Cure Brain Cancer Foundation

Cure Brain Cancer Foundation has been awarded Charity of the Year in The Australian Charity Awards 2016. The Australian Charity Awards recognise charitable organisations that have achieved outstanding results through initiatives that have significantly benefited charitable causes.

Three years ago, the Cure For Life Foundation was a 10-year old, three-person organisation that raised less than $4 million a year. With no government funding, brand positioning or recognition, and a brain cancer research community operating in silos — which they later found out held back advances in research—Cure For Life Foundation decided to think big and transform itself into a global influencer. The newly-branded Cure Brain Cancer Foundation now wanted to increase brain cancer’s five-year survival to 50% by 2023.

In a few short years, Cure Brain Cancer held global think tanks, mapped the cancer research system and formed global collaborations. They slowed down in order to speed up and created conclusions and goals. They discovered that to change outcomes for brain cancer patients they needed to reorganise ways of working, re-engineer the system, and repurpose treatments. To change ways of working they needed to change their environments, mindset and organisational behaviours. They discovered that to achieve their mission it would not only take science, but their whole system approach and a rally of change agents, funders, clinicians, researches, enablers and patients. In order to do all these things, they needed to connect the world and collaborate.

Three years on from the beginning of their new journey, Cure Brain Cancer Foundation now has global reach and has 28 employees with people with brain cancer at the centre of all that they do. They are a founding member of a key global alliance set to radically change systems, mindsets and protocols in brain cancer research. Cure Brain Cancer have gone from funding one lab in 2012, to funding 23 research programs in 2016. They have set up innovative funding streams that fast track funding, invested over $2.84 million in world-class research in the past year and have committed to an additional $9.54 million.

Cure Brain Cancer have collaborated with over 40 institutions spanning five continents to find the most promising projects, including first class clinical trials, giving Australians with brain cancer early access to promising treatments now rather than in another 30 years. They are seeing real treatment options for people with brain cancer, with the launch of four new clinical trials for brain cancer in Australia, for both children and adults.

The Australian Business Awards are the regional chapter of an integrated, hierarchical leadership program conducted on a national and international level. Eligible organisations from each region are invited to participate in the international chapter of the program at The World Business Awards. Conducted annually and currently in the second year of its international launch, The World Business Awards seeks to engage with the world’s business, innovation and technology leaders through a global recognition and knowledge building initiative that is underpinned by the program’s established framework. The program engages with organisations worldwide to benchmark the full spectrum of their products, services and initiatives and to review their business performance. The cycle culminates in the recognition and celebration of organisations that implement world-class business initiatives and industry leading products and services on a prominent and far-reaching scale. All entries must be entered in the regional chapter where the organisation is based.

Entry is open to all registered charities throughout Australia. The program is open to charitable organisations including charitable funds and charitable institutions located in Australia. Charitable institutions include Public Benevolent Institutions and Health Promotion Charities.

Initiatives can include but are not limited to projects, programs, processes, systems, technologies, developments, ventures and undertakings.

Entries are assessed utilising a robust and dynamic framework to ensure that the assessment process is pertinent and objective. The World Business Awards Framework (WBA Framework) is utilised as a structured model of assessment that enables the participating organisations to be benchmarked against world class performance standards. The Framework consists of specialised assessment modules pertaining to the evaluation criteria for each of the award categories. The criteria and sub-criteria provide a robust set of requirements that are used as the methodology for benchmarking and learning among the participating organisations.

The Australian Charity Awards have been established to identify, recognise and reward organisations for the exceptional work undertaken through their charitable activities. The Australian Charity Awards are a method assessed program providing organisations with the opportunity to have their projects, initiatives, contributions and achievements recognised on a prominent and far-reaching scale. The Awards provide the ultimate platform for charitable organisations to build knowledge and raise awareness of their causes through increased exposure, recognition and acknowledgement.