Raising $763,731

That is the number I put before the YACC board of directors last week as I presented our 2010-11 business plan and financial projections.  Yes, I propose that YACC will raise just over ¾ of $1M this year. 

Ambitious?  Yes.  Doable?  Definitely!

To put that in perspective, we’ll end our 2009-10 financial year with around $590,000 generated in revenue, which is an increase of 36% from 2008-09, when we raised $432,000. 

While we aim to raise more than $763K we will also aim to spend at least $694,925 meeting our mission to help every young adult dealing with cancer in Canada by providing inspiration, information and support.  Any surplus will be allocated to the following year’s activities.

The highlights of this year’s budget on the expense side are as follows:
- Retreat Yourself – May 27-31st in BC
- Survive & Thrive Expedition – July 15-27th in Oregon, US
- Survivor Conference – November 4-8th in NL
- Goaltender (YACC’s survivorship care plan) – launch of the web-based planner scheduled for Spring 2010
- Grassroots YACC – continued investment developing YACC programs at the local level
- Touch Yourself, Trust Yourself – continued roll out of this cool early detection program for young adults

On the revenue side:
- The Shave for the Brave projection is $416,250, representing 55% of revenue
- The Major Gifts target is $221,000, up from approximately $161,000 in 2009-10
- Revenue raised by 3rd Party Events/Organizers is targeted at $59,500 (if you are host an annual event think of YACC!)

These numbers are big, especially if you flash back to the early years of YACC.  In our first three years we raised less than $85,000/year.  In addition, if you look at other national charities many raise millions, tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars to support their respective missions.

I raise this not to undermine the amazing progress we’ve made to date, as I do believe it’s amazing, but I raise it to reaffirm my belief that our best is yet to come.  It is my view we have a responsibility to make that belief reality.  A responsibility to the more than 6,500 young adults diagnosed this year and the tens of thousands of survivors living beyond their cancer experience, many of whom are still very much in need of support and advocacy.

This responsibility is not a burden but a source of inspiration to come to work every day and do our collective best to realize the ambitious targets set out in our business plan, approved by our board last week.

I have said this every year, and to date I have never been wrong… this will be another defining year in the life of YACC.

Always… live life. Love life.
Geoff