Special Events

Thank you for your interest in Mothers March!

Mothers March® is the first and longest-running March of Dimes fundraising event, with a rich and interesting history. It began in 1950 with a door-to-door campaign to fight polio a battle that was won over five decades ago and has evolved today into a campaign to give every baby a healthy start to life. 

Over 55 years ago...
Parents in Phoenix organized a collection: "Turn on your porch light, fight polio tonight." In minutes, more than $45,000 was raised and the annual MOTHERS MARCH® CAMPAIGN was born. Last year Mothers March® raised over $19 million and helped fund lifesaving research and programs that save babies. Mothers March has evolved today into a letter-writing campaign to give all babies a healthy start. 

Today volunteers are mainly recruited over the phone and mailed special volunteer kits containing cards, letters and a list of neighbors. Volunteers are asked to address, stamp and mail letters to their neighbors and then return donations back to the March of Dimes. Each year, over 600,000 volunteers participate in this historic campaign to help raise funds and awareness.

Join Our Campaign
If you’d like to volunteer for a future Mothers March campaign please contact us. Or, please donate generously if you get a letter from a neighbor.

Use of Funds
Funds raised through Mothers March help Moms have full-term pregnacies and healthy babies. And if something goes wrong, we offer information and comfort to families. We research the problem that threaten our babies and work on preventing them.

The March of Dimes has a long and distinguished record of accomplishment and wants you to know that the funds you contribute to us are spent wisely. This chart indicates how your gift is being spent: a full 77 percent of every dollar spent supports programs that help prevent and treat birth defects.

We have a 70-year track record of success.

Since our founding in 1938, the March of Dimes has helped to save millions of babies from death and disability. Our history includes:

  • Developing the vaccine declared against polio...1955

  • Funding the first successful bone marrow transplant to correct a birth defect...1968

  • Funding the first in utero treatment for a birth defect...1973

  • Calling for the creation of a regional system of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to save very sick babies...1976

  • Funding research leading to surfactant therapy to treat respiratory distress syndrome (RDS)...1985

  • Successfully using gene therapy to treat hemophilia and retinitis pigmentosa in the laboratory...1999

  • Ongoing research based upon delivery of a gene that affects the development of a healthy heart... 2000

Learn more about the March of Dimes history.

 

 		 
  © 2008 March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. All rights reserved. The March of Dimes is a not-for-profit organization recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). Our mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality.