FAQ

Here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions about your donations

You say that my donation is tax-deductible. What do I need to claim it on my tax-return?

Podari.Life  has been approved by the IRS to be tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organization and your donations are tax-deductible. To deduct a charitable contribution, you must file Form 1040 and itemize deductions on Schedule A. In your tax-return you just put our EIN 47-4165470. For a contribution of more than $250 you should keep our receipt on file, that we send to everybody by the end of January.

IRS says: To claim a deduction for contributions of cash or property equaling $250 or more you must have a bank record, payroll deduction records or a written acknowledgment from the qualified organization showing the amount of the cash and a description of any property contributed, and whether the organization provided any goods or services in exchange for the gift. One document may satisfy both the written communication requirement for monetary gifts and the written acknowledgement requirement for all contributions of $250 or more. If your total deduction for all noncash contributions for the year is over $500, you must complete IRS Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions, to your return.

Why do you purchase subscriptions or/and books if there is always a chance to use book exchange, to find web-copies or to ask the author for A free copy?

We are an official charity and we would never risk our reputation by using pirate copies, nor would we waste the time of the doctors asking them to search for parts of copies online. It is also absolutely impossible to ask the authors of the books for free copies as all the copies are protected by law and have to be paid for, if we value the reputation of our specialists and we do. It is essential that the doctors get easy, quick, direct and totally legal access to the academic literature they need. And we are grateful to our donors, who share this priority with us.

But there are different subscription options that provide doctors in the US with all the information. Why don't you use it? 

N. Myakova, MD, Head of the Oncohematology Department at the Rogachev Center (FNKC):  Our Center has an Institutional subscription to  UpToDate, a point-of-care medical resource. It's very helpful as an evidence-based database,  but in most of the cases we need a whole article, not an abstract. And we thank all donors of Podari.Life for their donations that help the doctors read necessary books, read them exactly when they need it and read them legally

Why do you buy books? They are probably outdated before the delivery.  G.Tsaur, MD, Head of Molecular Biology, Immunophenotyping and Pathology Laboratory at Yekaterinburg Children's Hospital: This would be an overstatement. When it comes to an article that covers a specific subject,  you would expect a completely new information.  However the books such a "Principles and Practice of Pediatric Oncology" or a group of WHO Classification of Tumors and many others manual and textbooks that we've received with the help of Podari.Life donors can really change our approach in treatment and moreover - to get our students and young professionals into international environment. 

I want to send money to a particular program of Podari Zhizn or Gift of Life, but I am in the United States, so it’s easier to send money to you. Where does my contribution go?

We share a common mission with our sister-charities - Podari Zhizn and Gift of Life: a child’s life should not depend on money. However, all three charities have different programs to achieve our common goals. For example, Podari.Life sees it as narrowing the gap between US and Russia ability to fight childhood cancer, and we are more focused on doctors’ education and access to US-practices and research. So your donation will help us with our programs which work toward common mission. However, if you are set on contributing towards a particular program by one of our charities, please let us know, and we’ll transfer your contribution to the designated account.

How much of each donated dollar do you spend on your company and your office?

To be honest, it is hard to tell exactly. because we started to operate only three years ago and Podari.Life is still a relatively small charity. As of today, our operational expenses are slightly more than 8%, including all transaction* and legal fees.  We have not yet had large fundraising expenses, but in order to grow we may need to spend here, along with minor office expenses. We want to assure you that these costs - offices expenses, transaction fees and fundraising cost - will be kept under 10% of our total expenditure. So, it is correct to say that no more than 10 cents from one donated dollar will go towards covering our operational expenses. We do aspire to grow to be able to pay salaries to professionals who will be able to take our charity to a new level, while still keeping our operation costs as low as possible.

*see below about transaction fees

In your 2017 report you wrote about some medications that you paid for. But it doesn't look like your primary Goal. Are you going to continue to pay for medications and why do you do that?

Yes, when we started we planned to focus only on doctors' education, but as the charity grows our goals become larger. Now we hope that with your help we would be able to fulfill two more programs: "Unregistered medicines" and "Treatment Abroad"

"Unregistered medicines"

It's  the name of the charity project, aimed at raising funds to purchase medicines not registered in Russia yet. We can pay for them and import them officially starting with 2011.  Our children are treated by very good doctors. Our doctors have information about the best and most effective medicines needed to treat their patients. They keep a close eye on the achievements of the best specialists, they go to the best conferences and visit the best clinics, they are in constant contact with their colleagues from the leading foreign hospitals. And they know which medicine is going to do the best job. Unfortunately some of the necessary medicines are not registered in Russia, which means they have to be purchased abroad and imported. 

We can officially pay for the medicines and import them with the help of DHL as of 2011. And as this had become a significant expenditure, we decided to create a special project aimed at raising funds for the most modern and most effective foreign medicines.

Within the framework of this project, we raise funds for such drugs as Asadin, Opdivo, Erwinase, Foscavir, Ampho-Moronal, Fasturtec, Kineret and others. The list of drugs is constantly updated: some of them are registered in Russia (i.e. Adcetris was registered in 2016), but there are new effective medicines abroad, and they are in great need here. 

We are very grateful to all the donors who share our strong belief that children should get the best of treatment regardless of the country they come from.

Treatment abroad

If a child can not be cured in Russian clinics, but there is a chance (confirmed by experts) to save the child abroad, the charity does everything to provide the necessary treatment. Sometimes the experience and knowledge of foreign specialists can change the situation dramatically. In this case we do everything possible to provide the child with the treatment.  

Our charity cooperates with the best Russian children's clinics, with highly qualified doctors, excellent specialists and enthusiastic people. They work wonders. But sometimes our doctors can do nothing more. Not because they are less professional than their foreign colleagues, but because Russian oncology started to develop later than the one in England, Germany, Israel, and the United States. Doctors in these countries are sometimes more experienced, hospitals are sometimes equipped with the devices we don't have access to, so sometimes it is necessary to go abroad. The decision to send the child to a foreign hospital is made by our medical experts, who review all really complicated medical cases. We want to stress it out: we only start raising funds for treatment abroad if the only way to save the child is to go abroad. These are children who need complex surgeries, new types of treatment, rare technologies of radiotherapy.We are only talking about the children who, for various reasons, can not get help they need in Russia, but get real chances for recovery abroad. 

We thank all of those who donate to support this project. This help is really necessary and will always find its addressee.

It is obvious that you have some transaction fees. Can I learn more about it to find a more effective way to support you?

Here's some information about transaction fees when you donate to our charity. When you donate via:

-  Paypal:  2.2%+30c per each donation. We have lower fee than usual transaction because we are an IRS approved public charity

- Stripe:  2.2%+30c per each donation. We have lower fee than usual transaction because we are an IRS approved public charity

- Paypal Giving fund:  Free of charges. However you donate directly to Paypal Giving Fund that will transfer your donation to our account by the end of the month, so we won't know that you are our supporter and cannot send you a “thank you” note or any news updates.

- Check (pay in order of Podari.Life Inc): Free of charge. Only a stamp and an envelop. But you cannot subscribe to a recurring donation. Our address is: PO Box 80461, Stoneham, MA 02180

- Donate on Facebook: You can start your own fundraising campaign  it's free of charge. They transfer donations to our account bi-weekly.

- Crowdrise: 5% platform fee and 2.2% + 30c transaction fee.