Where it comes in.
What it becomes.
Every gift to PinkRibbon International follows the same chain: who gives, what kind of money it is, what it is for, where it enters, what the evidence says, what it becomes, and what level of care that needs. Work down the page and see exactly what your donation turns into.
The chain
Six questions. One answer each.
The source of the money. Not a destination. A company can give through any door an individual can, and one door an individual cannot. A government gives a grant.
A person gives a donation. The 85/15 applies at the door.
The three destinations. Operations keeps the organisation running. Research pays a scientist, chosen by the Scientific Research Advisory Council (SRAC). A project delivers something to women.
Projects are delivered by the affiliate foundations, so a project gift enters at the national level, even when you found it on pinkribbon.org.
Earmarking is for gifts of $10,000 and above. Below that, your gift is unrestricted within the destination you chose, and the affiliate puts it where the evidence says it does the most good. For an earmarked gift: most specific first. If the work can be delivered responsibly at that level, the money stays there. If it cannot, it moves up one level, and up again. The earmark is honoured by delivering the intervention, not by forcing money into a place that cannot use it.
First the income group. The WHO sorts countries by the World Bank income groups. The group decides what the health system can already do, so it decides which cells on the grid are worth your money. Then a country in that group, then a region, then a district. iWhat LIC, LMIC, UMIC and HIC mean
The grid was written for a woman who has not had cancer. A woman who has had one re-enters it on a second pass: the same four pillars, read differently.
All seven cancers. Colour is evidence that money spent there changes what happens to women. The lower-middle income group has already moved some cells: what the state pays for there, we do not.
A funded cell is still vapour until it becomes a room, a machine or a salary at a named level of the health system. The work sets the lowest level it can be done at; that one is marked. You can pick a higher level. Everything below it must already work, or the object is wasted.
The lowest level. Nothing has to exist below it, which is why this is the cheapest cell in the model to make real.
Your chain
An individual gives a donation for a project. It enters at Pink Ribbon Foundation India, a lower-middle income country, earmarked to Murshidabad in West Bengal. It goes to prevention of cervical cancer, delivered in the community.
Fund: prevention × cervical, at the community level.
HPV vaccine of girls (and boys) 9 to 14. The single best campaign cell in the founding four. What the money becomes: Vaccine fridge, carriers, a vaccinator.
What the money becomes
- Vaccine fridge, carriers, a vaccinator
- At the community level, with the levels below already working
- Stays in Murshidabad if it can be delivered there; otherwise West Bengal, then India
The rule at this door
- A minimum of 85% to the project, a maximum of 15% to shared costs.
- The campaign was reviewed before it went on the site: what it promises, who delivers it, and what happens if the goal is missed.
- Delivered by the affiliate foundation, or by a partner charity under a written grant agreement
- If the goal is missed, the fallback was written before launch
What comes back
- Women reached, screened, treated or followed
- A programme report to the donor and the annual report
The point
A campaign is a promise. This one can be kept because the object, the level of care and the entity delivering it are all named before the page goes live.
The 85/15
Why an operational gift helps every other gift.
Every campaign sits on the same infrastructure: governance, accounting, audited reporting, grant agreements, compliance in every country we work in, the website, administration. Somebody has to pay for that. The rule says how.
The ceiling
From any campaign or grant gift we take what the shared costs actually require, and a maximum of 15%. A minimum of 85% reaches the purpose you chose. The 15% is a ceiling, not a fee, and not a target.
The lever
Unrestricted operational income pays those shared costs directly. Every dollar of it is a dollar we do not have to take from somebody's campaign. The more of the shared costs it covers, the less is taken from restricted gifts, and the closer every campaign donation gets to arriving whole.
The proof
We publish the number we actually took each year, against the ceiling. Not an illustration, not a projection: the audited figure, so the promise on the donate page can be checked against the accounts.
FAQ
Every rule you just passed, explained.
What are the three destinations?
Operations keeps the organisation running at that level. No split; all of it goes to the shared costs. Research goes to the Scientific Research Advisory Council (SRAC), which picks the study; a minimum of 85% to the study, a maximum of 15% to shared costs. Project is a named campaign with a promise on it; a minimum of 85% to the project, a maximum of 15% to shared costs.
Why is a company not a destination?
Because a company is where money comes from, not where it goes. A company, a foundation or an institution gives through one of the three destinations, like anyone else. What changes is the kind of money: a donation, a grant, or in India CSR, and each kind has its own rules about which destination it may take. Recognition for a company is agreed separately and in writing.
What can enter at the international level?
Two things: operations, the shared costs of PinkRibbon International, and research, the international research pool. Projects are delivered by the affiliate foundations, so a project gift enters at the national level, even when you found it on pinkribbon.org. The international level does not run screening vans. It pays for the science that decides what the van should do.
Why can I only earmark a gift of $10,000 or more?
