$18 million raised, $194,809 to patients
In March 2024 the FTC and ten states sued Cancer Recovery Foundation International, trading as Women's Cancer Fund, and its operator Gregory B. Anderson. The complaint alleged that between 2017 and 2022 the organisation collected more than $18 million from donors and spent $194,809, roughly a penny in every dollar, on financial support to cancer patients, while Anderson took $775,139 in salary. On 17 December 2024 the court entered a stipulated order in which the organisation neither admitted nor denied the allegations: a permanent end to its business and a $18.25 million judgment, suspended because it had no assets. The order records that Anderson died on 5 September 2024.
- Year
- 2024
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Reported loss
- $18.0 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Charity and disaster scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-10
The facts, as recorded
- Action announced 11 March 2024 by the FTC together with ten states.
- Defendants: Cancer Recovery Foundation International, also known as Women's Cancer Fund, and its operator Gregory B. Anderson.
- From 2017 to 2022 the organisation collected more than $18 million from donors.
- It spent $194,809 on financial support to cancer patients, about one cent in every dollar donated.
- Anderson received $775,139 in salary, nearly four times as much as the fund gave to all cancer patients combined.
- Approximately 85% of donations went to for-profit fundraisers.
- Fundraisers told donors their gifts would help save lives and directly help patients with basic living expenses.
- On 17 December 2024 the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a stipulated order for permanent injunction against Cancer Recovery Foundation International; the organisation neither admitted nor denied the complaint's allegations, except as to jurisdiction.
- The order permanently bars the organisation from fundraising and from conducting any business, and requires donor information to be destroyed.
- It enters a monetary judgment of $18,250,000, which is suspended on the basis of the organisation's sworn financial statement; the order says it has no assets and has not operated since it was dissolved in 2022.
- The order states that Gregory B. Anderson died on 5 September 2024; it is entered against the organisation only.
Allegations in a complaint are allegations. They are not findings, and the defendants are entitled to contest them.
Why this case matters
The arithmetic is the whole story, and it is worth reading twice.
$18 million collected. $194,809 to cancer patients. $775,139 to the operator’s salary. The person running the fund took nearly four times as much as every patient it helped, combined.
Roughly 85% went to for-profit fundraisers, the telemarketing firms making the calls. That is the part most donors have never considered: a great deal of charity fundraising is contracted out, the contractor keeps a percentage, and in the worst cases the percentage is nearly all of it.
The thing that makes this hard to spot
Notice what is missing from this case. There is no fake charity. Cancer Recovery Foundation International existed. It was registered. It had a name, a website, a cause and, presumably, an audit trail.
That is why the usual advice, check the charity is real, is not sufficient here. The charity was real. What was not real was the implication that donations would reach patients, and no amount of verifying the organisation’s existence would have revealed that.
What actually works instead
The check that would have caught this is financial rather than existential: what proportion of money raised reaches the cause? Charity regulators and independent evaluators publish that ratio, and it is the number the fundraising call never mentions.
Where a caller is a paid fundraiser rather than the charity, most jurisdictions require them to say so if asked. Asking is unusual and effective.
What it tells you about the scheme
Charity fraud sits at one end of a spectrum rather than in a separate box. At the far end are entirely invented disaster appeals; at this end are real organisations where almost nothing reaches the stated purpose. The donor experience is identical.
The practical response is the same at both ends and it costs nothing: give to organisations you chose, not organisations that contacted you. Look up the charity, go to its own donation page, and give there.
The caveat
What is settled: on 17 December 2024 a federal court entered a stipulated order that permanently ends the organisation’s fundraising and business and enters an $18.25 million judgment, suspended because the organisation has no assets. What is not proven: the organisation neither admitted nor denied the FTC’s and the states’ allegations, so the figures on this page, including $194,809 to patients and $775,139 in salary, remain allegations from the complaint, not findings by a court. The order was entered against the organisation only; it records that Gregory B. Anderson died on 5 September 2024, so no outcome was reached against him personally. As of 10 October 2026 no later outcome was found in the sources reviewed.
Sources
- FTC, 10 States Take Action Against Operator of Sham Cancer Charity for Deceiving Donors. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: Every figure and claim above: the defendants, the $18 million, the $194,809, the $775,139 salary, the 85% fundraiser share, and the representations made to donors.
- Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction and Other Relief, FTC and States v. Cancer Recovery Foundation International, Inc., No. 4:24-cv-00881 (S.D. Tex.). US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, published by the FTC. Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The 17 December 2024 order: permanent cessation of business, the $18,250,000 suspended judgment, neither admits nor denies, no assets and dissolution in 2022, and the statement that Anderson died on 5 September 2024.