Mutual Aid Diabetes is a group of diabetics dedicated to caring for the community by connecting community members in need with medication, insulin, supplies, and healthcare. We are 100% volunteer.

Learn more about us here.

Mutual aid is a way for a community to collectively care for those most marginalized and vulnerable to harm. It’s an anti-capitalist response to artificial scarcity created by the state/government(s.) Mutual aid involves the voluntary exchange of resources and knowledge, without access barriers like means testing. Mutual aid groups are not charities. Instead, there’s an anarchist emphasis on avoiding hierarchies that create a divide between those asking for help and those helping. By creating a mutual aid network we are building a more sustainable way for our entire community to care for those in it. 

By donations! With the exception of SkinGrip and Diabetics Doing Things (companies which have donated generously to MAD on a number of occasions), most of our funding comes from individuals’ small donations. We don’t have any partnerships with corporations. We will never take money from pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or health insurance companies.

The vast majority of the money we receive is redistributed to diabetics in need or used to pay for their supplies. A minuscule fraction is used to “keep the lights on” (e..g., to host the website you’re reading now).

You can support our cause here. 

Sort of… MAD does not have an office or official place to store supplies — we are an online network. If you’d like to share your extra supplies with diabetics in need, you can fill out the form linked on our Donate page and someone will contact you if the supplies are needed.

Our apologies for the radio silence. We want to improve the process around how we keep record of what supplies people have to donate and how we do outreach regarding those supplies.

For now, we only reach out to supply donors when we have someone in need of those supplies. We tend to reach out to people that told us they have a given supply one-at-a-time until the need is fulfilled. This means you may not hear from us until we have reached out to other donors.

Please feel free to get in touch if you want to ensure that we have your supply sharing information, want to update the information you gave us in the past, or want to help us improve our process.

Any diabetic (or non-diabetic reaching out on behalf of someone with diabetes) can request aid. There is no means testing: everyone who asks us for help is eligible to receive it. Depending on your unique circumstances we will have different options for assistance.

You can fill out the form linked on our homepage to request assistance from us.

After filling out our “Request Aid” form, you will be contacted by a MAD volunteer as soon as a volunteer is able to, ideally within 24 to 72 hours.

Depending on your unique circumstances our volunteers will offer potential solutions. If for whatever reason, something a volunteer suggests doesn’t work for you, please tell them why so we can better meet your needs. Generally because every situation is so unique, the more information folks volunteer the better we’re able to assist. 

MAD volunteers can provide: peer support, help navigating the process of obtaining prescriptions, direct funding (typically $35-$50) to pick up prescriptions, and access to our supply sharing network, which gets surplus insulin, medications, and testing supplies to those in need. 

In the event that no other better options exist, and with your consent, our volunteers can refer you to diabetics who share surplus supplies and medication in your area. 

For the most part, unfortunately no. Our funds are limited and so we prioritize redistributing them primarily for insulin, medication, supplies, and diabetes related costs. Community members we’ve worked with in the past who have ongoing needs are occasionally issued small amounts of direct aid for non-diabetes related costs on a case by case basis — pending funds being available. 

We usually focus on supporting community members directly instead of passing on their requests for aid to others, so we usually don’t share individual fundraisers.

Our volunteers can help you figure out what insurance you’re eligible for and help you apply for things like Patient Assistance Programs. Housing is not our expertise but we try to refer community members to local mutual aid groups and resources for housing when we can. 

There’s no limit to how many times you can request help from MAD.

Feel free to get in touch and see if we can answer your question.