About this organisation
Summary of activities
RCD's mission is to drive global paediatric brain cancer research advancements and support young patients while they are on their brain cancer journey. The financial result for 2024 was a deficit, arising from the significant investment of $2.1M made in funding world leading research projects, through grants made to fund beneficiaries. Excluding the impact of expenditure to fund beneficiaries, the foundation made a surplus of $966k. In addition to funding two PhD students, two postdoctoral fellows, a molecular oncologist and supporting two paediatric brain tumour cancer biobanks, we invested in a new team to design, develop and trial a mRNA vaccine against paediatric brain cancer. Involving multiple Australian and US partners, this large initiative uses cutting edge technology to advance immunotherapy for kids with brain cancer. We have enabled 297 children (including 55 Australian patients) to participate in clinical trials through our continued co-funding of four international and one national trial and supported 9 researchers to attend 5 international and 4 national conferences with our travel grants. Through our industry memberships with like-minded charities, we lobbied the NDIS to reinstate approvals for brain cancer patients to receive support and have advocated for a dedicated brain cancer care coordinator program as part of the Australian Cancer Nursing Navigation Program. Moreover, we delivered 317 music therapy in-home sessions to 28 children, adolescents and young adults with brain cancer in this period supporting them on their cancer journey.
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Outcomes
Outcomes are self-reported by charities
Programs and activities
Name: RCD Travel Grant Program
URL: https://rcdfoundation.org/travel-grants/
Classification: Brain cancer (Health > Diseases and conditions > Cancers > Brain cancer)
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Research Conference Sponsorship Program
URL: rcdfoundation.org
Classification: Brain cancer (Health > Diseases and conditions > Cancers > Brain cancer)
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Clinical Trials Program
URL: rcdfoundation.org
Classification: Brain cancer (Health > Diseases and conditions > Cancers > Brain cancer)
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Research Infrastructure Support Program
URL: rcdfoundation.org
Classification: Brain cancer (Health > Diseases and conditions > Cancers > Brain cancer)
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Research Careers Program
URL: rcdfoundation.org
Classification: Brain cancer (Health > Diseases and conditions > Cancers > Brain cancer)
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Impactus Program
Classification: Brain cancer (Health > Diseases and conditions > Cancers > Brain cancer)
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Research and Brain Cancer Awareness Advocacy Program
URL: https://rcdfoundation.org
Classification: Brain cancer (Health > Diseases and conditions > Cancers > Brain cancer)
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- People with chronic illness (including terminal illness)
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Music Therapy
URL: https://rcdfoundation.org/music-therapy/
Classification: Art and music therapy (Health > Rehabilitation > Art and music therapy )
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- People with chronic illness (including terminal illness)
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Finances
What is this?
This graph shows how much revenue (money in) and expenses (money out) the charity has had each year over the last few years. Charities have many sources of revenue, such as donations, government grants, and services they sell to the public. Similarly, expenses are everything that allows the charity to run, from paying staff to rent.
What should I be looking for?
First off, this graph gives a general indication of how big the charity is - charities range in size from tiny (budgets of less than $100,000) to enormous (budgets more than $100 million). You're also looking for variability - if the charity's revenue and expenses are jumping up and down from year to year, make sure there's a good reason for it.
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want revenue to be slightly above expenses. If expenses is reliably above revenue, the charity is losing money. If revenue is much larger than expenses, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
If a charity receives more money than it spends, that's a surplus (in business, it would be called profit). If it spends more than it receives, that's a deficit. This chart shows surpluses and deficits for the charity over the last few years.
What should I be looking for?
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want a charity to make a small surplus on average. A deficit means that charity lost money that year, which may indicate poor financial management or just a series of bad circumstances. If the charity always has a huge surplus, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
This chart compares the amount the charity receives from various sources, including donations (i.e. money given by the general public or philanthropy), goods and services, government grants, and other sources.
What should I be looking for?
Donations are an important source of revenue for some charities. Others rely more heavily on government funding, or on revenue from other sources. This is an indication of how much they need donors to accomplish their mission. Note that there is no 'good' or 'bad' amount of donations for a charity to have. It might be interesting to look at values over time - are they going up or down? A charity that gets less donations every year may be in trouble.
What is this?
Assets are things that the charity owns that are worth something. This could be anything from a car to investments. Similarly, liabilities are debts or obligations that the charity owes to someone else, like a loan or an agreement to pay for something.
What should I be looking for?
Firstly, in general a charity should have more assets than liabilities. If it doesn't, it implies that the charity might not be able to pay its debts, and you should look very closely at the charity's annual and financial reports to make sure they are taking steps to remedy this. Current assets should generally be above current liabilities - that means the charity can easily pay off the debts that are coming due soon. Beyond that, look for a large stockpile of assets. While a charity should have enough assets to keep it afloat in hard times (a 'buffer') if that stockpile gets too large the charity could be using that money more effectively. As always, if you have concerns check the annual and financial reports.
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