The CFIDS Association Serves in Many Ways

The CFIDS Association was founded by one man with a single mission — to find a cure for the devastating illness that was ravaging his life and turning his family’s world upside down. Although much about the Association has changed since 1987 when “headquarters” was an extra room above Marc Iverson’s garage, we’re still driven by one unifying vision — conquering chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Today a 14-person Board sets policy and guides the growth and direction of the Association’s mission, programs and services. A professional staff works to implement these priorities and address the diverse needs of the many audiences our organization serves — people with CFS, their caregivers and family members, health care professionals, legislators, public health officials, the media and the general public.  

Providing information

The Association works hard to provide answers to the many questions CFS can prompt. Explore our website, www.cfids.org, a tremendous source of information on CFS. The site includes: an interactive questionnaire for people who think they might have CFS; areas dedicated to the unique concerns of women, caregivers and young people; support group information; resources for health care professionals; and more. Our quarterly print publication, the CFIDS Chronicle, covers a broad spectrum of topics important to people with CFS and those who care about them. We also publish a variety of fact sheets and brochures to help people better understand the complex nature of CFS, engage in more meaningful conversations with their health care providers and make informed choices about CFS-related decisions.

Supporting research

The CFIDS Association is the nation’s largest philanthropic supporter of CFS research and a rare source of vital seed funding for novel CFS pilot studies. Four research projects were awarded $239,950 in funding during our 2006-2007 funding cycle. We’re excited about the promise they hold for accelerating the rate at which scientific knowledge translates into improvements in the daily lives of people with CFS.

Improving public policy

Since entering the advocacy arena in 1992, the Association’s investment in sound CFS public policy has yielded $85 million in federal CFS research funding. Through our public policy program we work vigorously to represent the health care concerns and medical research interest of people with CFS to policy makers and agency officials and to urge the federal government to allocate its ample resources to finding the cause of, and cure for, CFS. And we are committed to creating opportunities for people with CFS, their family members and friends to have a voice in CFS public policy through grassroots advocacy efforts, including annual Lobby Day, our Grassroots Action Center and other activities.

Learn more
The CFIDS Association is dedicated to improving the public’s perceptions of CFS, meeting the information needs of people with CFS and those who care about them, advancing innovative CFS research, improving the detection, diagnosis and management of CFS and ensuring that people with the illness are vigorously represented on Capitol Hill.

To learn more about the Association’s purpose, programs and recent accomplishments, request a copy of our 2005 Annual Report, available this month. For your copy, please call 704-365-2343 or e-mail development@cfids.org with your name and postal mailing address and the subject line “Annual Report.”

Through all of our efforts, we are determined to defeat CFS. But we can’t do it without the help of people like you. So please get involved. Your support does make a difference!