The ambition

The National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) is Australia’s leading not-for-profit organisation funding world-class breast cancer research. Its vision is ‘zero deaths from breast cancer’.   

Over 90% of NBCF’s revenue is generated by fundraising, raised predominantly through public donations. Since its inception in 1994, NBCF has invested over $200M into more than 600 world-class research projects across Australia. In this time, death rates from breast cancer in Australia have improved by over 40%.

Despite this, the need for funding support could not be greater. Breast cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer in Australia and remains the most diagnosed cancer among Australian women. This year alone, it is estimated that over 20,000 Australians will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Nine people will lose their lives to this disease every day.

To respond to this need, NBCF were aiming to at least double their research investment over the next five years. They recognised the need to be more strategic and deliberate about how they raised funds, which supporter groups to engage and why, and to identify where their portfolio gaps were and how best to address them.

Our approach

We worked with NBCF to develop a new fundraising strategy to help the organisation achieve its ambitious objectives for funding research.

This meant developing a deeper understanding of the current fundraising and supporter landscape – both within Australia and internationally – how this is changing and what the implications were for the charity.

The purpose of our work was to help build a clear picture of the portfolio, identify key market trends, and develop a high-level strategy and short-term priorities. We analysed the market, locating the charity within the broader fundraising landscape, looking at market trends and competitive activity. We analysed NBCF’s current fundraising portfolio, identifying opportunities for growth, and surveyed their supporters for insights and priorities for new work.

We also undertook benchmarking and developed case studies outlining lessons from other proxy organisations and markets to help draw out a view of potential growth models for fundraising. Based on this work, we designed a multi-year fundraising strategy and one-year operating plan with practical short-term priorities for the charity.

The impact

Our findings and recommendations have shaped a new set of strategic priorities for fundraising and a new growth strategy for the charity. 

NBCF have gone on to launch a bold research strategy with a clear role for the fundraising team to build the funding capacity to achieve this. They have recently announced 19 new world-class breast cancer research projects receiving a combined investment of $13.5 million to help progress its vision. This year’s research projects range from understanding genetic drivers of breast cancer in young women, how technology can be used to improve breast cancer screening, and how breast cancer cells survive and spread informing better treatment options for some aggressive forms of breast cancer.

The fundraising strategy is being rolled out alongside the new research priorities. NBCF has huge ambition. We are proud to have supported the charity on this journey and look forward to hearing how the fundraising work progresses, and the strategy embeds.

Thank you for your strategic guidance and wisdom. Working with you has been true collaboration, it was true co-design. You were open to solving problems together and stretched us out of our comfort zone to explore new territories and new ways of doing things. The result was a bold strategy and a clear road map for the next 5 years which everyone has embraced because they felt part of the journey. We are excited to see how this strategy will propel us towards our vision of Zero Deaths from breast cancer.

Associate Professor Cleola Anderiesz, CEO, National Breast Cancer Foundation

Further reading

Learn more about NBCF’s work here.

Get in touch if you would like to learn more about our approach to fundraising reviews, growth strategies and funding model development.