1nterceptor

If Lance Armstrong went to jail and Livestrong went away, that would be a huge setback in our war against cancer, right? Not exactly, because the *famous nonprofit donates almost *nothing to scientific research. BILL GIFFORD looks at where the money goes and finds a mix of fine ideas, millions of dollars aimed at “awareness,” and a few very blurry lines.

Full article:
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor...ts.html?page=1

sleepy

Better put on your Flame-******ant suit...........

Good article, by the way.

jeffpoulin

How much is celebrity promotion worth? Or one's time? Or do donations only count in dollars?

giantcfr1

Good stories have a balanced report. Maybe the guy should have interviewed the Livestrong reps and reported both sides. Then the readers could draw their own conclusions instead of the writer`s only.

Velo Dog

No surprise to me. I've never met Lance, but in my job I've dealt with many professional athletes. It takes a lot of drive and ego to get to the top in sports. No reason he should be an exception to the Self-Centered Prick rule.

DXchulo

Celebrity promotion isn't worth anything if you're specifically talking about cancer research. Same goes for his time unless he's been going to school since he retired.

If you're talking about "awareness" you may have a point.

max power

Cancer research isn't exactly lacking in funding at this point as (i apologize for sounding insensitive) it's a potential cash cow for investors/pharmas/researchers.

https://www.livestrong.org/What-We-Do...the-Money-Goes

here's where i ended up after reading that article. simple minds draw simple conclusions.

wkg

Nowhere in the article is there any good evidence to back up that point. The author might point out some unnecessary expenditures but at no point does he add it all up and compare it to the total. He never provides any meaningful numbers as evidence. What a stupid article. 12 pages of meaningless drivel. I can't believe I even read that awful piece of journalism.

I'm not even a Lance fan nor do I really care about non profit support of cancer research.

Dumb article by a dumb author for a dumb magazine.

markjenn

I doubt Livestrong would have any issues with the factual information provided.

What I find a little one-sided is that the author wants to paint Livestrong as being duplicitous by not directly supporting cancer research. To people who only listen to sound bytes, this sounds like another charity that spends $0.98 of every contributed dollar on fundraising. In actuality, Livestrong is very upfront that they use their money not on basic cancer research (which is already VERY well funded by other organizations, probably to the point of vastly diminishing returns), but on helping victims of cancer get appropriate treatment and survive the disease. I'm not an expert, but this sounds like a good strategy. The author pays only passing lip service to the fact that Livestrong has been evaluated by several independent organizations that found it be doing a an overall pretty good job using contributions effectively and efficiently to help victims of the disease.

That Livestrong and Armstrong exist in a somewhat symbiotic relationship where each is enhanced by the other's success is hardly big news either, in fact, it is barely noteworthy.

This sounds like someone digging for scandal and after finding none, decides to spin the basic mission of Livestrong to be scandalous. I think you could find a lot more dirt on the American Cancer Society than Livestrong.

I think the author was pressing badly for a story here. And it makes me have less respect for Outside that they'd publish it.

- Mark

bigfred 

From its very inception Lance stated that the purpose of Livestrong was not to donate cash toward anything, but, to develop and use its resource to promote public awareness and through that influence decission makers both public and private who collectively control far more money than Livestrong could ever hope to raise.

With that as a starting point,........hmmmmmmmmmm. Sounds like Lance could be found guilty of doing exactly what he said he was going to do.

Painful Chafe

The media report both sides of an issue? Those days are long over.

I think the government should outlaw all charities and tax everyone just a little more to take care of the needy. It's the only fair way, of course. I'm sure the media would have glowing praise of a turd of an idea like that.

a1penguin

Charity Navigator rating. There are many aspects to cancer. Eliminating it completely isn't imminent. It's important to help those that have the disease too. Shame on people who fail to read the mission statement of organizations they contribute to.

lazerzxr

Awareness is money well spent as it leads to prevention. Better to prevent than cure

mark1974

lol

LemondFanForeve

No surprise about Livestrong. The only "donations" Livestrong makes, are to a gentlemen named Lance Armstrong.

mark1974

do u guys like lance?

znomit

So patients get info on how to extract the max dollars from their insurance companies and get funneled towards clinical trials.

Looks like big pharma does pretty well out of them.

LowCel 

Please show actual evidence to back this up, that is a pretty strong statement.

LowCel 

I've gotten to the point that I don't like or dislike him. I do have tremendous respect for what he has done though.

patentcad

Incorrect. Read the entire Outside Magazine article genius. Just because Livestrong no long supports cancer research doesn't mean the organization doesn't support cancer patients and awareness.

The Lance bashing that goes on here is as stupid as the Lance worship.

ahsposo 

Correct.

Andy Somnifac 

Talk to the people who have been helped by Livestrong's patient and family support programs and get back to us. As others have said, donating directly to research is just part of the puzzle.

Why this belongs on a forum about bikes, not cancer, is beyond me.

Andy Somnifac 

Double plus correct.

canam73

He did.

pallen

I heard that Armstrong guy likes bikes, does that count?