It is the time of the year some of us head to the malls shopping for that perfect holiday gift to give, while others, resistant to fighting the crowds, are going to their computers and shopping. This year there is a Web site that shoppers can link to where a portion of what they spend will be donated back to cancer research. Carol is the executive director of development for the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, located in UI Hospitals and Clinics. Carol,
What sorts of institutes participate in the Cancer Research Alliance (CRA)?
The Cancer Research Alliance is a group of comprehensive cancer centers that formed about four years ago, including James Cancer Center at The Ohio State University in Columbus; Lombardi at Georgetown University in Washington, DC; Lineberger Cancer Center at Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and MD Anderson at Houston; Moffitt at Tampa, Florida; the Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern University in Chicago; Roswell Park in Buffalo, New York; and lastly, the University of California at San Francisco; so we have a large group of cancer centers—sort of a cross-section of America.
How do cancer centers become nationally designated?
They become nationally designated through a very aggressive granting process, where cancer centers apply for a grant and that grant actually has to consist of several different criteria, especially in the areas of laboratory, clinical, and behavioral and population based-research. Cancer centers are expected to initiate and conduct early-phase innovative clinical trials and participate in the NCI’s (National Cancer Institute) cooperative groups by providing leadership and recruiting patients for trials. What an NCI cancer center is is a place where patients in Iowa can come and expect to get the very best expertise and care—not only at our cancer center, but we collaborate with colleagues, scientists, and physicians from across the country from other NCI comprehensive cancer centers.
What organization is CRA working with for holiday shopping?
The holiday shopping organization is the Mall Networks, and they are a group of people who got together who realize that there is a great need for cause-related marketing out there in the marketplace for nonprofit organizations. So it’s a way for nonprofit organizations to have a Web site where people can go and shop and a portion of every purchase will go to support cancer research.
How do consumers access the Mall Networks Web site?
They can do it in one of three ways, and I’ll try to be succinct so that people can write this down. The first way that’s probably easiest is just to go to your Google and type in ShopForCancerCures.org; or they can go to the University of Iowa Health Care Web site and through the University of Iowa Foundation. Also, when you go to those Web sites, look for the buttons that are blue and have snow flakes on them. It says ‘Shop on line. Fill your cart with hope. Support Cancer Research.’
Once they are on the ShopForCancerCures site, what will they see?
When they go to the ShopForCancerCures.org Web site, they will see a home page—a landing page—that has (first of all at the top) all of our cancer centers scrolling through so you know which cancer centers are participating. And then the most fun part is all the retailers. There are over 600 and there are, for example, Overstock.com, Red Envelope, Lands’ End, and each one gives a different percentage toward cancer research. Lands’ End is 5 percent, Red Envelope is 7 percent. There’s Best Buy; there’s Wal-Mart; for the guys in the audience there’s Ace Hardware, there’s Sears; for the ladies who like shoes—like most ladies like shoes—there’s Zappos.com; Toy’s R Us for kids; JC Penney’s; we have Bloomingdale’s. We have Nordstrom, Brooks Brothers, Vista Print, and Office Depot. I would encourage your audience to go online and check out the Web site because the shopping is almost limitless.
How will shopping on the ShopForCancerCures site reflect back to the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center and other CRA institutes around the country?
That’s a very good question. A small percentage from each purchase as I was talking about will come back to the Cancer Research Alliance from that Web site. And you have to shop from that Web site; you just can’t go to like bestbuy.com because they won’t know that any of it goes to support cancer research. It will be shared among the 11 institutions. We are pretty fortunate in Iowa that it’s shared equally among those 11 institutions.
Will money donated from Iowa online shoppers stay in Iowa?
Not just Iowa money. We feel pretty fortunate to be a part of this because we’re in a smaller, rural area and we have a smaller cancer center. So therefore, based on cost marketing efforts through the Alliance, we take advantage of shoppers from Houston and New York City and Chicago and Boston—from all over the country.
How long will the ShopForCancerCures site remain active?
It’s going to remain active—we have an agreement to remain active—for some time. So my suggestion would be to do your holiday shopping, birthday shopping, Valentine’s, Mother’s and Father’s Day, and all of your personal and gift-giving through this site, and a portion of your dollars will support cancer research across America for many months to come. |
