What We Fund



With only 4 percent of federal cancer funding dedicated to childhood cancer, your support of Children’s Cancer Research Fund is crucial to finding safer, more effective therapies for kids battling cancer. Please donate now.

Here is how we use your donations to advance childhood cancer research, services and awareness.

We fund innovative and promising research.

Launching New Ideas

We give seed grants for innovative research projects that hold great promise but don’t yet qualify for federal or larger funding. Without this support, many brilliant ideas wouldn’t move forward. Read about the latest research advancements.

Filling Funding Gaps

Gaps in research funding slow down or halt potentially lifesaving projects. We fill these funding gaps so we can bring better treatments to kids more quickly.

Your dollar could be the dollar that uncovers a cure. Every $1 donated helps researchers secure $18 of additional funding from the government and other sources.

Turning Clinical Trials into Standard Treatments

Clinical trials are critical to providing kids with options when they’ve exhausted the existing treatment protocols. These trials also test novel treatments that lead to new and improved therapies for kids with cancer everywhere.

Fostering Collaboration

We collaborate with leading researchers who stay keenly attuned to the ever-changing landscape of cancer research. The research we fund is shared with more than 9,000 experts around the globe, helping accelerate promising discoveries.

Training the Next Generation of Researchers

Fewer doctors are choosing a career in hematology/oncology, so we’re helping attract and train researchers by funding emerging scientists and fellowships that build experience and expertise. For more than 35 years, we’ve funded over 90 fellows who are working around the world to create safer, more effective treatments for kids.

Taking Care of Survivors

There are more childhood cancer survivors than ever before, but many of those children suffer from late effects of cancer treatment including infertility, hearing loss, brain damage, vision loss, heart problems and more. We fund research that works to understand these effects and care for children beyond their diagnosis and treatment.

We enhance healing and care for families.

Childhood cancer affects the whole family, so we provide funding for quality of life services to enhance healing and care.

 

We educate the world about childhood cancer.

On average, every dollar we award for research creates an additional $18 secured in federal or other grants. Just one dollar could be THE dollar that changes everything for a family affected by cancer, so it’s more important than ever that we spread the word about childhood cancer and raise awareness. Please donate to Children’s Cancer Research fund now.

We also foster education between researchers by supporting collaborative conferences and lectureships.

What We Fund

Our unique approach to funding research and support programs makes us the organization where your donation, big or small, will stretch as far as possible. To ensure this, we focus our funding in three main areas:

We fund innovative and promising research.

We fund research at institutions nationwide, focusing on projects that allow researchers to prove their idea, then reach for even larger grants. Federal funding sources often don’t fund projects until much later in the process. Our goal is to “unstick” these great ideas by closing that funding gap.

Beau Webber, PhD

We enhance healing and care for families.

We understand that when a child is diagnosed with cancer, it affects the whole family. That’s why we fund programs that help families find joy and support during and after cancer treatment, from peer support groups to camps to programs for caregivers and siblings.

Jose - Cancer survivor with CC Bear

We educate the world about childhood cancer.

Today’s cancer treatments for kids can be safer and more effective -but not without your help. Through stories of families fighting cancer and researchers who won’t stop looking for answers, we educate the world about we can do to create a world without childhood cancer.

Liam - Cancer Survivor

Apply for a Research Grant

We fund research in these areas: hard-to-treat cancers, survivorship and health disparities. Learn more about our research granting process and apply here.

Learn More

You’re helping us remove roadblocks and move innovative research forward.

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We’re committed to making sure as much of your donation as possible goes towards our mission.

We fund the most promising research at institutions around the country.

All of our beneficiaries since 2016

Baylor College of Medicine

Case Western Reserve University - School of Medicine

Childhood Cancer & Leukemia International Consortium (CLIC)

Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute

Children's Minnesota

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Children's National Health System

Children's Oncology Group

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta - Egleston

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Children's Hospital Colorado

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Indiana University

Johns Hopkins University

Katie Hageboeck Children's Cancer Research Fund Clinic

Lurie Children's Hospital

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Seattle Children's Research Institute

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital

University of Alabama at Birmingham

University of California - San Francisco

University of Chicago

University of Miami

University of Minnesota

University of Pittsburgh

University of Rochester

University of Texas - San Antonio

University of Texas - Southwestern

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

University of Virginia

Vanderbilt University

Virginia Commonwealth

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Washington University in St. Louis

Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Research Updates