The Hope Foundation

The goal of The Hope Foundation is to support real progress in cancer treatments and prevention as led by SWOG. This is achieved through direct trial support of innovative treatment and prevention clinical trials, competitive research grants programs, Fellowships and training for new investigators, and ACCME-accredited educational programs for oncologists.

Each year, we measure our success through a Board-driven review of program metrics, including study successes or challenges, participant and community surveys, progress and publication on grants awarded, and funding percentage in relation to administrative costs. We strive to keep fundraising costs low (less than 3%), and overhead at less than 9%.

The Foundation employs a number of strategies to ensure we meet our goals:
- Our active Board of Directors is comprised of SWOG and community leaders, ensuring programming meets the unified goals of researchers and patients.
-We work directly with SWOG leadership to determine how to efficiently raise money and disburse grants with the most impact.
- We support grantees with educational opportunities, and expect them to be actively involved with the future of SWOG.
-We understand that though the field of cancer research has accelerated greatly, there is so much more to do. Active support and funding for Young Investigator's is one of our key initiatives.
-We believe that basic science will unlock new cures, and invest in bringing these findings directly into clinical practice.
- We maintain a small staff at our main office, and do not indulge in fancy gimmicks or marketing.

The Hope Foundation is lead by an engaged Board of Directors who are international leaders in cancer research, patient advocacy, fundraising, and law. SWOG has been supported by the National Cancer Institute since 1956, and by Hope since 1993.

The Hope Foundation and SWOG understand that there is so much more to be done for our patients, but also know that cancer research is expensive and sometimes a financial risk. We have been very successful in funding programs that lead to a change in the practice of cancer treatment or prevention, but we have also funded programs that have not progressed as quickly as we would expect.

SWOG runs approximately 100 clinical trials at any given time. Hope strives to support any worthy trial that requires supplemental or sole source funding. Since we began, we have awarded over $30 to SWOG, including 95 Young Investigators since 2000, 18 Coltman Fellowships since 2009, and 25 SWOG Impact Awards since 2011.