Working with ALSF to fund childhood cancer research projects can put the money your foundation or organization has raised to good use.

Your group or foundation can fund a project that has been carefully vetted by ALSF's highly qualified advisors and meets the funding criteria you and ALSF have established. We receive hundreds of grant applications each year and review them for their potential to make substantive and critical contributions to the field of childhood cancer research, but we sometimes have more highly rated projects than we are able to fund.

The Co-Funding Process

Your Priorities

In collaboration with you and your organization, we identify your mission and develop a plan for which types of projects you would be interested in funding. For example, some of our charity collaborators restrict their funding to a specific type of cancer. This is usually feasible, as ALSF funds research on most types of cancer each year.

Our Peer-Reviewed Grants Process

Our competitive, peer-reviewed grants process attracts hundreds of grant applications each year. They are evaluated and scored by our reviewers and selected according to the process below. Research proposals come from institutions across the United States and in Canada. Learn more.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ALSF’s childhood cancer research funding philosophy?

ALSF’s philosophy is to fund the best childhood cancer projects. We look for projects that are likely to play a part in bringing the latest and most promising lifesaving treatments to seriously ill children. We like to design grants strategically to fill gaps in the funding available from other sources. We fund research into all types of childhood cancer, and offer categories of grants within three main areas: Early Career Research, which gives young scientists a kick start in their scientific career, Research Accelerator Grants, which advance the pace of innovative research and Quality of Life and Care grants. Read more about how we choose our projects.

We are a small organization and might not have enough money to fund a whole project. Is there a minimum funding level to participate?

Every donation makes a difference and contributes to funding childhood cancer research, and we work with groups of all sizes as donors to ALSF. Co-funding partners generally have at least $25,000 to distribute. Even if your organization cannot fully fund a grant, you can jointly fund a project with ALSF or we may be able to match your organization with another group with compatible funding criteria.

Interested in discussing the process of co-funding a project with ALSF?  Contact Jay Scott at (866) 333-1212 or [email protected]

“We are better together and therefore excited to partner with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation with a shared mission to cure pediatric cancer. We feel that this collaboration helps maximize the donated dollar. With the guidance of the Scientific Advisory Board at ALSF, we can direct funds toward research teams who know no boundaries when it comes to the impact on curing disease.” - Dr. Michelle Sell, Board Member, Sammy's Superheroes Foundation

View our list of charity collaborators.