New foundation aims to raise more money for cancer in Sask.

Nearly everyone has either been touched by cancer or knows someone who has – now a new organization launched in Saskatchewan aims to raise more money for those people.

Though it’s been the official fundraising partner for the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency since the beginning of the year, on Wednesday morning, the Cancer Foundation of Saskatchewan was officially launched.

It’s an independent, arms-length organization which will take over donations and fundraising for the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency.  The agency works on the ground in Saskatchewan to help treat and support patients.

Nora Yeates was named the new CEO of the foundation. She explained the difference between the foundation and the agency.

“The cancer agency is legislated and mandated to look after the patient. The cancer foundation, we will work with the donor and steward the donor dollars, and ensure that the donor dollars are put to the best use possible for the work of the agency.”

Previously, the cancer agency had accepted donations but didn’t go out to drum up donations. The foundation will be able to do that.

Dr. Jon Tonita, president and CEO of the cancer agency said that’s why his staff is excited about the launch.

“I was walking around this morning and staff are saying ‘I can’t believe today is here, it’s actually here.’ People are really excited about it because I think this is going to be very beneficial for cancer control in our province and the work that we do.”

Yeates explained there could have been privacy concerns if the agency had solicited donations – former patients may have been concerned about the privacy of their health information.

But the foundation won’t have the same access to that private information.

Saskatchewan is a little behind the times in this initiative – this is the first such foundation here but other western provinces have had foundations to raise money for their cancer agencies for decades.

There are only four employees at the Saskatchewan foundation for the time being – Yeates said it’ll likely stay that way for a while to keep costs down.

Yeates wasn’t able to say what percentage of a donation will go to the charity’s goals as opposed to the foundation’s administration as this is the foundation’s first year, but she did say administration costs will be kept under the Canada Revenue Agency’s recommended 35 per cent.