10 - How to Create a National Advocacy Organization

Summary

This chapter is about how to create a National Advocacy Organization. It presents a quick list of the things that would help to meet the need. The list included: raise public awareness; educate treatment professionals; set up regional support networks; support research; provide reliable information and resource referrals; centralize operations and create an ability to communicate; act as an archive for relevant data. There is a big difference between a support group and a non-profit charitable organization. Trichotillomania Learning Center (TLC)'s original board of directors numbered six: three from the support group, one from the Seattle call list, author's business partner, and lastly the author. The decision to create a non-profit entity was based on the fact that a charitable organization can receive tax-deductible contributions, which can and must be used in the service of the target population.