how we use donor funds

As a non profit organisation, we rely on the generosity of donors to seed fund priority research projects.  Every donation, no matter how small, has the potential to save lives.  Many of our research projects that receive government funding were initially established with funding from private sources.  Without donor support, some of our vital research would not get off the ground as governments and competitive funding bodies tend to support established research.

For every dollar donated, we leverage a further $5 from external sources.

Most importantly, we distribute philanthropic funds to our research teams based on performance and research excellence.  Gifts to Murdoch Childrens are an investment in the future health of children. 

Our cost of fundraising is 1 per cent of total revenue.

how your gift helps

Every dollar counts and goes to seed funding research to address the big health issues affecting our kids, like allergies, diabetes, cancer, premature birth and genetic conditions.

• $50 will pay for one day's worth of equipment for a researcher working in a lab. Equipment including test tubes, syringes and pipettes are simple yet essential to conduct experiments cancer, genetic conditions and viruses.
• $100 could enable a child to undergo allergy testing, which can include skin prick testing, respiratory tests and "food challenges" to diagnose food allergies. Allergy testing helps researchers determine the causes and prevalence of conditions such as asthma, eczema and food allergy in children to develop better prevention and treatment strategies.
• $300 could pay for a child's brain scan following a head injury. Scans help researchers monitor how different brain injuries impact children to help optimise treatment and intervention.
• $400 could pay for researchers to analyse joint fluid from a child with juvenile arthritis to determine the extent of cartilage breakdown and joint damage. The data is compared with data from adult arthritis patients to assess whether new drugs developed to treat adult arthritis will be appropriate and beneficial for children.
• $500 can give premature babies a better start to life.  This would pay for one premature baby to have a developmental assessment looking at behaviour, cognition and brain function. Your donation will help our researchers to better understand how these babies are developing and how we can improve treatment and intervention for those most at risk.
• $1000 enables researchers to analyse cells from a child with cancer to understand the biology of cancers like Leukaemia and find better treatments.
• $5000 could pay for scientists to develop a special anti-tumour vaccine for a child with cancer. This vaccine is made specifically for individual patients based on their diagnosis to help trigger their immune system to fight tumours.