The American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities is the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Its sole mission is to raise the funds and awareness necessary to operate and maintain St. Jude. ALSAC is the largest healthcare related charity in the United States. The National Executive Office is located in Memphis, Tennessee. ALSAC also has over 30 local fundraising offices located in cities throughout the United States that hold over 30,000 fundraising events annually.
Purpose and activities
As of 2017, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital requires more than $2.4 million in operating costs each day, and public contributions provide more than 75 percent of the funds necessary to operate the hospital. Only 14% of the money to operate the hospital comes from insurance recoveries and 9% comes from grants. To cover these costs, ALSAC has been raising more than $1 billion annually for the hospital through its more than 30,000 fund-raising activities. These include the FedEx St. Jude Classic, which is a PGA Tour event and one of the most visible fund-raising events for the hospital. Other fund-raising programs include the St. Jude Math-A-Thon, Up 'til Dawn, direct mailings, radiothons and television marketing. St. Jude also has a merchandise catalog called the Hope Catalog. The catalog contains everything from shirts to office items, and from patient art to "Give Thanks" wristbands. One of the hospital's most recent and successful fund-raising efforts has been the Dream Home Giveaway. The giveaway allows contest entrants to reserve tickets for $100 each to qualify to win homes valued up to $500,000. The Dream Home Giveaway, one of the largest national fund-raising programs, is conducted in cities across the United States. In November 2004, St. Jude launched its inaugural Thanks and Giving campaign which encourages consumers to help raise funds at participating retailers by adding a donation at checkout or by purchasing specialty items to benefit St. Jude. The campaign is supported by network television spots, advertisements in major publications, featured content on the TODAY show, interactive marketing on AOL and a movie trailer that runs on 20,000 screens nationwide. St. Jude has been named one of two International Philanthropic Projects of Epsilon Sigma Alpha International, a women's service sorority. Since 1972, ESA has raised more than $200 million for St. Jude.
Fund usage
From 2013 to 2016, 81 cents of every dollar received has supported the research and treatment at St. Jude. In FY2016, 72% of ALSAC and St. Jude expenses were allocated to program services. The above statement conflates ALSAC and St. Jude, however. More precisely, as a separate entity, ALSAC's FY2016 IRS Form 990 for FYE 6/30/2016 shows that of the $1.156 billion of Fundraising Revenue, only $807 million was granted to the St. Jude Hospital. This represents only 69.8% of Fundraising Revenue to St. Jude for FY2016. Total ALSAC Revenue for FY2016 was $1.260 billion; this includes Fundraising Revenue of $1.156 billion, Investment Returns of $104 million, and Other Revenue of $26 million. Using ALSAC Total Revenue of $1.260 billion, St. Jude Hospital received 64% of ALSAC Revenue in FY2016.
