Where Your Money Goes

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) takes great care in placing your donation where it truly belongs: in the hands of scientists working on breakthroughs in cancer research. The role of the AACR Foundation is to raise funds to support this critical work. We strive to keep expenses low to ensure that your donation makes the highest possible impact.

Here are just a few of the AACR’s recent accomplishments:

  • Since 1993, the AACR has awarded more than $547 million in grants to more than 3,400 scientists for research projects that aim to advance the understanding and treatment of cancer. AACR grants support researchers domestically and abroad at every stage of their careers, representing a global commitment to cancer prevention, early detection, interception, and cure. The AACR has worked with more than 70 scientific and funding partners to make these transformative grants possible.
  • The AACR hosts more than 30 scientific conferences and educational workshops annually to convene the brightest minds in cancer research and medicine—advancing our understanding of cancer and facilitating the exchange of cutting-edge research.
  • More than 22,000 researchers, physician-scientists, patient advocates, and others from 81 countries who represented the full cancer continuum gathered in Chicago for the AACR Annual Meeting 2025—the most important cancer research meeting in the world.
  • Significant additions to the AACR Project GENIE registry this year bring the total number of de-identified genomic records to approximately 229,000 sequenced samples from more than 196,000 patients—making it among the largest fully public cancer genomic data sets released to date.
  • The 14th annual AACR Cancer Progress Report was released at a briefing in Washington, D.C., in September 2024. This report is critical to our efforts to increase the public’s understanding of the progress against cancer, while also advocating for increased funding from the federal government to fuel and accelerate this progress. 
  • The AACR has a long history of advancing cancer health equity through programs and initiatives like grant giving, the trailblazing Cancer Health Disparities conference, and the first-of-its-kind Cancer Disparities Progress Report.

Financial Documentation

We provide transparency to assure our members and our donors that these dollars are used wisely. The AACR and the AACR Foundation are 501(c)(3) public charities as determined by the Internal Revenue Service. Audited financial statements providing an accurate view of the combined operations of the AACR and the AACR Foundation, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and our latest IRS-990 tax exempt returns can be found here: