If You Ask Me / By Martha Knight

It’s February so it must be Heart month. Cancer should be next month.

There was a time when various causes had their special months, and geared up their big campaigns for donations. Thinking back, I believe January was March of Dimes, February was Heart, March was Cancer, April was, um, maybe TB or Lungs or Respiratory Health, May was Mental Health (the Bell Ringer Drive). I’m not sure about the rest, except that the Salvation Army had a December appeal.

Now we don’t see many of those campaigns. Our own United Fund is the present form of what used to be the Community Chest. It is what I call Putting All Our Begs in One Ask-it. But the funds go to “member agencies” that provide services locally, or serve our local community in identifiable, specific ways.

Raising money for a health-related cause used to take the form of marshalling volunteers, mostly women, who would go door-to-door asking residents for donations—cash or checks.

Then there was the approach of getting one person per neighborhood to send out so many begging letters with self-addressed envelopes, targeting neighbors. Presumably the neighbors would be embarrassed not to respond to someone so nearby. Instructions suggested following up by making a personal visit or phone call.

The recruiter would call a person in the neighborhood and ask her to accept a kit of already addressed letters to be sent by her. Her contribution would be the postage she would put on the outgoing and return envelopes. Of course, she could make an additional contribution…

I haven’t been called lately, or received such mailers from neighbors. So either this method is no longer in common use or all my neighbors know I am too stingy to waste the postage on.

But I did get a mailer, on pink, tractor-fed, two-layer paper, on behalf of the 2014 Port Allegany Area Annual Fund Drive. Below that identifying line it says “National Breast Cancer Research Center.”

You would think a big research center like that would have a large facility, but it seems they operate out of Suite 1012 at 1025 Connecticut Ave. MW., and a P.O. Box in Washington, D.C.

Naturally I am interested to know what all this outfit is doing about this dreaded health scourge. The National Breast Cancer Research Center is not shy about explaining its importance. “Our 2014 Annual Fund Drive is the single most important fundraiser of the year to support our fight against breast cancer.”

That plural possessive pronoun could mean our, society’s, the population’s, the community’s ongoing battle against breast cancer. Or it could mean the National Breast Cancer Research Center’s fight.

But who are they? I look for the fine print that will reveal the larger organization, or the front, if you will. Ah! “National Breast Cancer Research Center is A Project of Walker Cancer Research Institute” followed by the same address in Washington, D.C.  But Charity Navigator’s website lists Walker Cancer Research Institute’s (WCRI) location as Aberdeen, Md. I guess that’s close.

Charity Navigator also gives a rating to WCRI: no stars. Well, for accountability and transparency it did get a score of 32 out of 70. All right!

Perhaps that is because on the back of the mailer with the sprocket holes there is this fine-print disclosure, a model of candor.

“Contributions made to National Breast...yada yada..a project of Walker yada yada…are used for fundraising expenses, administrative costs, public education and program expenses. The services of a paid professional fundraiser are used to professionally assist WCRI in the solicitation of funds. In the last fiscal year Walker yada yada…raised a total of $10,761,022. Its expense distribution was 62.32% to fundraising, 5.29% to administration, 3.64% to research program services, and 28.75% to public education in conjunction with fundraising appeals. The cost of this solicitation is charged partly to fundraising and partly to public education. Fundraising costs include costs incurred in establishing a donor base. Public education costs include costs incurred in disseminating information contained in solicitations…”

Charity Navigator, however, shows us Financial Performance Metrics for the most recent reporting year: 3.6%, Program Expenses; 5.2%, Administrative Expenses; 91%, Fundraising Expenses; $0.90 [sic], Fundraising Efficiency; -5.2%, Primary Revenue Growth; 9.3% Program Expenses Growth; and 0.83%, Working Capital Ratio.

Here’s WCRI’s mission statement, provided by Charity Navigator:

“Founded in 1981, Walker Cancer Research Institute (WCRI) works to find more effective treatments for cancer. Our Anticancer Drug Synthesis Laboratory is located in the state of Michigan, while our Natural Products Laboratory is strategically located in the state of Florida. Scientists in our labs in Michigan and Florida are working vigorously to find these treatments. We also provide educational information to the public concerning early detection of cancer symptoms and treatment options. WCRI's public information program includes regular informational letters to the public giving succinct information about the health risks and early warning signs of cancer.”

Doesn’t say what part of that vigorous research is related to breast cancer.

There was a cute little pinkish window-cling thingy with a ribbon loop symbol on it, provided free of charge in the mailer.

If you got one of these in the mail, I trust you disposed of it in some environmentally correct way and did not litter. I did harvest the four one-cent stamps added to the return envelope’s postage since the bulk mail price increase, and thus can say I have benefitted from the labors of WCRI/NBCRC.

The American Cancer Society, however, is for real, and actually does some good. We can contribute online and save the postage and the bushwah.

Peace.