THIS is what I'm sayin . . .

http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/cancer.html

Many hundreds of breast cancer organizations have sprung up over the last few decades. With all of the soliciting and cause-oriented marketing being done to cure or assist victims of breast cancer, one might assume that it is the form of cancer that women are most likely to be diagnosed with, yet this is not the case. According to government statistics, more women have non-melanoma skin cancer than breast cancer and more women die of lung and bronchus cancer (68,084 in 2003, the latest figures available) than those that die of breast cancer (41,619 in 2003). Two-thirds as many women died of colorectal cancer as those that died of breast cancer in 2003. Yet based on a search of Guidestar’s database of charity tax forms, 1,326 charities mention being involved with breast cancer and only 56 charities mention work in colon cancer and 11 in rectal cancer. Why are there only 5% as many groups addressing colorectal cancer as breast cancer victims? A likely reason is that colorectal cancer, also called bowel cancer, is not as attractive from a fundraising or marketing perspective as a disease that affects what is considered one of the most beautiful parts of a woman’s body.
Look-a-like charities abound in the cancer area, some with opposite grades. National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund receives an A rating from AIP, yet the similarly named National Cancer Coalition and Coalition Against Breast Cancer receive F’s. In fiscal 2006, the A rated Breast Cancer Research Foundation granted nearly $25 million or 87% of its budget to medical research, whereas the closely named F rated American Breast Cancer Foundation (ABCF) spent nearly 87% of its budget on solicitations that included an educational message and only $357,500 or 2.4% on research grants. According to ABCF’s fiscal 2006 tax form $5,175,000 of the $12,726,000 that this charity pays to professional fundraisers goes to Non Profit Promotions, which is owned by ABCF co-founder Joe Wolf, who is also the son of ABCF’s president and co-founder, Phyllis Wolf. ABCF was created in 1998 and Non Profit Promotions was started a year later. Ms. Wolf told AIP that her son “decided that he wanted to move on and raise funds for us.”
Since potentially anyone could contract cancer it is very easy under current AICPA nonprofit accounting rules for a charity to claim that its solicitations are conducted for public education purposes. Nearly two-thirds of the cancer charities that AIP rates make such a claim in their financial statements. Charities can disguise the true cost of fundraising by throwing into a solicitation an action message such as “stop smoking,” “don’t stay in the sun too long,” or “check your breasts for lumps.” Adding educational messages to solicitations, even if nearly everyone not living under a rock is already familiar with them, allow charities to allocate a portion of the cost of their direct mail and telemarketing solicitation costs to program service expense.