Colorectal Cancer Blog

What's the ROI?

Why do we choose to help?  I mean, really—why do we choose to help others?  It isn’t self-interest.  That dollar we gave the guy on the street could have bought a cup of coffee (OK—I buy cheap coffee).  That hour we spent tutoring a child could have been spent relaxing in front of the television.  That bag of clothes donated to the local thrift shop could have been sold on eBay for a few extra bucks.

When you invest in the stock market or buy a lottery ticket you expect a return on your investment.  When you invest in people’s lives the return on investment is different, yet—in my experience—more real, more lasting, more valuable. 

The Colon Cancer Alliance is, at its heart, about investing in people.  Our donors send money to us that they could have used putting gas in their car.  Our volunteers take time out of their lives to promote screening, to listen to a patient, to walk a 5k path in their boxer shorts (shameless plug for the Undy 5000!) when they could have used that time catching a nap.  Some donors and some volunteers make significant investments in the organization.  This is different from charity, from the coins we toss to people who are needy or the used books we donate to the library fund.  This is real investment, genuine “give-‘til-it-hurts” stuff.  People on chemo who put together a fundraising event.  People who make significant donations to remember their loved one.  People who remember CCA in their will.  People who put in hours of volunteer time every week to help others affected by colorectal cancer. 

Why do this?  Because the return on investment is huge.  Imagine a husband who has waited decades for retirement, only to find that his wife is diagnosed with cancer at age 64.  What does it mean to that man that he can pick up a phone and call someone who understands his absolute terror, someone who can give him information, support, care, hope?  Imagine a daughter whose father isn’t around to walk her down the aisle, whose father succumbed to cancer too soon.  What does it mean that this young woman can turn her wedding into an opportunity to create a fund in her father’s name?  A fund that will help spread the word about screening so other young women won’t have to walk the aisle alone?

These investments are not about margins and puts and calls and commodities and mutual funds.  These investments are about life and death, about hope and despair.   Every dime given, every minute volunteered brings us one step closer to ending the suffering caused by colorectal cancer.  Now that’s a return on investment that we can all treasure.

Field of Dreams

I lay awake last night worrying about money.

When I came to CCA just over a year ago, I sent a survey out to hundreds of our members, asking for feedback on where we should go.  Two messages were clear:  do more outreach so other patients can benefit from your programs; and, do more about screening.

For the past several months, we at CCA have been working to do exactly that.  We updated our logo and website so our “look” reflects the quality of service and care we provide.  We created a new screening tool, modeled after a lottery card.  We started the groundwork for a new 5k run/walk event.  We started reaching out to companies about doing promotions around awareness for colorectal cancer. 

The good news is, all of this is working.  We now get 30,000 hits to our website a week!  We have placed stories about the importance of screening in newspapers, magazines, and on television.  And already other cities are contacting us asking when we can bring the Undy 5000 to their location.

I am absolutely convinced these initiatives, and others, will change the landscape for this disease.  I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is the right path for the Colon Cancer Alliance, and—far more important--that the path will lead to transformational change in the level of attention paid to this disease. 

All this work takes time and money, however, and so far these things are costing us more money than we are bringing in.

So I find myself worrying about the most stupid, silly thing—money.  Vision is so rare these days.  Passion is hard to find.  Commitment and sacrifice are in short supply.  Yet when I look the CCA staff and volunteers, I see these things in abundance. 

In contrast, money is everywhere.  Most experts estimate that in the United States alone, around 9 million households have net worth of over $1 million.  In a country where a man can spend $80,000 on prostitutes, where we spend over $250 billion on fast food a year, surely enough money is around to save tens of thousands of people from having to go through cancer treatment.

So I have taken a risk.  In response to the request (or demands!) of patients, I have pushed for investment in programs that have the potential to elevate the dialogue about this disease.  These programs will change the world.  They may also run us to poverty.  But given that every day of every month of every year, over 100 people die in this country simply because they weren’t screened, how could we stand by and do nothing?

The movie Field of Dreams made famous the line, “If you build it, he will come.”  I believe that.  We have built something big and bold that has the capacity to change the world.  I absolutely believe that the money to keep it going will, indeed, come. 

I also still lie awake at night.