Canadian Cancer Society: Fundraising Controversy Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Introduction

Back in the year 1937, Canadian Society for the control of cancer was created on the advice of the National Study Committee. After a few years, the name of this newly formed organization had been changed to the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS). On Wednesday, July 6, 2011, the Canadian broadcasting Corporation (CBC) released an article criticizing the financial management of the Canadian Cancer Society. The CBC also presented some facts like the reduction on spending money on cancer research that was only 22% in 2011 as compared to the 40% in 2000. The Communication Director of CCS was quite worried and needed to come up with a communication strategy on an urgent basis to defend the organization’s image.

Summary of the Problem

 

The Canadian Cancer Society had been successfully serving the society, but after the report of CBC there were certain questions that needed to be answered by CCS, through developing a communication strategy on the immediate basis. The facts that were mentioned in the report were completely justified from  the CBC because they even analyzed the financial statements of the CCS before highlighting such issue.  CBC mentioned in the report that the 42.7% of the total amount was used for fundraising and only 22% for the cancer research. The allegations were additionally supported by a fact that the donation amount had been constantly increasing, but the spending on research had been continuously decreasing, which actually became the basis for publishing this report (Leaf, 2004). The communication director is concerned about rescuing the trust and image of employees, volunteers and most importantly the donors who have a major role to play in running this organization. The problems for the organization has been increasing, and people have already started commenting online on the CBC article reading website. The general audience is getting the impression that CCS is more focused towards prevention and support instead of doing research (Grange et al., 2002). CCS now needs to develop a communication strategy to help protect its image in the eyes of both the public and its donors.  Since CCS holds a well-established name in the country, so therefore organization needs to mention each and every expense in detail, to gain the trust of the employees, the public and their donors. Its communication strategy needs to justify extra spending on fundraising campaigns rather than research related to the cancer.  The communication strategy should be detailed enough and must highlight the spending of the organization, supported by some research based achievements that were achieved by the Canadian Cancer Society.

Summary of the Research

 

As the report was released by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, speculations across the country reached at its maximum height. One Ontario based cancer researcher stated that this issue should have been highlighted the scientists working in the respective field (Dubey, 2007). He added that these scientists actually did not realize that the budget for the research had been shrinking in comparison with the fund which had been increasing in a rapid pace.  Researchers and scholars of several universities have been found quite disappointed on this issue and trend which was followed by the Canadian Cancer Society. Moreover, these verdicts are the latest to throw a painful spotlight on the fundraising, specifically related to the cancer. Back in April there was a study published on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation website which pointed out that the breast cancer collection or fundraising was eclipsing the fundraising of other deadly cancers (2011) Retrieved Feb 2014. A famous group which is known as the Charity Intelligence Canada (CIC) found that most of the cancers that creates life threatening issues for Canadians are stomach, pancreatic colorectal and lung cancers only accounted for less than 2% of entire cancer charity funding and on the other hand the charities related to the breast cancer successfully grab attention of around 50% donors. Additionally, there has been a recent controversy related to the approaches and procedures that several cancer charities follow to generate funds, including the popular "booby”. Moreover, for a much enhanced and informed perspective on the debatable issues related to the impact and efficiency of charity, “The Charity 100” part of the Money Sense magazine played an optimistic role. That article identifies the influence of breast cancer charity, completely and separately from the cost. And it focuses on the transparency and governance, between and behind these charities. Its authors have also listened to Dan Pallotta and even others, and introduced a new section recently that permits charities that actually define their influence (Huffington, 2011)....................

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On Wednesday, July 6, 2011, director of communications for the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), in Toronto, Ontario, is faced with a difficult situation. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has just released an online article, which focuses on the 2011 budget CCS, more specifically, how CCS allocated millions of dollars each year. In addition, CBC article gave a detailed account of how the share of donations of money CCS, spent on cancer research each year declined from 40 percent in 2000 to less than 22 percent in 2011. From CBC report circulating in both television and online media, public speculation in financial management CCS in public donations began to grow. It was clear that the team CCS connection must be answered. Communication strategy should be developed to follow the CCS is moving forward with a press release posted on the next day on the site CCS. "Hide
by Jana Seijts, Paul Bigus Source: Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation 8 pages. Publication Date: October 17, 2011. Prod. #: W11363-PDF-ENG

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