Oral Cancer Foundation
Oral Cancer Foundation
3419 VIA LIDO 205
Newport Beach CA 92663-3908
Newport Beach CA | IRS ruling year: 2002 | EIN: 33-0969026
Organization Mission
Mission not available
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3419 VIA LIDO 205
Newport Beach CA 92663-3908
Newport Beach CA | IRS ruling year: 2002 | EIN: 33-0969026
Organization Mission
Mission not available
Great
This charity's score is 100%, earning it a Four-Star rating. If this organization aligns with your passions and values, you can give with confidence.
This overall score is calculated from multiple beacon scores, weighted as follows: 85% Accountability & Finance, 10% Leadership & Adaptability, 5% Culture & Community. Learn more about our criteria and methodology.
We recognize that not all metrics and beacons equally predict a charity’s success. The percentage each beacon contributes to the organization’s overall rating depends on the number of beacons an organization has earned.
Use the tool below to select different beacons to see how the weighting shifts when only one, two, or three beacons are earned.
Rating histories are available for a growing number of rated organizations. Check back later to see if this organization has a rating history!
Oral Cancer Foundation has earned a 100% for the Accountability & Finance beacon. See the metrics below for more information.
This beacon provides an assessment of a charity's financial health (financial efficiency, sustainability, and trustworthiness) and its commitment to governance practices and policies.
This Accountability & Finance score represents IRS Form 990 data up until FY 2021, which is the most recent Form 990 currently available to us.
Learn more
Charity Navigator looks for at least 3 board members, with more than 50% of those members identified as independent (not salaried).
The presence of an independent governing body is strongly recommended by many industry professionals to allow for full deliberation and diversity of thinking on governance and other organizational matters.
Source: IRS Form 990
An Audit, Review, or Compilation provides important information about financial accountability and accuracy. Organizations are scored based on their Total Revenue Amount:
Total Revenue Amount | Expectation to Receive Credit |
---|---|
$1 million or higher | Expected to complete an audit |
$500,000 - $1 million | Expected to complete an audit, review, or compilation |
Less than $500,000 | No expectation (removed from scoring methodology) |
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a conflict of interest policy on the Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy protects the organization and by extension those it serves, when it is considering entering into a transaction that may benefit the private interest of an officer, director and/or key employee of the organization.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks to confirm on the Form 990 that the organization has this process in place as an accountability and transparency measure.
An official record of the events that take place during a board meeting ensures that a contemporaneous document exists for future reference.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a document retention and destruction policy per the Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy establishes guidelines for the handling, backing up, archiving and destruction of documents. These guidelines foster good record keeping procedures that promote data integrity.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a whistleblower policy per the Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy outlines procedures for handling employee complaints, as well as a confidential way for employees to report financial or other types of mismanagement.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for a website on the Form 990 as an accountability and transparency metric.
Nonprofits act in the public trust and reporting publicly on activities is an important component.
Source: IRS Form 990
The Liabilities to Assets Ratio is determined by Total Liabilities divided by Total Assets (most recent 990). This ratio is an indicator of an organization’s solvency and/or long-term sustainability.
Liabilities to Assets Ratio | Amount of Credit Received |
---|---|
Less than 50% | Full Credit |
50% - 59.9% | Partial Credit |
60% or more | No Credit |
Source: IRS Form 990
The Program Expense Ratio is determined by Program Expenses divided by Total Expense (average of most recent three 990s). This measure reflects the percent of its total expenses a charity spends on the programs and services it exists to deliver.
Program Expense Percentage | Amount of Credit Received |
---|---|
70% or higher | Full Credit |
60% - 69.9% | Partial Credit |
50% - 59.9% | Zero Points for Program Expense Score |
Below 50% | Zero Points for Both Program Expense AND Liabilities to Assets Scores |
Source: IRS Form 990
No Data Available
Revenue and expense data is not available for this organization. This data is only available if this charity has at least one year of electronically-filed Form 990 data filed within the last six years.
No Data Available
Key Persons data is currently unavailable for this organization. This data is only available if this charity has at least one year of electronically-filed Form 990 data filed within the last six years.
Below are some key data points from the Exempt Organization IRS Business Master File (BMF) for this organization. Learn more about the BMF on the IRS website
Foundation Status:
Organization which receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or the general public 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) (BMF foundation code: 15)
Affiliation:
Independent - the organization is an independent organization or an independent auxiliary (i.e., not affiliated with a National, Regional, or Geographic grouping of organizations). (BMF affiliation code: 3)
The Form 990 is a document that nonprofit organizations file with the IRS annually. We leverage finance and accountability data from it to form Encompass ratings. Click here to search for this organization's Forms 990 on the IRS website (if any are available). Simply enter the organization's name (Oral Cancer Foundation) or EIN (330969026) in the 'Search Term' field.
This organization was impacted by COVID-19 in a way that effected their financial health in 2020. This normally would have reduced their star rating. Due to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, we give charities such as this one the opportunity to share the story of COVID's impact on them, and doing this pauses our revision of their rating. Charities may submit their own pandemic responses through their nonprofit portal.
