Verlyn Veldhouse politely listened to Sandra Gunselman, Ph.D., as she spoke about her job at UNMC whenever they met at their sons’ Boy Scout meetings.
Dr. Gunselman didn’t know if she was boring Veldhouse with the small talk. “He never really said anything,” she said, until last December when Veldhouse, president of the Omaha-based Internet service efanz, approached Dr. Gunselman and offered a $2,000 donation toward her research.
“I was so surprised and grateful,” said Dr. Gunselman, a post doctorate researcher in the Eppley Institute who is studying estrogen metabolism and its relationship to the initiation of cancer. She also is developing a mass spectrometry methodology for analyzing human tissues and fluid such as blood, urine and nipple aspirates.
“When Verlyn made the offer, he said he was really interested in the type of research I was doing and wanted to support it,” she said.
Dr. Gunselman said she soon learned that the main reason efanz was founded was to raise financial support for nonprofit organizations and worthy causes. Veldhouse along with Roger Willey, vice president of marketing for efanz, founded the Internet service in 2001 with the goal of finding a creative way to help raise money for charity.
But the two didn’t want to just give a lump sum to charity, Willey said. They wanted to find a sustainable way to provide financial support that could be counted on year after year.
That’s when they came up with efanz, an Internet service (like AOL or Juno) that anyone can subscribe to, but with a twist. Instead of keeping all of the profits, Willey and Veldhouse decided to give 10 percent to the charity of choice designated by the customer. So, for example $2 a month is set aside from a single subscriber’s monthly payment of $20 and at the end of the year sent to their designated charity.
“There are more than 500 organizations across the country raising funds this way,” Willey said.
While most people designate a charity, some do not which leaves a pool of discretionary money at the end of the year, he said. Willey and Veldhouse then decide which charities to give the money to.
Since making the donation to Dr. Gunselman, the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center is now a designated nonprofit that people can support through subscribing to efanz.
“Basically anybody, any researcher at the medical center can have money donated to them through this Internet service,” Dr. Gunselman said. “It is a thrill, especially as a post doc to have that sort of support. It’s a statement about their confidence in me as a future principal investigator.”