My Story
When I came down with ME/CFS/FM around 1980 there was literally nowhere to turn. By the time I became aware of these diseases in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, most of the information on them remained repetitive and shallow.
Determined to build a site which examined the scientific findings and issues involving ME/CFS in detail, I created Phoenix Rising (PR) in 2004. After leaving PR in December 2012, I formed Health Rising (HR) but my basic intention remained the same. Since 2013 Health Rising has produced almost 1,000 original blogs on ME/CFS and FM.
Why Health Rising Needs Money
Health Rising’s financial needs include very modest salaries for one-full time person (me) and one part-time person (Stavya). Fees, technical support, computer repairs, email blasts, travel to conferences, taxes, etc. make up the rest. Volunteer bloggers, a scientific article provider, and editors round out the rest of the “staff” at HR.
Health Rising is small but it makes an impact. Over 1,000,000 users examined Health Rising’s almost 1,000 blogs and hundreds of resources last year. It doesn’t need a lot to do its work. Health Rising is a very lean organization. It brought in about $40,000 last year, and my salary – my main source of income – was about $14,000.
HR could have a much larger impact. It has had a basketfull of unfinished projects which have languished. It’s never had the money to advertise. Consider that doing that — bringing in more people – more allies, more volunteers, more funders to these diseases — is probably how we will get these diseases solved in the shortest amount of time.
Health Rising is not a non-profit, but because almost all Health Rising’s funding comes from donations, it functions very much like one. HR, then, is going to act like a non-profit and open its books. Check out HR’s Financial Statements page to see how much money Health Rising brings in and where it goes.
Support Health Rising?
- Get the Breaking News – When a major breakthrough in understanding or treating ME/CFS or FM takes place, it’ll be covered in depth on HR. Patients, caregivers, doctors, researchers and professionals all subscribe to the blog.
- Applying What You Learn – HR’s blogs are a bit longer than most for a reason. HR strives to put research and treatment findings into context and provide you with the resources you can use to benefit from them.
- Empowering the ME/CFS and FM Fields – By spreading the word on their work, Health Rising empowers the researchers and research foundations that are making vital discoveries in these diseases.
- Forums, Resources, Recovery Stories and Soon More – Health Rising is more than a blog; it’s also a Forums; its Resource Center contains links to over 250 resources; and it has the largest database of ME/CFS/FM FM Recovery stories on the internet.
Next For Health Rising
Health Rising has been great at dreaming up projects, but quite frankly, not so good at bringing them to fruition. Starting now, that’s going to change, and that change is going to start with my favorite project – the “Lives Interrupted” project.
- Lives Interrupted (LI) – This project strives to make crystal clear the costs ME/CFS imposes on those who have it. After many changes and an incredible amount of (impressive) work by Health Rising’s technical ace Stavya, Health Rising’s “Lives Interrupted” project will finally debut in the next week or two.
- The “How To” Project – After Lives Interrupted comes the “How To” project. With the support of a sponsor, Health Rising’s long delayed (and ambitious) “How To” project will attempt to provide links to “How To’s” on virtually everything ME/CFS and FM related.
- The “Get ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia “Project – Over the next month Health Rising will produce the “Get ME/CFS and FM” Project. People new to these diseases and even those acquainted with them (including me) still often lack a basic understanding of these disease’ needs and how they can be supported. To this end, over the next month, Health Rising is going to develop a comprehensive information packet it will distribute to all its subscribers, Forum members and donors.
- The ME/CFS and FM Experts Project – this, yes, long-delayed project (sigh) to make ME/CFS and FM experts available to answer your questions is basically done and will appear in the first half of next year.
My promise to you is that next year will be Health Rising’s year of producing projects that make a difference in ME/CFS/FM. Please support us in making a difference in ME/CFS and FM.
8 Ways to Support Health Rising
A little bit goes a long way at Health Rising.
Recurring Donor
(1) Become a Recurring PayPal Donor – Embedded in each fundraising drive is a recurring donation drive. Recurring donors are the financial bedrock for Health Rising. They provide mostly small amounts ($5/$10) of money – so small that they hardly notice them – to HR every month. Please consider becoming a recurring donor; you’ll never notice the small amounts of money being withdrawn, but I promise you that Health Rising will…
HR currently has 163 recurring donors. Our goal is have 215 by the time this drive is over.
To become a recurring donor, simply go to the right sidebar of any page, click the amount you would like to donate, and hit the Subscribe button.
(2) Already a Recurring PayPal Donor? Want to increase your donation? Simply send me an email stating that and I will stop your current donation and you can restart it.
(3) Recurring Donations with Online Banking (non-Paypal) – Don’t want to use Paypal? Use Bill Pay or similar programs at your bank to send checks to Health Rising monthly.
One-Time Donations
(4) Make a One-Time Donation — One-time donations provide important one-time cash infusions to Health Rising. Our fundraising goal is to $20,000. Please make a one-time donation by clicking on the Donate button in the right sidebar.
(5) One-Time Checks! We love checks! Please make out checks to Health Rising and send them here:
Cort Johnson
2555 Hampton Rd Unit 6308
Henderson NV, 89052
USA
(6) Become a Corporate Sponsor – Our corporate sponsorships start at the low rate of $1,000 a year. Find out more about them here.
