East meets West

Watertown, Ma / San Francisco, CA – Two leading nonprofits will join forces to form the largest organization that funds innovative brain tumor research and provides support services to patients and families. After nearly a year of discussions, the Brain Tumor Society (BTS) and the National Brain Tumor Foundation (NBTF) voted on an agreement to merge.
 
“This is the very latest news of how the Brain Tumor Society and the National Brain Tumor Foundation will continue to impact the community in a major way,” said Mary Catherine Calisto, Chair of the BTS Board of Directors. “The new organization will reach thousands of patients and families each month and will have an extensive research portfolio across relevant disciplines.”
 
“We’re committed to the integrity that people already know and expect from BTS and NBTF,” said Allison Jones Thomson, Chair of the NBTF Board of Directors. “Our combined power will allow the new organization to be even more effective at raising and using our donors’ dollars.”
 
BTS and NBTF agree that greater collaboration is essential to progress on brain tumor issues – both to the development of research into new treatments and to assist patients, survivors and families who are coping with this devastating diagnosis. The new organization will build on the strength of BTS and NBTF working in collaboration and with other colleague organizations across North America.
 
About the Organizations
Both organizations were founded in the 1980s by families who had lost children to brain tumors, along with other concerned individuals. The Brain Tumor Society (www.tbts.org) was founded in Massachusetts, and the National Brain Tumor Foundation (www.braintumor.org) began in California. Both organizations have expanded their programs and research funding across North America in the past twenty years.
 
About the Merger Process
Programs, services and events that both BTS and NBTF have established will continue. The legal merger of the two national nonprofits will be completed later in 2008, with a public debut of the new organization to follow. The new organization will maintain offices on both coasts.
 
Both organizations will keep constituents informed on the merger status through website updates, newsletter articles and at informational and fundraising events across North America.