Northern Nevada Children's Cancer Foundation

Our goals:

1. To alleviate the financial burden and emotional strain that comes with the battle against childhood cancer.
2. To enhance and expand public awareness of childhood cancer.
3. To promote research to find a cure.
4. To proactively assist families throughout the treatment journey by connecting them with other national, regional and local resources.

NNCCF provides the following programs and services to help families facing childhood cancer in northern Nevada:

Family Assistance Fund - Assists by providing vital financial support during the child's treatment and follow-up care. Funds help families with items such as medical expenses, mortgage payments, rent, food, utilities, and travel expenses related to treatment.

E-SMART - Offers age-appropriate educational support - such as laptops, tablets, software, and access to educational services - to children and young adults with cancer. The program provides tools to succeed academically and stay socially connected when isolated due to compromised immune systems or if patients struggle with chronic health complications that affect their ability to learn.

Inspire Scholarship Program - Provides scholarships and encouragement to young patients and survivors as they receive cancer treatment, survive cancer, pursue higher education, and seek to return to a sense of normalcy in their lives.

Emotional Support - A childhood cancer diagnosis is a family diagnosis and can be devastating to patients, parents, and siblings. NNCCF provides family outings and access to therapeutic and grief counseling.

NNCCF is the only organization solely dedicated to supporting children with cancer in northern Nevada. As a local organization with no regional or national office, we have 22 years of experience providing financial assistance and emotional support to families as they cope with their child's illness. We are able to provide broad financial support to families immediately, usually within 24 hours, through a simple application process. NNCCF is an efficient and accountable steward of donor resources with 80 percent of expenses funding program activities.

When a child from our area is diagnosed with cancer, in most cases NNCCF is immediately contacted by the patient's social worker or doctor. Our staff has created close relationships with the medical team at treating hospitals to ensure that assistance is available when it is needed most. In the dark hour when parents receive the news that their child has a serious illness, the introduction to NNCCF is a vital source of help, hope, and courage.

Beyond delegating the financial dollars to families, staff is also adept at providing crucial emotional support when a child receives a diagnosis, when a parent needs a voice of experience to talk them through the difficult treatment process or, at the most unimaginable moment for any parent, when a child passes away from their illness. Our staff members are essential to carrying out the mission of NNCCF in the most loving and supportive way possible.

In our efforts to better understand the challenges our families face, NNCCF has a number of members on our Board that have experienced childhood cancer firsthand. In addition, we also have an experienced, local pediatric physician on our Board who offers invaluable information from a medical perspective.

Major Accomplishments (since inception)
• Provided $6 million in financial aid through the Family Assistance Fund
• Awarded $664,00 through the Inspire Scholarship Program
• Raised $3.3 million for research by shaving 4,569 heads at our Shave for the Brave events