In 1992 our fundraising cost was 18.4 percent, which is well within the guidelines set for non-profits. When you look at victim services only in terms of dollars spent, you're getting a very narrowly focused view. Nearly all of MADD's victim advocates are volunteers. The heart of our victim services involves priceless volunteer time such as accompanying victims to court, spending time in the hospital with them, helping them prepare Victim Impact Statements and Crime Victim Compensation applications. MADD victim advocates train law enforcement officers to deliver death notifications and train clergy and funeral home directors to better serve crash victims.
Most chapters offer victim support groups.
None of these programs require money. It pays for national and state 1-800 victim hotlines and to conduct national events such as the annual National Candlelight Vigil. We've adopted a plan to reduce the percentage of fatalities that are alcohol-related 20 percent by the year 2000. The plan involves youth issues, enforcement, sanctions, serf-sufficiency programs and responsible marketing of alcohol. Some of the things in this plan include more widespread use of sobriety checkpoints, lowering the legal blood alcohol content limit to .08, passing Administrative License Revocation in those states which don't already have the laws, and adopting .00 as the legal BAC limit for youth.