We are an independent and forward-thinking community of people, where ideas and charity come together to make a difference in the fight against all cancers
Cancer Council NSW Strategic directions 2010–2014 Together we can beat cancer
Our role and purpose We are an independent and forward-thinking community of people, where ideas and charity come together to make a difference in the fight against all cancers.
Our vision
Cancer defeated Our vision will be realised when lives are not cut short nor the quality of life diminished by cancer.
Our mission
To defeat cancer through engaging the community Cancer Council NSW connects people and organisations to the cancer cause. Together we can build insights into the significance of cancer in our lives and contribute our talents towards the vision of cancer defeated. We work across all cancers. The impact from our work together will be visible in changing:
• the lives of cancer patients and carers • scientific knowledge • community understanding and behaviour • society, policy and practice to advance cancer control. Increasingly, people will work in organisations, families and social settings which advance the control of cancer and where resources (people/volunteers/pro bono) are developed globally and locally to meet the challenges of cancer.
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Our values Courage We will do what it takes to beat cancer. We value the determination and drive of our volunteers and staff to make a difference.
Collaboration Through fundraising, partnerships and volunteering, we will focus and amplify the efforts of the wider community.
Independence We are accountable only to the cancer cause and the community.
Forward thinking We are contemporary in outlook, innovative in approach and solution focused.
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A common direction a common desire
Fifty-five years ago cancer was misunderstood, feared and generally fatal. It was in this environment that Cancer Council NSW was formed. The way we worked in those early years continues today. Our focus remains on science, advocacy, fundraising and partnerships to change the impact and mortality of those with cancer. Cancer carries the largest disease burden in NSW and is the greatest source of premature deaths. Cancer has no age limit and the disease is on the rise. A 30 percent increase is predicted in the next 10 years compared to the previous decade, in most part due to lifestyle and the ageing population. However, in the last decade we have also seen an encouraging fall in cancer death rates by 16 percent in men and 10 percent in women. It is only through our collective work that we can hope to continue this trend. Scientific discoveries have opened the potential for cancer to be prevented or, if not prevented, to be detected and treated at a curable stage. Most treatment is now given to manage and cure the disease rather than as palliative or terminal care. In each decade since our inception, we have been a key agent for critical shifts in cancer control. This strategic plan outlines our priorities in the next five years to ensure that NSW is a leader in cancer control.
While we cannot defeat cancer alone, we will continue to be a central catalyst for progress in the cancer landscape. We want all parties to join together to beat cancer. To this end we work with health and research organisations, the government, other businesses and, most importantly, the community and those committed individuals within it. Cancer Council NSW continues to draw our mandate directly from the people of NSW. This commitment was reaffirmed in 2006, when we became a community foundation incorporated as a company limited by guarantee. Our membership and governance enables people from all backgrounds to come together and freely collaborate on the control of cancer. Because we are not dependent upon (or tied to) government funding, we are able to remain independent and work across all cancers. Our history demonstrates our commitment as a comprehensive cancer charity that embraces new challenges and thrives on change. We are driven by the need to defeat cancer in our lifetime. This challenge requires funding, good science and effective public policy. It is only by working with the community that together we can bring about social change.
In our brand awareness survey conducted by McNair Ingenuity in November 2009, 93 percent of respondents were aware of Cancer Council, but respondents were not always able to clearly articulate what we do. Stakeholders need an unambiguous vision of the organisation and to clearly recognise the outcomes and results of their investment. Much has changed in 55 years since our inception, but our proposition to our supporters, our donors, our partners and collaborators remains. Cancer Council is a place of energy and innovation in cancer – a place where one can work freely with allies and partners, and where we can make cancer history together.
Dr Andrew Penman, CEO
Bruce Hodgkinson SC, Chair
Our Cancer Council NSW brand relies on our ability to engage with the community and stakeholders to support and benefit from our activities, understanding that what we do is critical, and different from other cancer organisations.
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Focus 2010–2014
Our position rests on four organisational attributes. These attributes define our organisation and we are proud to hold a distinctive position that supports our aspiration to beat cancer in all its forms. This alone makes us distinctive among Australian charities.
1. Insight “Providing knowledge and generating evidence” best statistical and scientific techniques to answer questions of crucial importance to cancer control.
When people have knowledge, they can achieve great things. Because of improved knowledge, we are closer than ever before to understanding cancer and how to better treat and prevent it. Cancer Council’s funding and our support of a broad range of work has contributed materially to the global understanding of cancer. This marks us out among cancer organisations. While we target specific cancers and priorities, we refuse to ignore any cancer or any evidence-based approach to cancer control.
Through applied research and development, we will respond rigorously and systematically to the real-world challenges of cancer. This will include contributing the results of communitybased field trials based on rigorous social science methods to improve our knowledge and understanding of cancer prevention and the ways we can support cancer patients. We learn from the experience of people affected by cancer and the communities with whom we work. By welcoming a diversity of opinions and perspectives, we will build our authority in cancer and strengthen our response to unmet needs.
