Generous Benefactor Helps Jen’s Friends

Foundation Now Gives 100% of Its Donations to Clients

North Conway, NH April 12, 2010: “We’ve got an angel out there!” exclaimed Kathy Sweeney, president of Jen’s Friends Cancer Foundation, when she learned that a benefactor had offered to pay the foundation’s annual administrative costs. “We raise money to help people, not to pay postage and insurance.” Since the beginning of Jen’s Friends in 1998, board members have worked diligently to keep administrative costs down. From donated storage space to sponsor-covered fund raising expenses, the board has had minimal administrative expenses, in order to ensure donors that at least 90% of their donations – and lately it’s been 95% - go directly to clients’ needs. But from now on, it will be 100%!

      Just who is the “angel” in the Valley who has generously committed to thiscause? It is native Francis Savard, of Intervale, whose family has a history of giving time and money. His maternal great-grandfather, a philanthropist at the national level, had a country home in Bartlett known as Interval Farm, where Savard now resides. He learned from example about giving back to the community. His mother, Mary Porter Savard, took the helm of a local thrift store, Country Bargains on Route16A, from his grandmother Alice Dickerman. Later, with the help of local volunteers, she opened a second one at the train station in North Conway village, where the Conway Scenic Railroad is currently located. The profits from these stores bolstered local charities and civic groups.

As a young teenager, Savard learned that many of the activities that he enjoyed in town were the result of local families “giving back to the community.”  His father used the example of the North Conway Community Center, where Savard spent many after school hours playing basketball, billiards, and ping pong, as well as Pee Wee Hockey, and Little League Baseball. “That Center existed,” Savard learned, “because local folks gave money and time to keep it going. It all clicked together for me when my father explained. I know now that you can't blindly throw cash at everything, but that you choose those that are meaningful to you and to your neighbors.”

      Savard made the choice to get behind Jen’s Friends “specifically because no money goes to ‘research.’ There are no illusions of saving the planet. I know where the money goes. It’s going to people with cancer who need fuel to get to the nearest treatment center 60 miles away. And it’s for rent, and heat, and groceries because medical bills can be just…crushing,” explained Savard, who knows firsthand about steep medical expenses when cancer strikes. He was working in Manhattan when his mother was first diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1980s. He returned home to help her through that battle.

      Six months later, Savard’s mother had recovered, so he resumed working with a previous employer in New Jersey - building stage scenery for theaters and industrial displays for trade shows. It was here that he crossed paths with Deborah Jasien yet again, whom he had first met in the industry while working in Houston, Texas.[Deborah is the current Vice President of Jen’s Friends Cancer Foundation.] Savard and Jasien started their own scenery and trade show design business in the Newark area. However, when his mother relapsed in 1997 as a result of recurring cancer which had metasicized, Savard [and Jasien] moved back to Intervale Farm. His family had "appointed" him to manage the estate: a 200ish-year-old rambling farmhouse and barn, a small fruit tree orchard, acres of forest and long abandoned fields.

      In 2004, Savard learned more about Jen’s Friends Cancer Foundation, after Jasien began volunteering to help board members plan the annual fund raiser – the Climb Against Cancer. With his background in scenery and signage, he also started volunteering alongside Jasien. Savard saw how committed Jasien and the other volunteers were to Jen’s Friends, and how much time she spent volunteering while still running her own business, Fields of Ambrosia. As Program Manager for the Climb Against Cancer, Jasien would often mention financial concerns to Savard, such as the cost of event tee shirts. “Although the local printer of the shirts was donating all its profits, Jen’s Friends still needed upfront money for time and materials. And we hadn’t found a sponsor yet,” explained Jasien, “so I asked Francis.”

Savard knew that board members would eventually find sponsors to cover other fund raising expenses, but the foundation needed money right away. “That’s when I started sponsoring with funds for overhead operations as well,” he stated. “I knew that Jen’s Friends Cancer Foundation helps the community directly.” Savard was also aware that Jen’s Friends, as any non-profit organization, had recurring administrative expenses, such as postage and liability insurance for board members. And over the years, he also learned that the non-profit group does not receive, or even ask for, any federal, state, or local tax dollars.

      “Every year, we review our financials to determine how much we’ve had to pay for administrative costs,” Sweeney explained. “It’s been 4–6 % in the past few years. We like to inform the community so that they know where their money goes. We’ve been satisfied having 94-96% of donations go directly to clients’ needs, because that’s a much larger portion than most non-profits have. And no monies are used for research or salaries.” 

      After helping Jen’s Friends over the years with money for specific fund raising expenses, Savard wondered what else he could do. “I wanted Jen’s Friends to be able to say that 100% of donations is used for clients,” he said. What Savard decided to do was cover the foundation’s annual, administrative and overhead expenses. “The board of directors is a terrific group of people, most working full time and some local business owners. If they can make time to help cancer patients in our community, at least I can help them with bills – with their inevitable expenses. I do this because, well...because it's my turn,” he added.

      Jen's Friends Cancer Foundation, operated entirely by volunteers, was started in 1998 by a group of UNH graduates to benefit Valley resident Jennifer Hill, who was fighting brain cancer. Although Jennifer passed away that year, the fund that bears her name lives on, providing supplemental, non-medical, financial assistance for underinsured and uninsured cancer patients. Since its inception, Jen's Friends has assisted more than 170 families, by making payments for their rent or mortgage, utilities and grocery bills, and also providing gasoline charge cards to cover the cost of transportation to and from medical treatments. Currently, 51 cancer patients in the greater Mt. Washington Valley region of NH and western Maine are receiving assistance. For more information, visit www.jensfriends.org or call 603.356.5083.