(7) Shopping on Amazon.com for HR – Earn money for Health Rising by shopping on Amazon.com. This nets us a commission of 4% to 10%. U.S. residents can use the Amazon.com search bar on the right sidebar of the page. (Since items already in your cart don’t count, please remove them and re-add them using our search bar. Check out our ME/CFS and FM Holiday Gift Guide for ideas here.)
(8) Bothered by Currency Conversion Charges? Use Bitcoin and Avoid Them – Use Health Rising’s Coinbase Bitcoins account and save on currency conversion charges on your one-time donation. Our Bitcoin address is: 18D9JkiGxPcpx8RYNcG5p2Be1joU9J6v5D
Health Rising never provides your email address or personal information to outside parties.
I’ve been donating a tiny amount each month for a while now. It’s not going to change the world, the amount I can give, but every time I see it on my bank statement I’m pleased to remember I’m still trying. Even a few dollars a month, when multiplied by thousands of donors, takes us closer to an answer.
Thank you so much for your persistent and consistent work, Cort.
Thanks so much LondonPots. Small amounts, even very small amounts, that most people would never notice, really add up when done in volume. Thanks for your support 🙂
You are not getting rich off my meager monthly donation, but know I am ever so grateful for your shared thoughts and this platform.
It all adds up! Believe me it does….Thanks for the help 🙂
Cort, I value and appreciate the workbyou do.
I would sorely miss HR if it were not around to keep us all educated and informed about the current issues of this illness. I absolutely will donate. You deserve to make more money so I think it is vital that you have recurring drives. This gives us all a chance to say “Thank you Cort”
Thank you Ceil, and thanks to everyone who’s donated about $2500 thus far – just over 10% of our goal. That includes 5 recurring donations. I can’t over emphasize how easy and helpful recurring donations are. I think of them as painless donations. They’re generally small amounts of money that most people would hardly notice but which, if enough people do them, really add up over time.
Cort – I owe so much of my understanding of this illness to HR. I am grateful that you have your finger on the pulse of the important new research and you have a tremendous knack for explaining very complex ideas and concepts in an approachable way. You are also excellent at synthesizing material and bringing the pieces together.
I have many times come to the forum to ask questions when I have new medications and diagnoses. This has been invaluable and has helped soothe my worries in many occasions. The level of discourse is highly intelligent and supportive.
There really is nothing like HR. PR does not provide the in-depth reporting that you do and then European group (ME Science?) likewise is not reporting on the research like you do.
If you think about it many of us don’t hesisitate to pay for newspaper and magazine subscriptions. Many of us have benefitted from “free” content on HR for ages. I recently set up recurring payments but will also make end of year donation.
Thanks for all you do.
So nice of you to say, Caroline, and I so appreciate your being willing to put your fascinating blogs on HR. They opened up new worlds for me 🙂
Cort, THANK YOU , THANK YOU THANK YOU, and Stavya, for being a continuous light in the darkness for all these years.
I, too, got sick very early on, and Phoenix Rising was a tremendous help in keeping my head above the waters of despair. I am grateful that those coming along now can turn immediately to this site that you brilliantly report all the latest research that is happening that encourages us and us out here can realize that we aren’t alone and that the medical community is really coming along in their realization that this illness is real. Without you keeping us informed, how would we know?
Always in your debt,
Jeanie
Thanks, once again, for your support Jeanie :).
hi cort,
I have made a donation straight from belgium so best wishes to you from belgium. thanks for all your work!
sometimes when ther is scientiffically bad news I get verry down because I am so longterm severely ill, bedridden and it gets worse and worse. than I am suffering so much and am afraid I wont make it untill there are tests and treatments. other times I get hope from what you write.
you have got the best blog on information outside pub med. I only miss sometimes the number of patients in a study.
thank you cort! keep as well as possible!
Thanks so much Konjin for your support. Thanks to the 100 donors we are about 55% of the way to our goal – not bad at all for our sixth day 🙂
Ha ha! Almost two weeks into our drive and we are almost 70% of the way there…
Cort- You and health rising are invaluable. I am sending a check this week and will also become a recurring donor if I can figure out pay pal 🙂 Thank you SO much
Thanks so much JB! If you need any help with Paypal please let me know. You might try the subscribe button and see what happens. I actually don’t know if you need to create a PayPal account or not.
My most favorite thing to do New Year’s Eve is make my year end donations. Though my amount is small it is a great pleasure to me to give it. Especially to give to Health Rising. Thanks Cort for all that you and your helpers do to keep us tapped into vital information and community. Many of us, myself included, find you and your site a lifeline. From our often isolated and lonely lives we look forward to vital information and hopeful messages of change and healing. Your meaningful commentary is no less significant to me. All of which you continue to deliver week after week. My gratitude can’t find enough words…
Thanks so much Lettie for your support and your nice words 🙂 🙂
Cort, I’m trying to make Health Rising my charity on Amazon but I can’t find you. How is it listed?
Hi Susan, Thanks for looking. I’m afraid HR is not a non-profit and so is not listed on Amazon. If you use the Amazon.com store on the right hand side of the pages, though, HR will still benefit from your purchases.