Doing More with Less (with Your Help) in 2012

Sydney loves on Rooney, a certified seizure alert dog and devoted pet. Now 11, Sydney suffers from Dravet's Syndrome and ataxia, and has flown 14 times with Angel Flight to receive treatment at Children's Chicago Memorial Hospital.
2011 was an extraordinary year for Mercy Medical Airlift in terms of service. We provided assistance and charitable trips for 23,490 clients. Commercial airline flights numbered 9,714; Angel Flights, 832; air ambulance flights, 44; and Angel Bus, 1,802. The National Patient Travel Center processed 11,089 calls and emails.
Included in these figures are those for our military-related program, Air Compassion for Veterans (ACV). From its founding in November 2006 until the end of December 2011, ACV provided 24,046 flights, and of those, 13,615 were for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
We know the need for access to distant medical care is great and growing. At a staff meeting a couple of days ago, Cathy Kelly, who coordinates commercial airline flights, mentioned that the calls for requests had increased to 35-40 each day. Our Angel Flight mission coordinator, MJ Sablan, also attests to heavier call volume in recent days. “It’s hard to get my paperwork done because the phones never stop ringing,” she said. MJ averages 20-25 calls each day from patients, case workers and others requesting Angel Flights.
Each area of operations is experiencing the same trend. The folks here at MMA have never worked harder, and once again, the numbers tell the story. For the year 2010, we reported service to 22,256 clients; the year before that, to 21,003 clients. We are blessed to be able to help more and more patients and veterans every year.
But the recession is taking its toll on nonprofit organizations like Mercy Medical Airlift.
According to the website of the Barna Group, a leading research organization, “In the wake of the poor economy, many American donors have cut back on donations to churches and especially to other non-profit organizations, and they have become more pessimistic about the future of economic recovery…The findings are based upon a nationwide sample of 1,008 American adults, conducted in January and early February, 2010.”
Here at MMA we are experiencing a decline in contributions. We are doing more with less. But two things remain constant—our commitment to our mission—that no one in need is left medically stranded—and our insistence on conducting our affairs with integrity and transparency. You can find our financial statements on our website (http://mercymedical.org/about-us/financials/). You can visit www.CharityNavigator.org and search for Mercy Medical Airlift and see why we’ve earned the top 4-Star rating.
But what speaks louder than statistics and ratings and all the quantitative data collected daily and over time are the words from patients and families whose lives have been saved or transformed. “Thank you, Mercy Medical Airlift. I could never have done it without you. Thanks to you we still have my daughter with us.” “I cannot tell you how much help that was to us (free flight to MD Anderson) with all the other unavoidable expenses and stresses related to cancer.” “When a soldier becomes wounded, the family becomes wounded. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be with my son once again.”
We invite you to become a partner in our life-giving mission. Through your generous financial support, we can continue making the world better, one patient at a time.












