Joanna McAfee Childhood Cancer Foundation

The 2010 Leadership Warner Robins Class has chosen the Joanna McAfee Childhood Cancer Foundation to benefit from our community impact project. For more information, please read the following letter from the McAfee family:

March 13, 2010

Dear Prospective Sponsor of the Leadership Warner Robins Community Impact Project:

On behalf of our family and the directors of the Joanna McAfee Childhood Cancer Foundation, we would like to thank for your past support. We would also like to inform you that the Leadership Warner Robins (LWR) Class of 2010 has selected our foundation to benefit from their year-long Community Impact Project.

LWR volunteers will be conducting a series of fundraisers and will be asking for cash and non-cash donations to help us meet a key milestone in the life of our foundation; to move into our own facility! We are a 501(c)(3) organization, so your financial contributions are tax deductible as allowable by the IRS. Our foundation believes in transparency so our tax returns are available on our website, along with our 501 (c)(3) IRS letter of determination.

Our foundation was started after losing our 6-year-old daughter and sister, Joanna Rae McAfee, to Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma on December 22, 2005 (you can read Joanna’s story on our website). Our mission is to raise awareness, provide support and fund research for childhood cancer. Although our foundation was started with literally no money in the bank, our personal experience left us with a great desire to help other families while memorializing our precious Joanna; she simply fought too hard to ever be forgotten! We are so proud of the success you helped to make possible and we feel it is appropriate to share some of the successes:

• More than $340k has been spent in direct support of mission objectives.
• Awareness has been raised all over the state of Georgia and beyond.
• Support has been provided to 45 families, including nearly 200 recurring gifts.
• Research grants (11) have been provided to six (6) childhood cancer research initiatives.
• Low overhead and a volunteer-based staff have allowed low overhead (less than 9%).

What does all this mean? Together, we have created a foundation that is really making a difference in the lives of children with cancer. Mission demands, however, have outgrown resources, staff and office space to the point that is limiting our ability to grow. It is now time to leverage our mission, the success we’ve experienced, and the energy of our volunteers into a plan for growth and expansion of our mission scope.

Key to our growth is the ability to relocate to a larger facility. Our current foundation office is a modest one-room office that is only large enough for two employees/volunteers and equipment. We have identified an affordable space for lease but it is in great need of repair. We are excited about the facility, however, because it has two distinct advantages to the community:

• The larger facility (and infrastructure) will allow the foundation to stretch out and to utilize the many volunteers who want to help.
• The facility identified is in the Downtown Warner Robins area. This area has been targeted by the City of Warner Robins for revitalization efforts and our move could help spark this revitalization.

Thank you for your continued support, and thank you in advance for supporting the Leadership Warner Robins Community Impact Program!

Jeff, Misty and Paul McAfee

P.O. Box 9537, Warner Robins, GA 31095-9537
478.953.5195
http://www.supportcancerkids.org/
info@SupportCancerKids.org