Purpose-driven Leaders Partner with MDA

Driven by the Mission

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is committed to transforming the lives of individuals with muscular dystrophy, ALS and related neuromuscular diseases through innovations in science and innovations in care. As the largest and longest-established organization for people with neuromuscular diseases, MDA works tirelessly on behalf of the neuromuscular disease community. We’ve done so for 70 years!

MDA has never been more vital to the protection of the highly-vulnerable community of neuromuscular patients, their caregivers and clinicians. MDA is an essential charity; we are on the front-line delivering care to over 50,000 patients and bringing critical education and resources to over 250,000 patients.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and DECA are incredibly proud of their more than 30-year partnership to empower young people to continually impact and improve their local and broader communities. To date, DECA members have raised both awareness and more than $5 million to help MDA serve hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Elevating Support of the MDA Community

During the pandemic, MDA has had to think creatively and use innovation to ensure our community of kids and adults living with neuromuscular diseases continue to have access to the care and support they need. MDA has elevated our support by:

Transitioning our traditional in-person MDA Summer Camp to an innovative virtual all-inclusive Summer Camp experience including programming featuring Music, Art, STEM, fashion design and even virtual tours of NASA facilities and the International Space Station.

Offering virtual care center support and proactive outreach to patients and families at MDA’s National Care Center Network, a system of multidisciplinary medical clinics across the US at more than 150 top medical institutions.

Creating MDA Frontline, an interactive Facebook Live program for patients and their families to ask questions about COVID-19.

Advocating for our community: Working with policymakers to ensure they understand and represent the unique needs of people living with neuromuscular disease.

Innovating Causeraising and Fundraising Programming

In a world where many in-person events have been put on hold, MDA seized the opportunity to get creative by virtualizing its fundraising and causeraising platforms. Here are a few examples of how MDA has adapted its programs.

MDA Let’s Play - MDA Let’s Play is a family game night with thousands of families and A-List gamers participating via Twitch and YouTube to help our families stay connected.

Virtualized MDA Events - For events that would normally happen in-person, MDA has created an innovative approach to host events like Make Your Move – a weekend of movement to support MDA, the Virtual Muscle Walk, the Virtual Gala and even a Virtual “Fill the Boot” to give our supporters opportunities to join us from home.

The MDA Telethon - MDA is re-imagining the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon with Kevin Hart as the host, creating a multi-screen cultural moment that entertains audiences and drives charitable contributions and awareness.

To learn more about MDA or to donate, go to mda.org.