The state of advocacy in cancer

•The largest cancer advocacy groups raised over $1,000,000,000.00 in 2013•Enhanced revenue was proportional to investments in fund-raising activities

Non-profit advocacy organizations have been important in raising public awareness, promoting education, and enhancing political activism for issues related to cancer. Grassroots efforts aimed at fund-raising have substantially augmented federal funding for community outreach and research. The objective of this review was to evaluate successful accomplishments of several major non-profit organizations that are focused on cancer. A review of news media, medical literature, and financial records (using GuideStar) was performed to access the organizational structure and productivity of several successful cancer advocacy organizations. Compared to other cancer advocacy groups, the American Cancer Society is the oldest (> 100 years old) and worth the most with net assets of over $1.25 billion dollars and an annual total revenue of over $900 million dollars. The ACS also has the highest overhead at 41%. Most of the gynecologic cancer advocacy groups are approximately 20 years old and have collective total annual revenue of over $17M dollars. The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund has been the most successful at raising funds and building net assets to date while maintaining an overhead of < 10%. The most active and financially successful cancer organizations tend to be older, have higher overhead, spend less on total administration, spend more on fund-raising, have more events (rather than a limited number), and use aggressive social media strategies.