Crowdfunding Is the Answer?

Hi Peter,

It's a nice thought. If all tinnitus sufferers gave a measly one dollar (everyone giving $100 is utopia), that would globally generate something like $700M or more.

However, what you thought of is frequently brought up here, such as here: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-theres-nothing-that-helps.12819/#post-156762

It is simply more or less impossible to organize the tinnitus sufferers in the way you imagine.

The ATA, as the world's most well-known tinnitus charity, has a budget of around $1M per year. Of that less than half go to research. That gives you an idea how "easy" it is to get people to give for a cause related to tinnitus.

As for your question, would it be helpful if globally everyone with tinnitus gave $100 for tinnitus research... Well, that would mean research would get $70B (if assuming 10% of population). Yes, seventy billion. With that sort of money you could hire all the greatest minds and with someone such as Tinnitus Research Initiative at the helm of the operation, things could very well get done. Nothing would be guaranteed of course, there are such a vast array of neurological and other diseases out there without a cure or effective treatment.

The Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS (deadly disease, expected life span only a few years after diagnosis) amassed a total of $220M and that was pretty much a worldwide phenomenon. Nobody else has been able to replicate that success (yet). And $220M is far from the seventy billion your scenario would collect...

Another point worth noting is that the US Veterans Army spends around $2B per year on tinnitus related disability payments. Yet investments on tinnitus research seems to be on the smaller end of the scale, with veterans being offered approaches such as "Progressive Tinnitus Management".

So, in closing, I'd say that your proposal is, unfortunately, far-fetched and not within the realm of reality.

I'd also say, based on my years of experience here, that it is incredibly hard to galvanize the tinnitus community. One of the reasons is that when people are at their most active here, they are often crippled by this awful condition. So they aren't exactly in a position to make strides toward being involved in advocacy efforts. And when they start feeling better, starting to cope better, that's usually when they leave for good (because only a very small minority stick around and help others after they've themselves gotten their lives back). To this rule there are exceptions, of course.

Thus we're left with a small pool of people for initiatives such as Tinnitus Talk Teams.

Sorry for digressing slightly. Ideas are always nice — and we are constantly involved in advocacy efforts here, a notable example being @attheedgeofscience who, without a doubt, has set an example I wish others would follow — but it's also important to remain realistic and focus on what can be done now, instead of daydreaming.

Do you have any talent you could lend to one of our Teams, Peter?

Read more about that here:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-talk-teams-—-awareness-research-tech-trobalt.7694/