California · Nonprofit
CANCER FOR COLLEGE
CANCER FOR COLLEGE (California) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,394,762 to it, the largest being FERRELL-PAULIN FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($885,000). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.2M
- Funders on record
- 57
- Grants received
- $3.4M
- Net assets
- $18M
What Cancer for College does
Mission
At Cancer for College, our mission is simple yet profound: to provide hope and inspiration to cancer survivors through academic scholarships, medical debt relief, and educational experiences.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Cancer for College provides need-based college scholarships, educational experiences and medical debt relief to cancer survivors. College scholarships: scholars must be attending an accredited college, university or trade school in the united states. Scholars must be a survivor of cancer and have a household income of $150,000 or less. A survivor is determined as someone who has been diagnosed either currently or previously with cancer. Since inception in 1993, Cancer for College has awarded more than $7 million and 1,700 scholarships to cancer survivors all across the united states. Each year we award many general, nationwide scholarships as well as several specialty scholarships. Educational experiences: we are committed to empowering our scholars not only through their academic journeys but also beyond. Our educational programs are meant to connect, educate, and enrich the lives of our scholars through personalized curricula designed for their holistic development. Medical debt relief : we also launched a pilot program to address medical debt among our scholarship recipients, reducing scholars' medical debt by over 75%.
$1,867,267 spentof which $1,284,547 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,867,267.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $13M to $16M (+22%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
136% of CANCER FOR COLLEGE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (51% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $327k → $632k.
16 of 57 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of CANCER FOR COLLEGE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 57 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
CANCER FOR COLLEGE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
63% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund CANCER FOR COLLEGE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 77% · 2018 23% · 2019 37% · 2020 79% · 2021 29% · 2022 32% · 2023 47% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
27% of CANCER FOR COLLEGE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 37% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
55% of CANCER FOR COLLEGE's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.5M that is directly attributable, 73% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
CANCER FOR COLLEGE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 8,121 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 8,121 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like CANCER FOR COLLEGE
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
61% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
38%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 27 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CANCER FOR COLLEGE: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds CANCER FOR COLLEGE?
- CANCER FOR COLLEGE (California) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,394,762 to it, the largest being FERRELL-PAULIN FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($885,000). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CANCER FOR COLLEGE have?
- IRS filings report 57 organizations giving $3,394,762 in grants to CANCER FOR COLLEGE, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CANCER FOR COLLEGE?
- FERRELL-PAULIN FAMILY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $885,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CANCER FOR COLLEGE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Cancer for College →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 57 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing