The Adira Foundation Story

How I Built a $6M Health Foundation from Scratch—Complete Case Study

$6M+ Funding Raised

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1000s Lives Impacted

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4 Years To Launch

$6M+ Funding Raised ~ 1000s Lives Impacted ~ 4 Years To Launch

The Vision That Started It All

The Vision That Started It All

It all begins with a passionate idea. Maybe you want to launch something ambitious. Whatever it is, the way you communicate it can make all the difference.

Inspired by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB & Malaria, I founded a U.S. national, public foundation with a vision for a future Global Fund to Fight ALS, Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias; Huntington's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson's Disease.

Adira Foundation debuted inauspiciously in April 2020 and fell as another casualty of COVID. Still, here is a gallery representation of the work product we created, in photos.

A Personal Note from Greg

Adira Foundation was one of the most meaningful things I've ever built. We launched it in 2019 to support people living with complex neurodegenerative diseases—starting with listening, then building programs rooted in what mattered most to patients and caregivers.

This gallery is a showcase of what I can do for YOU and your organization.

These photos are a record of that journey: the ideas, the structure, the people, the work! Adira is now closed — another casualty of COVID. Poor timing. But the work doesn't have to end.

This is a glimpse of what I bring to the table—my vision, my creativity, my coalition-building, and the kind of detailed, hands-on work product I deliver. We helped thousands of real people. I built this from scratch.

If you or your organization is navigating something new, ambitious, or uncertain—I can help. I've been there. I'd be honored to help build what's next for you.

Naming and Framing the Problem! Here is an infographic visualizing the problem Adira Foundation wanted to address.
Diagram showing that yes specific disease states have unique needs, but that a family of diseases had far more in common than not. By banding together, people could not only get a lot done by allying together, but would also help them feel less alon
We didn't go in blind; we did our research. We analyzed the landscape, published a white paper (here's a photo of one page).
Adira was highly ambitious because of the large universe of stakeholders that it was critical to engage. Icons help convey this.
Summary graphic showcasing the unique approach taken by Adira Foundation.
At times one must "Map the Route" and design a strategic plan -- confirm Mission, Vision, Values, a Theory of Change, and so forth.... Here's a photo of one early draft of our Theory of Change
Developing a strong Board of Directors is elemental to any nonprofit -- for governance, guidance, and support
Together the Board and I painstakingly decided together what our core values were to be as the sieve for tough decision making. Moreover, it was important to us to define what we meant by those values.
We knew that to lead, we ourselves needed to be led and consistently informed by all of the people we were hoping to help. We created a Sounding Board of patients and caregivers to complement our Board of Directors.
Our motto: Listen and Learn, then Act! Here is a photo from one page of a report demonstrating that people aren't numbers and statistics, but voices of individuals with dimension and distinction.
Communicating with Clarity and Brevity is Vital. What can you communicate in one page?
Here is another "one-pager" -- this one diagramming our unique approach to thread the needle -- both helping individuals but also improving systems
Adira funded 26 grant awards to nonprofits -- 21 in competitive grants over three grant cycles. Another 5 received direct awards (Demonstration Projects) for particularly inventive proposal ideas.
One of those 5 demonstration projects was an attempt to map services --by type-- available for people with 5 different neurodegenerative diseases.
To not only map what WAS there and available, but to identify what else NEEDED to be designed and funded
The number of unmet service needs for people dealing with neurodegenerative diseases is jaw-dropping. We aimed to take on those that patients named as both urgent and underfunded. This photo from a slide deck demonstrates that in detail
Reporting is key. Not only for transparency and accountability, but also for promotion and communication. Here's a photo of the first page of our 2020 annual report on impact.
Another report-- this one from the end of 2021
Metrics in public health, particularly Quality of Life Indicators is tough to do. But we tackled that head on. A photo from part of our Research Report analyzing 50 Quality of Life tools in use, along with our recommendations on how to approach mea
After three rounds of competitive grants, we pushed ourselves to design our fourth round from the ground up. We launched the ND Congress series to assemble both those with lived experience and those with career experience in giving services to work t
We reported out what we heard and were ready to mobilize more resources to fund Round 4. However, as a nonprofit ourselves we struggled with three years of working virtually, with little ability to connect with new donors in person. COVID had taken a
We achieved a monument amount in three short years. We left a huge legacy, one for others to learn from and carry forward another day.
We honored all of our commitments and ended Adira with proud. Our final act was to wrap our lessons learned and best practices into one final report: A Blueprint for Future Action.