A message from the President and Chairman regarding charity fundraising practices
In recent days The Age has published a series of articles highlighting unethical practices used by some third party fundraisers engaged by some Australian charities.
I am writing to assure all Fight Cancer Foundation supporters, and the general public, that Fight Cancer Foundation does not engage in such practices.
We do not and never have:
- engaged any person or company to raise funds on our behalf where that person or company has retained a percentage of the amount raised;
- engaged a call centre to seek donations on our behalf;
- conducted door-to-door fundraising or street collections using paid contractors;
- conducted any fundraising activities where the bulk of revenue is spent on overheads such as raffle or lottery prizes.
Fight Cancer Foundation prides ourselves on the ethical and transparent way we work. The best interests of our supporters and those people we help through our programmes are paramount.
Our Annual Reports detail how we raise our funds and how we apply those monies to our programmes and are published on our website www.fightcancer.org.au.
We also comply with all provisions of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act 2012 and relevant State and Territory legislation and regulations governing charitable fundraising activities. Our full accounts are lodged with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission and may be viewed at www.acnc.gov.au.
We rely on our small paid fundraising team led by our Managing Director, Eric Wright, and many volunteers to achieve our fundraising goals. The Foundation’s volunteer Board of Directors oversees all activity on a monthly basis with a particular focus on minimising costs and maximising the amount we have available for the important work we do supporting cancer patients and their families and funding vital medical research.
Please accept my sincere thanks for your ongoing support of Fight Cancer Foundation. Our supporters are our life-blood and every one of you has my assurance Fight Cancer Foundation will never act unethically in our mission of “Giving Hope and Saving Lives”.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Leonie Walsh
President and Chairman
