New York · Nonprofit
CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION
CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 159 organizations whose IRS filings report $29,763,826 to it, the largest being THE BAKEWELL FOUNDATION ($3,389,228). 93 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $55M
- Funders on record
- 159
- Grants received
- $30M
- Net assets
- $135M
What Cancer Research Fund of the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Foundation does
Mission
To accelerate breakthroughs by providing today's best young scientists with funding to pursue innovative cancer research. The foundation's goals are to identify and fund the best and brightest early-career scientists in cancer research; enable them to take risks on bold new ideas; and accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into new ways to prevent or cure all forms of cancer. Its internationally recognized and highly competitive grant programs are designed to achieve these goals.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Fellowship awards: supports the training of the brightest postdoctoral scientists as they embark upon their research careers. This funding enables them to be trained by established investigators in leading research laboratories across the country, while independently conducting leading-edge science that will bring new understanding and cures for cancer.
$8,950,287 spentof which $8,076,239 as grants40% of program spendingClinical investigator awards: supports early career physician-scientists conducting patient-oriented research. The goal of this program is to increase the number of physicians capable of moving seamlessly between the laboratory and the patient's bedside in search of breakthrough treatments.
$4,440,990 spentof which $4,030,412 as grants20% of program spendingRachleff innovation awards: supports the next generation of exceptionally creative thinkers with "high risk/high reward" ideas that have the potential to significantly impact our understanding of and/or approaches to the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer, but lack sufficient preliminary data to obtain traditional funding.
$3,514,664 spentof which $3,194,644 as grants16% of program spendingThe damon runyon-st. Jude pediatric cancer research fellowship award: in partnership with st. Jude children's research hospital, this award provides funding to early career scientists conducting research with the potential to significantly impact the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of one or more pediatric cancers.
$2,032,178 spentof which $1,826,095 as grants9% of program spendingQuantitative biology fellowship awards: this award program is designed to encourage quantitative scientists (trained in fields such as mathematics, computer science, physics, engineering, and others) to pursue research careers in computational biology under the joint mentorship of leaders in both computational science ("dry lab") and cancer biology ("wet lab"). By investing in this area, damon runyon will bring additional attention to the importance of these specially trained scientists for making meaningful progress in cancer biology.
$1,267,965 spentof which $1,153,426 as grants6% of program spendingPhysician-scientist training awards: supports and encourages outstanding physicians to pursue cancer research careers by providing them with the opportunity for a protected research training experience under the mentorship of a highly qualified and gifted mentor.
$1,267,335 spentof which $1,144,849 as grants6% of program spendingDale f. Frey awards: awards are given to the most outstanding fellows completing their fellowship award, in the amount of $100,000 each, to accelerate their research and careers.
$538,012 spentof which $495,240 as grants2% of program spendingSpark scholars: provides outstanding recent college graduates with the potential to become scientific leaders with a financial stipend, intensive laboratory training, a network of mentors and peers, and other resources to support their next career steps.
$279,698 spentof which $249,130 as grants1% of program spending
The 8 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $22,291,129.
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 2021 to 2022, from $176M to $144M (−18%).
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: 2023 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
30% of CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (7% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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.
Chief executive
Yung S Lie Phd
President & CEO
Board chair
Andrew S Rachleff
Chair (as of 10/15/24)
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 41 funders to 60 funders, grant income rose $2.5M → $3.4M.
28 of 159 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 159 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 RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
52% 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 RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 17% · 2019 24% · 2020 14% · 2021 17% · 2022 14% · 2023 17% — 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
44% of CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION draws 66% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 19 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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 RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,969 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,969 health nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION: 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 RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION?
- CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION (New York) receives grants from 159 organizations whose IRS filings report $29,763,826 to it, the largest being THE BAKEWELL FOUNDATION ($3,389,228). 93 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 159 organizations giving $29,763,826 in grants to CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION, 93 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION?
- THE BAKEWELL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,389,228 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CANCER RESEARCH FUND OF THE DAMON RUNYON-WALTER WINCHELL FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Research Fund of the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 159 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing