How It Works

Applications

Magic Bullet Fund (MBF) receives an application and financial information. Applications are reviewed to find the families in the greatest financial distress and the dogs with the best chance of long survival. The financial manager reviews the application and documents required. If we might be able to offer assistance, the application is assigned to a volunteer Case Manager.

The Case Manager collects information from the veterinarian and sends the application to the fund’s Review Panel. The dog’s family is notified when a decision has been made. The applicant may be asked to get a second opinion.

Note:

• This fund does not give out grants. We raise donations for each dog that comes into the fund. The owner/s must participate in fundraising for their dog, and help us bring in donations. For those who want to simply receive money, please apply to the organizations at the link below.
  
• This fund is not set up to assist for emergencies. It generally takes 1-2 weeks for the review process. After a dog is in the fund, it takes 1 – 4 weeks to raise donations needed. Funds collected are used for treatments during this time.
  For emergency treatments or when funds are needed within 2 weeks, Magic Bullet Fund will not be able to help. Apply instead to these Other Organizations.

Donations

A campaign is open to collect donations for maximum of 30 days. If the goal amount is raised sooner, the campaign closes.

Each donator to a dog’s campaign receives a thank you note from MBF at the time of their donation, and information for their accountant. At the end of the campaign, we email all who donated for that dog (with email addresses hidden), to thank them for donations again and to say that the campaign is closed. We do not share any information about donators, except their names (unless they donated anonymously).

Payments for Treatment

Donations that come in for a dog’s treatment are held on reserve for that dog’s cancer treatment. MBF arranges payment terms with the dog’s clinic, and contributes to treatments provided. MBF pays the clinic directly for cancer treatments on the day of treatment.

Funds that cannot be used for a dog are redistributed to General Fund to help other dogs. MBF funds are not available for past due balances, diagnostics, experimental treatments or clinical trials, treatment for health issues other than cancer, palliative care or euthanasia. Payments are made to veterinary clinics, pharmaceutical distributors or pharmacies for a dog’s surgery or chemo treatments, including drugs used in those treatments and clinic fees.

Once a week, for the 30 days that a campaign is open, MBF notifies the clinic and the owner of the amount/s MBF will contribute to treatments.

Chemotherapy: The amount raised is distributed among the remaining treatments. As new donations come in, the amount per treatment will increase. When the campaign is closed after 30 days, scheduled payments continue throughout the protocol. If chemo treatment is unsuccessful, some funds can be used to attempt a second protocol, with the owner paying for part of it.

Surgery: The amount raised is used to pay for the dog’s cancer surgery, on the day of surgery.

Note about CareCredit

If you have received a line of credit from CareCredit (or any resource), we suggest that you do not charge through more than the treatment amount, at the time of each treatment. For example, don’t charge $1,000 for the clinic to hold as a credit on your account. We cannot make a payment if there is a credit balance on your account… and the veterinary clinic is not a bank.

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