JDRF Board Chair, Ron Miller and President and CEO, Dave Prowten discuss JDRF’s activities and achievements during 2020, a year like no other. Despite the pandemic and the uncertainty it brought, JDRF embraced a sense of resiliency and pivoted to new ways of engaging supporters and donors, while laying the foundation for its new Campaign to Accelerate and the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin.
I volunteer as a chair of the board of JDRF because of my daughter Beth (diagnosed T1D over 12 years ago) and other Canadians like her who are living with the 24/7/365 challenges of this chronic disease. I am inspired by my daughter and her ability to live life on her terms; it’s not easy but she does a remarkable job of managing the complexities of T1D while leading a very active life! With that being said, I am involved with JDRF so that one day she will be able to live her life without the burdens of T1D.
As we look back at the past year, we now know that the resilience of the type 1 diabetes (T1D) community is stronger than even we could have imagined. The year began as we had planned in 2019, before we, like the world, were brought to a halt in March 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic was something none of us expected – and our ability to pivot, be flexible and continue our important work supporting T1D research and our community is something we are very proud of our team for accomplishing.
The speed at which JDRF had to adapt brought questions about how we would need to do things differently in our new environment. Throughout our history as an organization, we have been on a relentless journey to find cures and to improve lives for people affected by T1D. We wondered how we could continue our pace of change – and even accelerate it during a pandemic. Our events, a cornerstone of our fundraising success and donor engagement would have to be moved online and to the safety of people’s homes. Yet, we proved that nothing stops the T1D community from coming together with our JDRF House ParT1D for a Cure.
Our volunteers who have always played such a significant role in their communities, supporting newly diagnosed families, championing improved access to new diabetes technologies, and organizing events could now only do it virtually.
We worried about the health and safety of our entire T1D community, who we learned were at greater risk for more significant outcomes from COVID-19. We needed to do all we could to provide accurate information and advocate for earlier vaccine access on behalf of everyone we serve, which led to the creation of the T1D and COVID-19 information hub.
It was undoubtedly a fraught time, as we learned new ways of continuing our mission, ensuring research did not slow down and supporting our T1D family.
Despite the pandemic, we maintained our momentum, were able to innovate, strengthen our partnerships and see incredible progress. Our researchers continued to make exciting advances towards cures, and with potential new disease-modifying therapies. We also funded research into screening and prevention to one day stop the development of T1D before it even starts. This promising research could help to reduce the risk of complications for as many as 300,000 Canadians living with T1D, as well as have potential impact on other autoimmune diseases.
To increase our future impact and drive efficient fundraising, you, our donors helped us to lay the foundation for our $100 million Campaign to Accelerate. Undaunted by this year’s challenges, our community joined us during the peak of the pandemic to help develop this daring campaign strategy, putting in motion a five-year campaign that will lead to transformational change for people living with T1D both in Canada, and globally.
Even through a pandemic, it was a year of significant accomplishments.
JDRF in 2020
To maintain mission momentum, we worked tirelessly on advocacy and education initiatives, advocating for the coverage of T1D devices and educating the community on optimal T1D management, all of which contributed to improving lives. In parallel, we continued the push to fund the most promising research into cures for T1D.
In Prevention
An updated analysis of a clinical trial showed that a drug called teplizumab can delay the onset of T1D by almost 3 years. Even more promising, the drug improved beta cell function, suggesting a reversal of early disease processes. Teplizumab is now being developed by Provention Bio, a company supported by the JDRF T1D Fund, and is currently under review by the US FDA. If approved by regulators, this could be the first disease-modifying therapy on the market for T1D.
In Cure
In December 2020 INNODIA-JDRF, a private-public partnership against T1D launched four new clinical trials in Europe testing drugs that may stop the progression of T1D in people with a new diagnosis. These trials offer promising advances towards cure therapies. In addition, several JDRF-funded investigators presented updates summarizing exciting forward momentum in beta cell replacement.
In Training
We continued our support of the next generation of researchers, by funding Career Development Awards for young investigators and talented postdoctoral fellows doing high-calibre T1D research. These young researchers will give rise to the next generation of T1D researchers while propelling us closer to our goal of achieving cures.
In Technology
JDRF has played a critical role in laying the groundwork for regulatory approval of diabetes devices. JDRF works with all of the major international medtech corporations on research collaborations, and with start-ups working on the next generation breakthroughs. Many also provide financial support to our critical programs and research projects. In 2020, Canada saw approval of the Tandem Control IQ hybrid closed-loop system, Medtronic’s MiniMed 770G hybrid closed-loop system, and Abbot’s Freestyle Libre and Libre 2 glucose monitoring systems (now for kids 4 and older) – overall, indicating a rapidly increasing number of options for easier, safer T1D management. And lots more is on the way: impressive research results were released on Medtronic’s MiniMed 780G advanced hybrid closed-loop system, which was approved in Europe in summer, 2020, and the Omnipod 5 and other closed-loop systems in development.
