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A major US non-profit group focused on improving child health has abruptly terminated US$3 million in research grants — leaving nearly 40 scientists confused, angry and scrambling to secure new funding.
On 24 July, 37 grant recipients received an e-mail from the March of Dimes Foundation in New York City informing them that their 3-year grants had been cut off, retroactively, starting on 30 June. Many of the researchers were only a year into their projects, and had had just enough time to hire and train staff, purchase supplies and generate preliminary results. Now, several say that they might need to lay off employees, euthanize lab animals and shelve their research projects if they cannot find other funding — fast.
The March of Dimes, which is supported largely by individual donations, made the decision to revoke the grants because of a budget shortfall, says Kelle Moley, the group's chief scientific officer. "I know this is harsh news," Moley says. "As a former grantee, this would be devastating to me as well."
That is small consolation to many researchers whom Nature spoke to.
Source: Nature
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday August 06 2018, @01:39PM
Well, the same report you linked to showed a net loss in assets of over $26 million in 2016, which, for an organization that had less than $100 million in assets, is pretty significant. (You seem to only be looking at operating expenses in your figures, but clearly other stuff is going on.)
Other articles that came up quickly in a search indicate that they've lost money steadily 2012-16, and they had to put their national headquarters up for sale.
I can't quite sort out the details from the limited financial statements, but from them and the news coverage, it seems their pension liabilities have skyrocketed while some investments tanked. And donations have apparently been decreasing over the past several years.
I agree that it seems weird that they would award too many grants when they were experiencing this downturn and then have to pull them suddenly like this. It seems like an odd decision, yes. Maybe there's some mismanagment going on. But clearly they're also experiencing significant changes in fincances in recent years.