Where Does the Money Go? (Pelotonia Fundraising)

Or Mission is clear. Our effort is real.
Please help us END CANCER!

I have been soliciting donations for Pelotonia, using the phrase "to support life-saving cancer research".

So, where does the money go?

In 2009 we raised more than $4.5 million. Nice! So, what's being done with it?

Pelotonia did the right thing, sending out a communiqué to share this information. I'm sharing excerpts here to help make clear "Why We Ride".

1. The Fellowship Program: One of the biggest challenges facing faculty researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) is recruiting talented students. Thus, the OSUCCC – James will use $1 million of the funds raised by Pelotonia 2009 to initiate a program to bring the best and brightest graduate and postgraduate students from around the world to its cancer science programs.
   
   
2. Idea Grants: Another challenge...is that a number of highly talented investigators have unique ideas about how to prevent and treat cancer, but because their ideas are high risk and not yet tested, they receive little attention from the traditional sources of funding...Thus, though quantum leaps in science are often made by thinking “outside of the box,” funding for the early pursuit of such initiatives is very hard to obtain.
   
   ...The OSUCCC – James will utilize $1 million of the funds raised by Pelotonia 2009 to provide 10 Idea Grants of $100,000 a year. Idea Grants will be awarded through a peer-reviewed process. The success of the Idea Grants will be judged based upon discovery, publication, patents, and subsequent NIH funding.
   
   
3. Faculty Retention and Recruitment: One of the top priorities of OSUCC– James is to recruit and retain talented senior faculty in the basic, translational and clinical arenas...[T]he recruitment of a senior faculty member who is laboratory-based and brings her or his research team to the OSUCCC – James will typically cost $7 million to $10 million, but can easily exceed $10 million depending on the circumstances.
   
   ...[T]o achieve its goal of attracting and retaining more senior faculty, the OSUCCC – James will use the funds from Pelotonia 2009 to build retention and recruitment packages that will attract and retain the most talented faculty members from around the world.  One such way is to provide funds directly to the investigator via a named Professorship, which honors a distinguished physician or scientist with an annual amount of funding for their research operation.
   

(You can read the Plans for Funds Allocation in its entirety at the Pelotonia website.)