In Advocacy
JDRF’s federal lobbying efforts, including our bi-annual Kids For a Cure lobby day, continued, moving online due to COVID. 167 MPs and Senators participated along with 33 youth delegates and their families. Our virtual lobbying pushed for a renewal of the JDRF-CIHR Partnership to Defeat Diabetes, a landmark collaboration to support transformative T1D research - $15M to be invested by the government that would be matched by JDRF for a total impact of $30M. And our efforts paid off because T1D research funding was part of the 2021 federal budget.
JDRF continued to advocate for Access for All and accessible coverage of advanced glucose monitoring technologies (CGMs and Flash GMs) and insulin pumps across the country. As a result of efforts began in 2020,Saskatchewan, Quebec and British Columbia approved coverage of CGM devices in their provinces. Along with Ontario and Manitoba, there are now five provinces where health care covers the cost of some diabetes technology. JDRF continues to press provinces and territories to cover both flash glucose monitoring and continuous glucose monitoring for all Canadians living with T1D.
TD pledged $450K in support of Access for All as part of TD Bank Group’s Ready Commitment, helping to fund this important work.
In Fundraising
JDRF’s House ParT1D for a Cure Presented by Omnipod, Canada’s largest virtual house party turning type one diabetes into type none, rallied together those affected by T1D to unite and raise an incredible $2.5M to help accelerate the pace of T1D research.
New individual and annual giving plans were developed, including the introduction of Beyond Insulin, a unique giving program, that will help accelerate JDRF’s mission to find new treatments that will slow, prevent and one day cure T1D. Beyond Insulin members commit to a recurring annual gift that helps ensure stable reliable funding to life-changing research where it is needed most and get to be part of the decision-making of what research to support.
$100 Million Campaign to Accelerate
The foundation was built for our most ambitious fundraising campaign to date, the #CampaignToAccelerate, setting the stage to finally slay the monster known as T1D.
In 2020, we began recruiting volunteers and reaching out to potential donors as we started working on this innovative plan to transform our approach to T1D research, redesigning it for speed and maximum impact. The Campaign to Accelerate is a six-pillar approach to move us beyond insulin and accelerate towards cures, while also increasing our support for people living with T1D today. Volunteers were the driving force behind this campaign and will continue to be the strength over our five-year fundraising period.
The six fundraising priorities:
Global Research
Investing in breakthrough T1D research aligned with our global strategy.
$26,000,000
JDRF-CIHR Partnership to Defeat Diabetes
Advancing Canadian T1D research and ensuring it remains a priority.
$50,000,000
JDRF Centre of Excellence at UBC
Establishing a Centre of Excellence in T1D cure research.
$10,000,000
T1D Fund
Promoting venture philanthropy and increasing commercial investment in T1D cure products.
$10,000,000
Access for All
Increasing access to and affordability of life saving T1D technology for all Canadians.
$2,000,000
Mental Health
To fund research that focuses on psychosocial aspects of T1D and healthcare professional training.
$2,000,000
The discovery of insulin 100 years ago helped to tame the T1D monster, but now is the time to defeat it, once and for all.
Community Engagement
In response to the pandemic, we created a new series, Let’s Talk T1D, bringing experts from across the country to the T1D community through a series of virtual educational events and community hang outs.
They are aimed at raising awareness about diabetes technologies, research advancements, improving psychosocial health, and allowing participants to engage with other families and individuals with T1D from the safety and comfort of their own home. Held over Microsoft Teams, the events were recorded, and both emailed out to participants and posted to our YouTube channel so they could be easily accessed by the community. We continued our outreach via our social media channels, reaching and building our community across Canada and providing content in both English and French.
Facebook Followers
2020 - 38,437
2019 - 33,668
2018 - 33,052
Instagram Followers
2020 - 6,761
2019 - 4,541
2018 - 3,527
Twitter Followers
2020 - 8,355
2019 - 8,190
2018 - 7,792
Saying thank you never seems like enough to express our appreciation for your support. We extend our most sincere and heartfelt gratitude to you - our dedicated and passionate donors, volunteers, and partners. We could not have come this far in 2020 without your commitment and generosity.
As we look ahead to furthering our Campaign to Accelerate and the centenary of the discovery of insulin, we know that we simply could not do it without you by our side. If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that together we can move mountains. And thanks to your support, we draw ever closer to realizing our dream of turning type one into type none.
