State of RheumPAC: 2015 Annual Report

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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

With your strong support and commitment, RheumPAC has grown again for the eighth straight year, allowing us to do even more on your behalf. Not only did we exceed our original goal by raising more than $150,000. More importantly, these donations came from nearly 350 ACR and ARHP members—a new record. We were able to disburse $137,500 to our targeted congressional candidates throughout the country who have or are in a position to further the College’s goals as champions of rheumatology.

This generous support allowed us to facilitate the work of the College through the Government Affairs Committee (GAC), our advocacy team and the numerous ACR and ARHP members who are personally involved in working with our political leaders on many critical issues facing us and our patients. Before I provide you with additional details of our many successes in 2015, remember that 2016 is an even bigger and more important year for the ACR, our profession and rheumatology-related policy issues. It is, therefore, vital that we not rest on our laurels, but continue to expand member participation, as well as our total contributions.

The generous support throughout 2015 came from members of both the ACR and the ARHP. We saw expansion in the members of our Leadership Circle (contributors of $2,000 or more, p. 6 of the report), as well as the rest of the membership. Our average donation was more than $380, with a range of $5.00 to $4,000, showing that each member donated what they could. Not only did we have contributions from every single member of the Board of Directors, the GAC, the Committee on Rheumatologic Care, and the ARHP Executive Committee, but the entire ACR and ARHP leadership strongly supported and assisted in furthering our mission.

Although contributions may go to individuals with whom a member disagrees on a certain issue, this process is about developing relationships & facilitating our ability to influence the agendas in Washington on behalf of our patients & ourselves.

RheumPAC did more than just badger everyone for donations in 2015. We revitalized our branding and showed off the result on the distinctive hats worn throughout the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in San Francisco. We maintained our history of distributing patriotic red, white and blue RheumPAC-branded M&Ms to our contributors. In conjunction with the GAC, we provided a legislative update and hosted a special breakfast for donors at the Annual Meeting. We had 119 donors contribute at the ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, who were further encouraged through a challenge by 19 rheumatology leaders to match $1–5 for every donation, resulting in more than $6,000 of additional RheumPAC investments.