Cancer charities raise money, not for research

Americans are expected to donate $300 billion to charities this year, some of that to the thousands of cancer charities that exist in the United States. Time Magazine’s Bill Saporito looked into some of these charities and found that Americans were funding many things other than cancer research.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure is the largest funder of breast-cancer research after the government’s National Cancer Institute, and they put around 20 percent of their income into administrative costs and fundraising efforts. The Walker Cancer Research Institute, which includes the National Breast Cancer Research Center, raised $12.7 million in 2009 and spent more than half of that on fundraising, and only about four percent on research, according to Saporito. Additionally, the National Charity for Cancer Research, whose parent organization is Optimal Medical Foundation Inc., raised $5.3 million in 2009, none of which, says Saporito, appears to have funded research.

He spoke with Here and Now.

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