Competitive Funding Strategies for the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO

The Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF), the philanthropic arm of ASCO, is responsible for funding innovative clinical research. CCF wants to broaden its donor base instead of relying predominantly on health-care companies. Our Leadership Development Program (LDP) group was tasked with identifying potential donor sources and making recommendations to increase funding.

We selected three sources to research: the general public, crowdsourcing/social media, and ASCO members. We subsequently focused our efforts on ASCO members, of whom only 2% to 3% are donors to CCF and < 8% are repeat donors. To analyze this low rate, we sent out two separate surveys to various groups of members within ASCO.

We identified lack of knowledge as a major deterrent to giving; surprisingly, even those who hold ASCO leadership positions or participated in committees lacked knowledge about CCF funding. Also, the misconception that ASCO is rich and does not need philanthropic support deterred giving; however, respondents would donate if given the right message that stresses the need of continued member-led donations.

ASCO members, including those in leadership positions, need to be engaged more aggressively to support CCF. Increased education and updating the CCF message is likely to provide the greatest impact on higher member donation, repeated donations, and facilitate CCF's goal of diversifying its donor base away from healthcare companies. Furthermore, we recommend using technology, such as mobile applications, and providing incentives and visibility to major donors.