CCF recognizes the importance of our local relationships – with families, with the medical community, with area businesses – that are built through the common goal of finding better treatments and cures for children with cancer.
By keeping local, we believe that we bring about more effective grants, better informed programs, quick responsive support and an empowered community to raise awareness and critically-needed funds.
“Having CCF be part of this community is so rich and such a strong asset for researchers in the area. We have a unique opportunity to filter through and collaborate with people in your neighborhood and try and come up with greater ideas to propel the field forward.” – Haneen Shalabi, D.O., formerly of the National Cancer Institute, 2017 CCF Giant Food Next Gen Awardee
RELATIONSHIPS MATTER
CCF recognizes the value in building and strengthening the connection among businesses, families, practitioners and researchers living and working in the MD, D.C. and Northern VA area. Relationships are best built through face-to-face collaboration at the local level.
Corporations and individuals who plan fundraisers to benefit CCF come to know the CCF staff and board, know the local researchers we support and know the local families that have fought, or continue to fight, pediatric cancer. Building those connections also offers donors greater confidence in how their dollars are put to use.
FUNDS PUT TO WORK QUICKLY
A donor can be assured that, within a year, their dollars will be invested in local life-saving research and vital programs. The funds raised through individual giving and corporate sponsorships directly inform the number of grants to award. Further, grant disbursement is typically more efficient due to CCF’s long-standing relationships with the researchers and our partner institutions.
DIRECT FUNDING
CCF Grants are distributed directly to the researcher’s lab, not to the institution. Programs are funded for that year’s activities and as we work closely, can pivot and focus on a more urgent programmatic need as it arises.
EXTRAORDINARY RESEARCH REGION
Finally, our “community” also happens to be one of the leading areas for cancer research in the world. There are five pediatric cancer research institutions, two of them consistently in the “Top 10 Pediatric Cancer Hospitals” in the country, as well as the largest research-oriented hospital in the world. Few places in this country can claim such a concentration of childhood cancer-focused practitioners, researchers, fellows, and students. CCF has institutionalized collaboration among researchers in the region with the Annual CCF Research Symposium.