Oral Cancer Foundation reported being impacted by COVID-19 in the following ways:
Program Delivery
Fundraising Capacity
Revenue
Staffing
Grants Sent
Balance Sheet
Public screening and vaccination clinics were curtailed by mandatory CDC guidelines
How COVID-19 impacted the organization's operations financially:
During the Pandemic years OCF was prohibited by CDC guidelines from conducting any of our many annual walk/run fundraising events in cities around the US. In a normal year those 30 or so events generate more than 70% of our donation revenue. For 2.5 years that went away. While we survived using up our reserve funds, we had to eliminate some staff, move from an office rental situation to everyone working from home to reduce overhead expenses and curtail other program activities, only keeping those that were patient centric. Americans rightly or not, were not interested in cancer with Covid such a looming threat. Cancer orgs across the board were negatively impacted financially. Small ones like OCF suffered the worst. All this even though cancer in the US continued to kill over 660,000 Americans a year. We are coming out of Covid with significantly damaged financial reserves and staff numbers.
How COVID-19 impacted the organization's delivery of programs:
April oral cancer awareness month usually means that we are partnered to over 2700 private dental offices nationally to conduct free public screenings with the foundation providing supplies and information to conduct those screenings. During the covid years most dental offices closed their doors in 2020, and a few reopened in 2021, but the annual screening drive which sees upwards of 70k individuals screened per year mostly did not occur. Our tobacco outreach program to rural youth to keep them from picking up the habit was also shut down when Rodeo venues where we reach these kids with our competitor/spokespeople were curtailed, most ceasing to occur at all in this period. Our contributions financially to core researchers we have historically supported in the HPV oropharyngeal cancer area were put on hold for those years as well.
How this organization adapted to changing conditions caused by COVID-19:
We focused on the patient centric support functions that we could conduct in our online support platform, by email communications, and by one on one phone conversations with patients and caregivers. Even with reduced staff, the remaining people worked longer hours to see that no patient contacts were left unanswered. That referrals to clinical trials and treatment institutions went unaltered. The demand for services and help did not decline, but actually increased as there were fewer support services available to individuals. We are very proud of how our staff stepped up their time engaged to meet the demands.
Innovations the organization intends to continue permanently after the pandemic:
We learned that we can be as effective in our patient centric aspects of operations as a remote working group. Staff adopted using Slack communications to stay intimately connected with each other, and see that nothing fell through the cracks in scattered emails or calls where all them members were not present. We actually will retain this MO in the future. It is not only more cost effective for a small non profit, but we were more organized and the team cooperation was enhanced. We will not go back to rent spending on office spaces, only storage rental for supplies, significantly freeing up capital to do more important things for those we serve.
Not Currently Scored
Oral Cancer Foundation cannot currently be evaluated by our Impact & Results methodology because either (A) it is eligible, but we have not yet received data; (B) we have not yet developed an algorithm to estimate its programmatic impact; (C) its programs are not direct services; or (D) it is not heavily reliant on contributions from individual donors.
Note: The absence of a score does not indicate a positive or negative assessment, it only indicates that we have not yet evaluated the organization.
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No 990 Program Data Found
Oral Cancer Foundation has earned a 100% for the Culture & Community beacon. See the metrics below for more information.
This beacon provides an assessment of the organization's culture and connectedness to the community it serves.
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100% of beacon score
This organization reported that it is collecting feedback from the constituents and/or communities it serves. Charity Navigator believes nonprofit organizations that engage in inclusive practices, such as collecting feedback from the people and communities they serve, may be more effective.
Who are the people you serve with your mission? Describe briefly.
Patients and family member of patients diagnosed with, or in the treatment process for oral cancer. Survivors of oral cancer, that while disease free, suffer from the complications of treatments and their extreme morbidity. Members of the medical and dental professional community for who either being engaged in the early discovery of oral cancer is a part of their jobs, or who are in the actual treatment of patients part of the equation. Students in medical or dental schools that are acquiring knowledge about oral cancers. The general public who wishes to understand this disease better.
How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees, Suggestion box/email, Other means
How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
With whom does your organization share the feedback you got from the people you serve?
Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners, Other means
How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship with them or shifted power - over decisions, resources, rules or in other ways - to them?
Unfortunately we learned enough to know that for the many programs and benefits we are engaged in, we are grossly underfunded to address the many other areas that patients and survivors need. We are working on synergistic partnerships to help overcome some of this deficit. We cannot do this solely through fundraising efforts. 2022 Update- we have realized that we need to step up our advocacy work, even though it has always been one of our strong suits. We spent time dealing with the FDA and the tobacco issue that causes so many oral cancers. After two years of working in the arena we have had a second rewarding success, which was that the FDA will begin to regulate the amount of nicotine the industry can add to their products. This will greatly reduce those addicted and who wish to quit.
What challenges does your organization face in collecting feedback from the people you serve?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, Other means
Briefly describe a recent change that your organization made in response to feedback from the people you serve.
