Thank you for offering to answer some of my questions.
Financial
Has the Foundation, or its related entities, loaned, co-signed, or otherwise guaranteeing a purchase or investment of a board member, principal, officer or related entity/person?
Livestrong has a number of financial/investment professional on its board. Has the foundation ever invested foundation funds with a principal, board member, officer, or related entity? If yes what was the performance of those investments?
What is the financial performance of the Foundation's general fund over the last 3 years?
Travel expenses
The 2009 travel expenses for Livestrong total almost $2 million ($1,922,995). This is very high for a charity the size of Livestrong. For comparison, the National Cancer Coalition, with 5 times as much money raised, only claimed $108,559 in travel expenses. Livestrong does many events so I looked at the travel costs of a cancer charity that also does many events, Susan G Koman. They had travel costs that were about 2 times that of Livestrong ($4,260,354) but their revenue was 10 times as much ($298,685,007)
Does the foundation, or related entities, ever pay for private plane travel for any of its officers, principals, or board members?
Does the foundation, or related entities, ever pay for any private plane related costs, i.e. fuel, landing costs, hanger fees, maintenance, pilot salaries, charter etc?
Does the Foundation have a written travel policy covering the types and pricing of accommodations and transportation used while traveling? Are there ever exceptions to these policies?
Livestrong U23 cycling team
What is the financial relationship between the foundation and the Livestrong U23 cycling team?
Does the team receive a financial contribution from the Foundation?
If yes how large is the contribution and where does this expense fall on the balance sheet? Would it be advertising or a program cost?
Advertising
For 2009 Livestorng spent $4,000,000 on advertising. I would expect that advertising is an important vehicle for a foundation like Livestrong whose mission is awareness. I would expect that the goal would be to drive people to Livestrong’s primary education source, it’s website.
According to Alexa traffic to the For Profit .com is exploding, while the foundations traffic is flat.
Livestrong spent $6,500,000 on advertising in the past 2 years. What is the primary goal of this advertising?
What are the measureables of Livestrong’s advertising spend?
What have been the top 10 advertising campaigns, based on financial investment, for Livestrong over the past 3 years?
What is the currently spend with related companies? For example
http://www.bazaarvoice.com/ a company funded by Livestrong board members. What is Livestrong's, or related entities, annual spend with Bazaar Voice?
Corporate structure
Livestrong has what could be seen as a confusing corporate structure. Why is the foundation split into separate arms, such as for merchandise and for events? Most experts say there is no need to do this. Some Universities are non-profits and they can sell t-shirts and host events. The most obvious reason is this structure designed to consolidate the revenue in one arm and split the expenses among several, giving a better rating on charity ranking sites . Given that two of the separate arms (LAF merchandise and LAF events) essentially give all their money to the main arm (LAF) would the performance of the charity be more accurately reflected if there was only one entity?
Promotion of cancer causing products
Alcohol
Alcohol consumption has been linked with multiple types of cancer: mouth cancer, pharyngeal cancer, oesophageal cancer, laryngeal cancer, breast cancer, bowel cancer and liver cancer. A global study found that 3.6% of all cancer cases worldwide are caused by drinking alcohol, resulting in 3.5% of all global cancer deaths. For both men and women, the consumption of two or more drinks daily increases the risk of pancreatic cancer by 22%.Even Moderate drinker are at risk, they were 67% more likely to get stomach cancer.
Given Livestrong stated goal is to raise awareness of the disease is there concern within the foundation that it's chief spokesperson is also the paid spokesperson for a product show to increase cancer risk?
HGH
Recently there has been much in the press about the
significant cancer risks of HGH. It is surprising that much of the advertising on livestrong.com is for
"Doctors" who push HGH "Cures".
Is the foundation concerned about the conflict of promoting products that could significantly increase the likelihood of Cancer while trying to raise awareness of it?
Thank you for your time. Iet me know if you have any questions and I look forward to your input.
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