Charitable Giving

Your generous contribution donation goes a long way towards helping us achieve the goal of having a regular annual CBT-I seminar which provides the best possible educational experience to the attendees and best on-line resources for former attendees. Specifically, your donations will give us the wherewithal to put into place a whole host of activities including (but not limited to):

  1. Allowing for a larger advertising budget to attract more seminar attendees (and get more people trained !).
  2. Supporting the annual seminar by helping to defray the cost of the venue, marketing materials, and seminar materials where these savings can contain, if not reduce, the seminar cost.
  3. Expanding the CBT-I web site resources page so as to maintain and expand the document libraries, article archives, video archives, etc.

We are extremely appreciative of any donations, large or small that you can make to support our mission. Donations may be made in honor of friends, family and colleagues and will be recognized on this web site.

A: As the seminar organizer and lecturer, I have wrestled with this question on each of the occasions that the seminar has been given (6 times to date, sponsored by UR or Upenn). At the end of the day, there are a host of fixed expenses and they are as follows.

 
Low
High
Admin
10,000
20,000
Advertising
10,000
30,000
Hotel fees
5,000
20,000
Coffee and Food
5,000
20,000
CE related Fees
2,500
5,000
Syllabi, Books, etc.
500
10,000
 
33,000
105,000

Given these ranges, between 60 and 100 attendees are required for the seminar to break even (with little to no support for the seminar lecturer, the seminar discussant, or the BSM program that provides admin support for the seminar).

Hopefully, this makes it clear that without Industry Sponsorship and Charitable Giving, the seminar is at risk every year for a net loss. This potential loss has been, and will continue to be, born by the seminar organizer and lecturer and/or the Penn Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program.

A: Good question. One we ask ourselves every year.

The short answer: We fervently believe in the mission: BSM services and CBT-I have the potential to benefit millions of people...but this can’t happen without "boots on the ground". Our seminar was developed to meet this need and it has been, without question, the single most prolific way to attract and train clinicians to meet the demand. Given this success, we continue to offer the seminar "at risk" but with the hope that things will get better as we go forward. To a large extent this optimism has been warranted. The 2008 seminar was the largest to date (with 100 people in attendance) and this year's seminar saw more Industry Sponsorship than any year prior (Please, see Past Financial Sponsors and Current Financial Sponsors).

Finally, it is our hope that future attendance and sponsorship will be come robust enough to provide 1) increased amenities to our attendees and 2) residual monies that can be used to support new and established educational offerings by our program (e.g., underwrite the development and sponsorship of an advanced seminar; salary for interns and fellows, support for our program faculty, etc.).

To make a gift of support:

A gift by check should reference the annual Penn CBT-I Seminar, be made payable to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, and mailed to:

Lindsey D. Walker
Director of Development, Centers & Institutes
Penn Medicine Development & Alumni Relations
University of Pennsylvania
3535 Market Street, Suite 750
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3309

Appreciated securities are a popular and tax-efficient way for alumni and friends to make a gift to Penn Medicine. The University's Treasurer's Office handles all stock transfers. For information, please call 215-898-3037 or send an email to lindsw@upenn.edu.


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