The American Cancer Society is The Worst of The Worst

The American Cancer Society's fund allocation is among the worst in the world. 1 in 5 dollars donated go directly to Overhead/Executive Pay. Another 1 in 5 go to fundraising. Only 12% of their fund allocation goes to cancer research. 

The American Cancer Society and Relay for Life are terrible. I contributed/basically wrote the WikiPedia article on them almost a month ago. Here is all the information you need to know. (For all sources, click here)

Call for boycott from the Cancer Prevention Coalition: 

In a paper published by Samuel Epstein, "American Cancer Society: More Interested Accumulating Wealth Than Saving Lives," Dr. Epstein (Professor emeritus, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, University of Illinois) charges the American Cancer Society's focus is largely based on profit and wealth accumulation while giving little focus to actual cancer research. The article, published on the Cancer Prevention Coalition's website, details how in 1999 the Cancer Prevention Coalition, claimed that the American Cancer Society had firmly associated with pharmaceutical corporations, endorsed controversial chemicals and surgeries, had a very long and poor track record on cancer prevention and paid CEO's excessively. These were some of their many reasons for their call for "a nationwide economic boycott" of The ACS.

Poor rankings from charity watchdogs:

A leading charitable donation guide group, Charity Navigator, ranked the American Cancer Society in last place in it's category of cancer charities, with a very low score of 53 out of 100. Their ranking broke down ACS expenses and exposed that now retired CEO Donald Thomas was earning an annual salary well over $1.4 Million and the former National Vice President of Divisional Services William Barram was making well over $1.55 Million. 

According to Charity Navigator, the Deputy CEO of the ACS makes $1,407,719 a year, and the CEO makes $914,906 a year. 

The American Cancer Institute of Philanthropy, which operates the well known "CharityWatch.org" gave the American Cancer Society a "c+" grade, claiming that the ACS takes in more money than any other cancer charity that they cover but is only able to give 60% of its budget to program services not related to solicitations. 

Prostate cancer screening recommendations: 

American Cancer Society’s position on the value of universal prostate cancer screening has been debated. Currently American Cancer Society’s position on prostate cancer screening is not that screening, per se, is unwarranted but that the currently available PSA diagnostic test is inadequate for justifying mass screening for prostate cancer, and that a new, more accurate test is desperately needed.

Ohio embezzlement:

In 2000, Dan Wiant, an administrative officer of the American Cancer Society of Ohio, pled guilty to embezzling $7 million from the organization.

New York embezzlement:

In the 1980s, an employee of a New York branch was indicted for a tax fraud scheme that allowed individuals to fraudulently claim contributions, much of which had been returned to them. 


Lack of control over local branches and enormously high executive pay:
In 1995, the Arizona chapter of the American Cancer Society was targeted for its extremely high overhead. Two economists, James Bennett and Thomas DiLorenzo, issued a report analyzing the chapter's own financial statements and demonstrating that it uses about 95% of its donations for paying salaries and other overhead costs, resulting in a 22 to 1 ratio of overhead to actual money spent on the cause. The report also found that the Arizona chapter's annual report had grossly misrepresented the amount of money spent on patient services, inflating it by more than a factor of 10. The American Cancer Society responded by alleging that the two economists issuing the report were working for and receiving pay-offs from the tobaccoindustry, but did not offer any evidence to support these claimsThere was a great book written about them by Dr. Samuel Epstien. Quite the expose.