We realized that a significant number of oral cancer patients in surveys, even after successful treatments, have life long eating difficulties, many cannot eat by mouth ever again and are on tube feeding (PEG) systems. Doing this well with normal food requires the creation of a blend of foodstuffs in a high powered blender. For those with a financial disparities, these machines are priced out of their range to afford. We have instituted a program where they can get a Vitamix blender from OCF at no charge, once they demonstrate a life-long need through their medical provider, and can be verified through Social Security disability payments that they have a financial disparity, sand receive those payments.
This organization has not provided information regarding the Equity Practices it is presently implementing. As such, the organization has not earned a score on this metric. Charity Navigator believes nonprofit organizations implementing effective equity policies and practices can enhance a nonprofit's decision-making, staff motivation, innovation, and effectiveness.
Oral Cancer Foundation has earned a 100% for the Leadership & Adaptability beacon. See the metrics below for more information.
This beacon provides an assessment of the organization's leadership capacity, strategic thinking and planning, and ability to innovate or respond to changes in constituent demand/need or other relevant social and economic conditions to achieve the organization's mission.
Learn more
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking through articulating the organization's mission
THE ORAL CANCER FOUNDATION IS A NATIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE, NON-PROFIT ENTITY DESIGNED TO REDUCE SUFFERING AND SAVE LIVES THROUGH PREVENTION, EDUCATION, RESEARCH, ADVOCACY, AND SUPPORT ACTIVITIES. Mission Statement The Oral Cancer Foundation’s missions are rooted in science. OCF funds life-saving research and work that elucidates mechanisms for early discovery and furthers disease understanding. We provide direct peer to peer support for oral cancer patients and their caregivers. We disseminate vetted professional and public information on oral and oropharyngeal cancer, and work as advocates for national policies that facilitate disease awareness, early discovery, and improve treatments and their outcomes. Our foundation’s missions are changing patient’s lives today, and altering outcomes in the future.
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking through articulating the organization’s vision.
There are real world mechanisms to reduce the incidence or oral and oropharyngeal cancers, we are not waiting on a new medical discovery to make this possible. This cancer is discoverable in a visual and tactile screening that takes less than ten minutes. I can be found by individuals in the dental community and ent community readily. Even people from the general public can self exam with a simple set of directions we teach them to become engaged in the self discovery and self refferal of suspect tissues, that when presented to a medical professional may be eliminated to prevent further progression as a precancerous or very early stage one carcinoma in situ. There is a vaccine for young people that will prevent the primary cause of oropharyngeal cancers that has been approved for use and highly successful since 2006. A world where this killer has far less impact is possible through these simple behavior changes of avoiding risk factors and existing screening technologies.
Source: Nonprofit submitted responses
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking and goal setting through sharing their most important strategic goals.
Goal One: Expand our screening and obtain more involvement from the dental industry (more than 100k dental professionals). This can have a huge impact on early discovery and education of risk factor avoidance
Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.
Goal Two: We have national public screening clinics we can expand given funding to do so. We will engage in more vaccination education for HPV in young adults to eliminate viral cause oropharyngeal cancers.
Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.
Goal Three: Taking better advantage of our relationships and positions inside NIH, NIDCR, and NCI we can have a greater impact as advocates for key clinical trials to be engaged in.
Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.
The nonprofit provides evidence of investment in leadership development
We have had staff trained in HPV causes of our disease and with the help of the CDC developed in house education programs for all those who come in contact with the pubic and dental professionals to encourage more buy in to early effective vaccination.
The nonprofit provides evidence of leadership through focusing externally and mobilizing resources for the mission.
Strategic Partnerships
Thought Leadership
Raising Awareness
Policy Advocacy
OCF has partnered with other non profits and professional societies such as the Academy of Oral Medicine, The Academy of Oral Pathology and the Public Health Foundation to produce programs together in both early discovery of oral cancers, and advancing adoption of simple early discovery techniques and technologies from simple visual and tactile screening, to the use of tissue autoflouresence to aid in early discovery. OCF is an active advocate through our positions on oversight committees at the NCI and NIDCR for the most promising new research to get visibility and endorsements for funding. OCF has a robust presence in social media reaching out to patients survivors and the general public to advance our objectives. The Founder of OCF is a frequent lecturer at university programs and professional society meeting on topics as diverse as HPV conversion of cells to malignancy, and immunotherapies, from patient selection to mechanisms of action such as immune check point inhibition.
The nonprofit has an opportunity to tell the story of how the organization adapted to tremendous external changes in the last year.
In a year of Covid where the attention is focused on the virus rather than cancers, we engaged in virtual events both to raise awareness and educate professionals and patients on new ideas that in our sequestered situation they may not have been aware of. The adoption of remote working and virtual outreach and education was a necessary change in how OCF operate. For us this has been an over all positive change, as we have greatly expanded our reach and impact through very low cost mechanisms of virtual meetings and podcasting which we did not engage in prior to covid.
Impact & Results
Accountability & Finance
Culture & Community
Leadership & Adaptability
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