kill nation. The first step is to help create programs that guarantee loving homes for all of the healthy shelter dogs and cats in our country's animal shelters. The next step will be to save all of the sick and injured pets.
Maddie'sSM largest project to date encompasses the entire state of Utah. The Foundation expects to provide a statewide coalition of animal organizations and veterinarians with over $10 million to establish an adoption guarantee for Utah's healthy shelter dogs and cats by the year 2005. After one year of funding, dog and cat adoptions in Utah rose by 26% while shelter deaths declined by 10%.
In addition to offering grants to community collaborations like Utah, Maddie's Fund supports shelter medicine programs at Colleges of Veterinary Medicine and statewide spay/neuter programs administered by Veterinary Medical Associations. The University of California School of Veterinary Medicine at Davis, and the California and Alabama Veterinary Medical Associations, are current recipients of Maddie's Fund grants.
Maddie's Fund is named after a very special Miniature Schnauzer. Dave and Cheryl fell in love with Maddie when she was only ten days old. "We picked her up to hold her," says Dave, "and this began the love affair." Over the next ten years, Maddie provided unconditional love and friendship. "She was the lighthouse during the stormy period of our work careers," says Dave. Although Maddie died of cancer in 1997, Dave made a promise "to give back to Maddie and her kind in dollars that which Maddie gave to Cheryl and me in life and love." Thanks to the influence of one outstanding small dog, millions of sick, unwanted or abandoned animals will be given a better life.
