Stigma, lack of strong alumni giving, and poor endowments are among the significant challenges facing those trying to raise money to support addiction treatment and prevention programs, the Financial Times reported Aug. 26.

Experts say that fundraisers need to overcome the perception that people with addiction are to blame for their own illnesses even when soliciting donations for adolescent programs. "In some ways, it's harder to raise money for kids with drug and alcohol issues than it is to raise money for fish," said Donna Wiench, development director at Washington state's Daybreak Youth Services, who has done both in her career. "Salmon aren't blamed for failing to jump fish ladders, maneuver past dams and swim up rivers. But sometimes society blames teens for becoming dependent on drugs or alcohol. It's a disease. We don't blame kids with diabetes or cancer for their illness."

Treatment programs may have long lists of graduates, but that doesn't automatically translate into alumni support. "These people may be very grateful, but they don't have the wherewithal to contribute," said Paul Schervish, director of the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. "That is probably the major factor in not having a core group that will provide regular and sustainable funding and the basis for greater fund-raising."

Fundraisers like Wiench concentrate on personal appeals to generate support in the absence of a natural sympathetic constituency. "I have to pay special attention to what it is the donor is responding to. If I see the eyes getting bigger, or that someone's responding to mention of a special interest, then I'll try and connect," she said. "We have one donor, a man who lost his father, and a lot of the kids in this program have lost their fathers, so I will talk to him about the missing parent. But he's also a successful businessman, so I'll talk to him about our success."

"Whether through a friend or relative, most people have experienced drug and alcohol abuse and have a sense of what it does to people," she added.

The Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD) has long relied on special events like an annual golf tournament and ball to raise money, but fundraiser Roseanne Slattery is trying to improve the group's fundraising mix. Soliciting individual donations is difficult, however.  "On Long Island there are numerous nonprofit organizations serving the community and seeking funding. It's tough to sustain our efforts," she said.

The Christopher D. Smithers Foundation is one of the oldest charities in the U.S. focused on addiction issues, having awarded more than $100 million over the last half-century. But Adele Smithers, wife of the late founder of the charity, said that few other foundations have followed their lead, a fact that she, too, blames on stigma against people with addictions.