PR Nightmare

I did not work with the Cancer Fund of America. This is a proof of concept

Cancer Fund of America (NPO)

Back in 2015 the Cancer Fund of America was under scrutiny for fraud. They raised upwards of $75 million and 86.4% of that went to telemarketing calls, salaries, and perks. While only 2.5% went to their actual charitable causes. With that 2.5% the only things they provided were "seemingly random items", as quoted by CBS news, which included: Carnation Instant Breakfast Drink, adult briefs and bed pads, sample sized soaps, Little Debbie snack cakes, and blank seasonal greeting cards all of which were purchased by procurement agents, who sell over-stocked and discontinued products at a small fraction of retail. If you search for Cancer Fund of America on Twitter this still comes up in their top results.

Media Analysis

The worst of the news for the Cancer Fund of America is the 2015 court case that brought to light the fraudulent use of donations that went to personal gain instead of charitable acts. In total it was recorded to be 86.4% of $75 million dollars. To top it off the Cancer Fund of America was featured on the tv show "American Greed" which features high profile and white collar crimes.

Problems for the Cancer Fund of America didn't actually start in 2015. The problems started clear back in 2014 with bad reviews and people stating what was coming to be in 2015 with the impending court case. Not only that but there were more bad reviews stating their complaints about constant harassment calls for donations. These reviews on their social media page persist all the way to 2018 with only one or two good reviews and positive remarks of charity rendered.

Lastly, the Cancer Fund of America was listed as a sham by news websites and government sources. The foundation and its partners were called to light as scam artists. To this day, a Google search of "Cancer Fund of America" shows only the 2015 court case and the fraudulent uses of where the donations went while people were dying. You won't even find a link to their social media page.

Media Strategy

Target audience will be on new donors to wipe the slate clean.

Key talking points for the Cancer Fund of America will be:

• They are the longest running cancer relief based charity of 32 years
• Give the history of the charity as it was founded on October 9, 1987 by James T. Reynolds and two volunteers. Include his involvement with the Cancer Association of Tennessee in March of 1984 to assist those in that state.
• They have assisted more than 300,000 cancer patients with much needed products to lower their financial need
• List the fact they purchase products in bulk to be able to help more people than they normally would.

Media Message via the following outlets:

• National search engine optimization to feature their social media pages (i.e. Facebook and Twitter) and less of the court case and negative website and blog posts. In addition, post more to their social media page to showcase their patient's success stories. (cost is free to post to their social media) (roughly $10,000 and another rough estimate fee of $900 to the internet marketer.)
• One minute ad showing what they do for cancer patients and a voice over of their key talking points to influence potential donors. Plus a public apology outside the courtroom to let donors know they won't misuse donations again.(Setup cost between $63,000 and $8 million, ad space for the 30 seconds is approximately $684,000; $342,000 per 30 seconds,the price if they choose to continue the ad is the cost of media [$342,000 per 30 second ad] plus the agency hourly rate which varies depending on the agency.)
• A one minute YouTube and Facebook ad copied from the televised ad to reach a broader and diverse group of donors to take advantage of the algorithms placed on these outlets. (YouTube is $.20 per view [$2000 per 10,000 views] (Facebook's cost per view is $27.29 and escalates from there.)