The American Cancer Society invests hundreds of millions of dollars every year to fight cancer on a global scale and has earned the public trust by demonstrating a history of careful and proven financial stewardship for over a century. We raise nearly all of our money through private individual donations, which helps to ensure our independence. We encourage people to look at how effectively we deliver on our mission, in addition to how efficiently we operate. We are deeply committed to reporting to our “shareholders” – the millions of people who support us each year.
American Cancer Society is committed to efficiency and transparency and relies on direct mail (both postal and online) and special events including Relay For Life, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, DetermiNation, Coaches Vs. Cancer, and CEOs Against Cancer to maintain our strong volunteer and donor base as well as educate and inform the public regarding cancer prevention, early detection, and patient programs offered and available to them. The Society also uses these events to drive a call to action for cancer prevention and screenings as well as public policy advocacy. This education and information delivery is inherent in our mission statement – to save lives, celebrate lives, and to lead the fight for a world without cancer. We communicate and educate by postal mail, digitally, telephone, and in person at our events not only to generate income but to fulfill our mission. As a result, in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) guideline and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidelines, we allocate a portion of our direct mail and special event costs to program services.
As a nonprofit organization that is exempt from federal taxation, we ensure donors’ money is spent as efficiently and effectively as possible. For more information regarding these cost allocations, we invite you to view our audited financial statements where we disclose additional information in accordance with FASB. Additionally, please see Schedule G of our Form 990 for more information regarding Relay For Life and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.
Focusing on our mission to save lives, celebrate lives, and lead the fight for a world without cancer, the American Cancer Society Annual Report outlines our path forward, as we work to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. In the report, we showcase our accomplishments, and we detail revenue and spending for the calendar year.
The Financial Statements of the American Cancer Society, Inc., Cancer Action Network, and ACS Puerto Rico provide the most meaningful financial information on the entire American Cancer Society organization, since they are presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and combine all parts of the organization in one statement.
The Board of Directors is composed of 5 officers and 16 directors. Directors are elected for a two-year term. The Board is responsible for setting policy, establishing long-term goals, monitoring general operations, and approving the organizational outcomes and allocation of resources.
The American Cancer Society, Inc. takes its mission to save lives seriously and therefore works to protect the resources entrusted to it by the public. The Society is governed by a single Board of Directors, which is made up of volunteers from the medical and lay communities. Our system of organizational governance ensures the input of appropriate experts on decision making and strategic oversight of comprehensive nationwide operations.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990 is an annual federal informational return that most tax-exempt charitable corporations are required to file. The information in the Form 990s is provided in accordance with IRS regulations.
This link leads to the machine-readable files that are made available in response to the federal Transparency in Coverage Rule and includes negotiated service rates and out-of-network allowed amounts between health plans and healthcare providers. The machine-readable files are formatted to allow researchers, regulators, and application developers to more easily access and analyze data.