Canadian Cancer Society

About Canadian Cancer Society:

Founded in 1938, Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) funds cancer research, influences government policy on cancer and provides information to prevent cancer and to support people with this disease. CCS estimates that there will be 196,900 people diagnosed with cancer this year. Its goals, as a result, are to raise survival rates and improve the quality of life of cancer victims.

NEWS: October 28, 2016, Canadian Cancer Society announced plans to merge with Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation effective February 2017. Lynne Hudson, formerly President and CEO of Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation becomes CSC's CEO and President effective immediately. Charity Intelligence has analysed this potential merger. The Ci opinion article is here:

https://www.charityintelligence.ca/news-and-views/ci-articles?id=213

Canadian Cancer Society runs the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (CCSRI). CCSRI’s research areas cover prevention, treatment and diagnosis. It reviews all funding applications and allocates funds. CCS allocated $42.8m to fund over 400 projects this year - 24% of total revenues went to cancer research grants. These research grants supported 862 scientists. 

Canadian Cancer Society runs many programs on cancer awareness. There are multiple information sources on CCS’s website, which 7 million people visited in the past year. The Smokers’ Helpline service answered 55,000 telephone calls in 2015. The charity also gave out 1,500 print copies of a cancer literacy document.

CCS partnered with Statistics Canada to publish the Canadian Cancer Statistics Report 2015. Thanks to CCS’s support, researchers produced 703 publications this year. These publications were used in 4 public policy documents and 11 healthcare guidelines. With global advances in medicine and treatment, today's cancer survival rates are 60% compared to 25% in the 1940s.

Financial Review:

Canadian Cancer Society is one of Canada's largest charities. In F2016, it received donations and special event revenue of $142.4m a 5% year-over-year drop. Donations rose 3% but funds from special events decreased by $10.5m (a 16% decline). Administrative costs are 4% of revenues and fundraising costs come to 44% of donations, up from 36% in F2014. Total overhead costs are 48%, above Ci’s reasonable range. CCS has funding reserves of $49.7m of which $19.3m are donor-endowed. Charity Intelligence has deducted from CCS's funding reserves unfunded pension liabilities and other retirement benefit liabilities of $53.8m in F2016 and $64.4m in F2015. Excluding donor-endowed funds, CCS’s funding reserves can cover 25% of annual program and grants. CSC has research grant commitments of $72.3m for F2017-F2021 contingent on future revenues.

This charity report is an update that is being reviewed by Canadian Cancer Society. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 14th, 2016 by Mirza Ali Shakir.