Our focus in fundamental research includes leveraging through charitable funds the ideas and ingenuity of cancer researchers in delivering breakthroughs in knowledge about cancer. We will continue to develop Cancer Council as a place of international standing in population research on cancer by applying the
2. Connection “Linking people to each other and to the cause” Our leadership in the cancer world rests on connecting people together and linking them to ideas, resources and knowledge. This greatly amplifies the potential of individuals and organisations to realise our vision of cancer defeated. Our focus in the community will be to improve the reach and breadth of cancer services, and the channels people use to access this support. We will positively engage communities in the challenge of preventing and dealing with cancer. We will develop our
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contacts with the community to respond to diversity in culture and its effects on the cancer experience. Our focus in the professional sphere will be to bring people affected by cancer, researchers and clinicians together around all cancers, including those which remain difficult to treat; to boost access by researchers to powerful information resources and research infrastructure; and to encourage collaboration with the ‘best’ in our field globally.
3. Contribution “From people, agencies and employees” Beating cancer together means contributions of many kinds from many people. Cancer Council stands out by the range of opportunities we provide for people and organisations to contribute their time, skills and capacity to the cancer cause. Our next five years will create more opportunities and compelling reasons for more people to give and support us as their charity of choice. Contact with Cancer Council will open the door to deep and sustainable relationships to benefit the cancer cause with support for contributions, to the extent that people are willing as donors, volunteers, advocates, research participants, community leaders and staff.
We will stand apart in the way our staff and volunteers demonstrate our values and their determination to deliver our mission; in the way we encourage Australian cancer researchers and innovators to create new insights and breakthroughs; and by the channels we provide so that people and organisations of exceptional means, influence and talent can lend their capacity to the cancer cause. The contribution we make together as an Australian community in the defeat of cancer will be a cause for celebration.
4. Impact “Making a recognisable difference” Cancer Council is an agent of change. Our ambition is to transform the cancer landscape by effecting change that is far-reaching and sustained. We exist to make a genuine impact on the course of cancer and the lives of those affected. In the public arena, our impact will include achieving a consideration of cancer which is informative, rational and compassionate. Over the next five years, our impact will be felt in the ready availability of information and support tools for all cancer
patients and carers during and after a cancer diagnosis. This will be through the improvements we engineer in health care infrastructure, services and entitlements. In cancer prevention, we will be judged by the changes we generate in settings and workplaces, retail, marketing and built environments to reduce the leading causes of cancer death. The next five years in research will see the establishment of powerful platform infrastructure for population research in cancer, and result in multidisciplinary, collaborative research, including in poor-outcome cancers and intractable cancer problems.
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Our organisation Community engagement We believe the enormous capability residing in communities can be unlocked to transform the prospects of defeating cancer. The greatest impact can be achieved by treating cancer as a social issue rather than purely as a health one. There is scarcely a person, an organisation, a profession or a community segment which does not have the capacity or opportunity to take an action that contributes directly to cancer control. Cancer Council is optimistic and enthusiastic about community engagement symbolising our unique position as a cancer charity which is community funded, community led and community focused. Our organisational priorities will deliver high-quality cancer research; provide support; change social and environmental conditions to better promote health; and improve our business performance. While Cancer Council’s role of providing clear and authoritative information and advice to the community remains important, we will increasingly become a key resource organisation for community groups and networks deeply involved in efforts to defeat cancer. We are empowered by the community to act in the defeat of cancer.
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Fundraising We believe charitable giving is of critical significance in changing the cancer landscape. We intend to strengthen our market leadership in fundraising. Fundraising will remain our primary source of funds to preserve our independence. Continued growth will be needed to meet our mission goals. Our goals are: Revenue: accelerate net revenue growth through business improvements, diversification of income source and exploiting new business opportunities Reputation: continue to be a market leader in the cancer charity space Relationships: establish, maintain, develop and deepen mutually beneficial, sensitive, profitable and supportive relationships with external and internal stakeholders Working more effectively: better harness people, funds, technology and other resources. We will maintain our investments at levels equivalent to between 9 and 12 months of operational expenditure, in order to secure us against revenue fluctuations, to underwrite our forward commitments, and to provide capital funding flexibility. A consistent annual dividend from investment of 4 percent will be returned to mission expenditure. We will continue to seek grant and contract income to support specific programs at a level that preserves our independence.
Organisational capacity – people, systems and culture We believe our fundamental strength lies in our people and their commitment to excellence and our vision of cancer defeated. We need to foster a highly engaged, forward-thinking culture, aligned with our strategy and based on open communication, collaboration and accountability. Volunteering is integral to our mission of engaging the community and essential to our achieving the reach we need to bring about change. We take an inclusive view of our workforce, developing staff and volunteers alike to play roles where leadership and initiative are key ingredients. We will foster a critical appreciation of the need to improve productivity and strive for excellence. Learning and development will play an important role in increasing the leadership and management capabilities of our workforce and ensuring they are equipped to deliver on our values. We use internal communication, performance planning and management to embed a culture of high achievement and common purpose. We believe information and communication technologies will be the dominant platform to deliver content and connection in cancer control and transform our capacity to fund and deliver on our mission. Cancer Council will continue to invest in new information and communication technologies and capacity to these ends.
