March of Dimes is an American nonprofit organization working to improve the health of mothers and babies. It was founded on 3 January 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Basil O'Connor as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, originally to combat polio; the name March of Dimes, coined by entertainer Eddie Cantor as a pun on the newsreel series The March of Time, described its fundraising method of asking the public to mail in dimes. After the organization helped fund Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, it shifted its focus to preventing birth defects and infant mortality, and since 2005, as preterm birth emerged as the leading cause of death for children worldwide, research and prevention of premature birth has become its primary focus.
Facts
Program StatusActive; premature birth prevention added as a mission objective in 2005 1 Sponsoring BodyFounded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1 Target PopulationMothers and babies, including pregnant women 1 Health GoalImprove the health of mothers and babies, with emphasis on preventing birth defects, infant mortality and premature birth 1 Geographic ScopeUnited States nationwide, with March for Babies events held in more than 900 communities 1 Program status (class) Classification
Program KindVaccination or Immunization Program 1 Connections
Delivers Practice
Entity-backed identity for the program-kind enum value this public health program already carries, resolved to a health practice by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The program-kind fact itself stays on the program unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. March of Dimes (Wikipedia)
Organization section, founding sentence
The organization was founded by US president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, to combat polio.
Introduction, mission phrase
works to improve the health of mothers and babies
Mission section, 2005 sentence
Reducing the toll of premature birth was added as a mission objective in 2005.
Programs section, March for Babies community count
more than 900 communities
- Wikipedia 'March of Dimes': present-tense description of current focus; checked 2026-09-27.
Program classification, entity description sentence
After the organization helped fund Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, it shifted its focus to preventing birth defects and infant mortality, and since 2005, as preterm birth emerged as the leading cause of death for children worldwide, research and prevention of premature birth has become its primary focus.
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