St. Baldrick's Foundation

The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer and donor powered charity committed to supporting the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives.

St. Baldrick's head shaving events began as a challenge between three businessmen and grew from one event in 2000 to currently over 13,000 worldwide raising critical funds for childhood cancer research. Events take place in pubs, restaurants, schools, parks, malls, military bases, firehouses and any other place you can imagine.

But the shaving itself is a means to an end. We shave because kids with cancer often lose their hair during treatment and we stand proudly bald beside them. More importantly, we can accomplish our goal to cure childhood cancer because while shaving, we raise funds for lifesaving research.

“Shavees" sign up on our website, collect money from friends and family and show up at a volunteer-organized event in their community to take their turn in the barber's chair. The events are fun, emotional and bring together a community of support for kids with cancer and their families.

Other strategies we employ include: Do What You Want – For those who choose not to shave but raise money with creative fundraisers; Hero Funds – Honor a loved one with a fund where money raised will be credited and from which grants can be named; Advocacy – Give a voice to St. Baldrick's constituents to advocate for childhood cancer research legislation; Distinguished Giving – Engage donors, partners and supporters to give at a higher level.

With these funds, we make grants in ten different categories. More than 200 pediatric oncology experts participate in the scientific review of research applications, to ensure the funds are going to the best possible research to find cures faster.

Since its inception in 2000, over 580,000 shavees shaved their heads at more than 14,000 St. Baldrick's signature head-shaving events worldwide. This army of volunteers generates 100% of our revenues, enabling the Foundation to emerge as the largest non-government funder of childhood cancer research grants.

St. Baldrick's has committed more than $306 million to lifesaving research since 2005. In three grant cycles every year, we fund local institutions as well as cooperative research on a national scale to help doctors work together to develop the best treatments for all children with cancer. Every grant application goes through a rigorous scientific review process. Thanks to this grant review system that impresses even the experts, we fund only the very best childhood cancer research wherever it takes place and give kids nationwide access to the very latest in research and clinical trials.

To date, we have awarded 1,608 grants for childhood cancer research, supporting virtually every institution in the U.S. that has the expertise to treat childhood cancers – along with institutions in Canada and 29 other countries.

We supported the revolutionary development of Kymriah, the first gene therapy approved in the U.S. for a type of childhood leukemia, and as a result, children are alive today who had no other hope. Our research also enabled ground-breaking progress like the FDA approval of a drug that increases the survival rate of high-risk neuroblastoma, and the use of existing drugs to increase survival of other childhood cancers. Our grants also support the steady improvements in treatments that add up, over time, to more lives saved and to less toxic treatments.

We are partnering with other funders to see that pediatric cancer research moves forward as quickly as possible. Our multi-million dollar St. Baldrick’s - Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) Pediatric Cancer “Dream Team" is using genomics to find targets and create new immunotherapies for childhood cancers. The Dream Team has opened more than 30 clinical trials already, working to expand its extraordinary success in leukemias and to find cures for solid tumors as well. In 2019 we announced a partnership with the American Cancer Society to fund research that helps maximize what is learned from childhood cancer clinical trials. Instead of simply learning that a new treatment works better for a certain percentage of patients, this partnership will fund grants to help researchers learn why – a big step toward making progress for those the trial did not help.

We receive hundreds of grant applications from researchers across the U.S. Each year, our scientific review process results in the approval of approximately $10 million more in grants than we are able to fund. We welcome foundations and donors big and small to partner with us to see that the best research moves forward as quickly as possible, so that every infant, child, teen and young adult will someday survive cancer.

We will continue to use each donor dollar wisely to achieve our mission. Charity rating agencies recommend that fundraising costs per dollar raised be kept under 35%, and special events often cost as much as 50%. Our costs in the fiscal year just ended were a healthy 23% for fundraising and 4% for administration. Our funding model is to reserve and bank funds for multi-year grants at the moment we award them. On our financial books, this appears as a liability which charity rating agencies view as incurred unpaid debt. In reality, we have the money in the bank and are waiting for signed grant agreements before release. This way, St. Baldrick’s honors its commitment to the researchers we fund, no matter what changes in the economy or in our fundraising.