An earmarked gift is a promise we have to keep on its own terms: separate accounting, a named deliverer, a report back on that place and that cancer. That costs real administration, and for a small gift the cost of keeping the promise would eat the gift. So earmarking opens at $10,000. Below that, your gift is unrestricted within the destination you chose, operations, research or project, and the affiliate puts it where the evidence says it does the most good. You still see exactly what that looks like on this page.
Can my gift go to another charity that works on female cancer?
Yes, as a project. Some work is best done by a charity that is already there, and PinkRibbon International can fund it with a grant under a written agreement, with reporting back, instead of building something of its own next door. It goes through the same review as any project, the same 85/15, and the same evidence check as any cell on the grid, so a grant to a partner cannot be used to fund something we would not fund ourselves.
What happens to my gift in a country where you have no foundation?
Most of the countries on the map are part of the PinkRibbon International Network: we have no foundation of our own there yet. Your gift is earmarked to the country and held in a fund in that country's name. The Scientific Research Advisory Council (SRAC) then decides where in that country it goes: a university for a study, or a partner charity or hospital for a project, always inside the evidence grid for that income group and always under a written grant agreement with reporting back. The fund is placed once it reaches a workable grant, or once a year. If it cannot be placed responsibly within 24 months it moves up one level, to the same income group, and then to the international research pool, and you are told. The donor chooses the country; the SRAC chooses the partner. That order is the law for a US charity giving abroad, and it is also what keeps the money honest.
How does the geographic earmark work?
Most specific first. India, then West Bengal, then Murshidabad. If there is a viable programme in Murshidabad, the money stays there. If there is nothing that can responsibly deliver the intervention at that level, it moves up to West Bengal, and if that still does not work, up to India. We honour the earmark by delivering the intervention, not by forcing money into a place that cannot use it. You are told where it went and why.
Who picks the study?
A project comes with a promise you can read. A research gift comes with a theme and a cancer, and somebody has to choose the study. That somebody is the Scientific Research Advisory Council (SRAC), an independent panel of scientists, so that the best science wins rather than the best photograph. You choose the theme and the cancer. The SRAC chooses the study.
Why 85/15, and why is 15% a ceiling rather than a fee?
We take what the shared costs actually require from any campaign or grant gift, and a maximum of 15%. Every dollar of unrestricted operational income pays those shared costs directly, so the more of them it covers, the less is taken from restricted gifts. The 85% is the minimum you can rely on. It is not the target. The figure we actually took is published each year, from the audited accounts.
Can an affiliate foundation fund research?
Yes. Pink Ribbon Foundation India funds research with Indian donations. If you are giving from outside India and want to fund the same study, give through PinkRibbon International, which pays the institution directly. Research in the UAE opens once a university partner is in place.
Why can CSR money in India not pay for operations?
Indian law restricts CSR spending to eligible project activities. It pays the cost of delivering a project, including project staff and evaluation, but not the accountant or the audit. So CSR takes the project destination only. An unrestricted grant from the same company can pay for operations.
What are the four pillars?
Awareness: make the next right action obvious and possible. Prevention: stop it starting. Detection: find pre-cancer or stage I to II in time to change the outcome. Care: treat with intent to cure, and keep the woman well afterwards. Curative treatment and survivorship are two phases of one pillar. Research is not a fifth pillar. It is what the research pool does for the other four.
Where does secondary cancer go?
Three different things hide in that phrase. Metastases are Care. Recurrence is Care, the survivorship half. A second primary, a new cancer in a woman who already had one, is Prevention: removing the tubes and ovaries after BRCA breast cancer, bowel screening for Lynch families, watching the whole HPV field after cervical cancer. Secondary cancer is not a pillar. It is a second pass through the same four, and the grid has a switch for it.
Why Care and not Cure?
Cure is an outcome. Care is the work. We can promise the work; nobody can honestly promise the outcome. A Cure pillar would also leave palliative care homeless, and where many women present late it is a large part of the work. The definition carries the intent: treat with intent to cure, and keep the woman well afterwards.
Which cancers?
Seven: breast, cervical, ovarian, uterine, vulvar, vaginal and fallopian-peritoneal. The last three are rare, under-researched, and the cancers almost nobody else funds, which is exactly why they are on the grid.
What do the colours in the grid mean?
Evidence, not branding. Fund means money spent there changes what happens to women. Conditional means it does, provided a named service exists to receive her. Do less means a mass campaign is weak or crowded. Do not means the trials say no: population screening for ovarian cancer is the cell we will not fundraise for, whoever asks.
What is the level of care, and why does it come last?
A funded cell has to become an object: accommodation, a machine, or a member of staff, at a named level of the health system. Community, local hospital, regional hospital, specialist centre. The intervention decides the level, not the donor. HPV vaccine is community work; brachytherapy needs a specialist centre; a mastectomy theatre is regional. And levels are not skipped: a specialist MRI is wasted if community posts cannot refer, a mammography van is wasted if no local surgeon can act on the film.
This page describes how PinkRibbon International allocates donations across its international research pool and its affiliate foundations. The rules are set by the Founder's Council and the figures are published each year in the annual report.