We will achieve full deployment of our constituent relationship management (CRM) capability across all programs and services. This will reduce the fragmentation with which our community experiences Cancer Council, and will enable the customisation of content in a way to build and deepen their engagement. Our staff and volunteers will have a 360-degree view of our community relationships, and will be trained and equipped to advance these relationships. We embrace fully the potential of online and digital technologies to drive connection with and contribution from our communities. This will mean we interact with constituents on their terms through their chosen channels.
Cancer Council campaigns, research papers, and community and advocacy actions will be increasingly developed using digital channels to reduce costs while engaging a broader constituency. Internally, these technologies will be deployed to enhance reporting, improve innovation and collaboration, and reduce costs. We will make substantial developments in information systems to facilitate:
• relaunching www.cancercouncil.com. au centred around the users' needs
• maintaining a rolling program of
review, audit and evaluation to affirm the evidence base for our activities, the targeting of our programs and their effectiveness in the field
We believe that openness in our business, and external scrutiny and appraisal, strengthen our effectiveness and underpin our reputation. We will maintain best-in-class financial and business reporting within the framework of corporations and related law. We will expand our use and reporting of performance indicators to cover the breadth of the business and foster a culture of openness and responsiveness to questions asked about our affairs. We will subject our work in science and in cancer control to external critical review most stringently through publication in peerreviewed journals.
• ensuring services and systems
operate within a framework that addresses risk areas, business continuity and a service charter that is recognised by the community as a major enabler toward achieving our objectives in cancer control.
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Contact details
Cancer Council NSW Head Office 153 Dowling Street Woolloomooloo Sydney NSW 2011 Australia (PO Box 572 Kings Cross NSW 1340) Ph (02) 9334 1900 feedback@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au Greater Western Sydney Rotary House 43 Hunter Street (PO Box 6226) Parramatta NSW 2150 Ph (02) 9354 2000 Fax (02) 9687 1118 info.westernsydney@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au/westernsydney Central and Southern Sydney 153 Dowling Street Woolloomooloo NSW 2011 (PO Box 572 Kings Cross NSW 1340) Ph (02) 9334 1754 Fax (02) 8302 3570 info.cssr@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au Northern Sydney and Central Coast The Hive – Erina Fair (PO Box 5102) Erina NSW 2250 Ph (02) 4336 4500 Fax (02) 4367 5895 info.centralcoast@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au/centralcoast
Southern (Woollongong) 1 Lowden Square Wollongong NSW 2500 Ph (02) 4223 0200 Fax (02) 4225 1700 info.southern@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au/southern
South West (Wagga Wagga) 1/37 Tompson Street (PO Box 1164) Wagga Wagga NSW 2650 Ph (02) 6937 2600 Fax (02) 6921 3680 info.southwest@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au/southwest
Hunter (Newcastle) 22 Lambton Road Broadmeadow NSW 2292 Ph (02) 4923 0700 Fax (02) 4961 0955 info.hunter@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au/hunter
Western (Orange) 75 Kite Street (PO Box 1977) Orange NSW 2800 Ph (02) 6392 0800 Fax (02) 6361 7425 info.western@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au/western
North West (Tamworth) Shop 2 218 Peel Street (PO Box 1616) Tamworth NSW 2340 Ph (02) 6763 0900 Fax (02) 6766 7053 info.northwest@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au/northwest
Community Hubs
Far North Coast (Alstonville) 101-103 Main Street (PO Box 531) Alstonville NSW 2477 Ph (02) 6627 0300 Fax (02) 6628 8659 info.farnorthcoast@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au/farnorthcoast
Penrith Hub 114-116 Henry Street (PO Box 4379) Penrith NSW 2750 Ph (02) 9354 2060 Fax (02) 4732 5932
Casula Hub 39 Ingham Drive (PO Box 287) Casula NSW 2170 Ph (02) 9354 2050 Fax (02) 9734 0917
Rouse Hill Hub 2/29 Main Street (PO Box 6112) Rouse Hill NSW 2115 Ph (02) 9354 2070 Fax (02) 9672 6915
Mid North Coast (Coffs Harbour) 121 High Street Coffs Harbour NSW 2450 Ph (02) 6659 8400 Erina Hub Fax (02) 6652 1530 The Hive – Erina Fair (PO Box 5102) info.midnorthcoast@nswcc.org.au www.cancercouncil.com.au/midnorthcoast Erina NSW 2250 Ph (02) 4336 4500
© Cancer Council NSW 2010 ABN 51 116 463 846 14
CAN 3205 02/10
www.cancercouncil.com.au