Livestrong cancer charity on mission to reinvent itself
AUSTIN — The cancer charity whose yellow wristbands became a global brand under founder Lance Armstrong is seeking to reinvent itself, years after donations and revenues crashed along with the disgraced cyclist’s career.
Armstrong was nowhere to be seen earlier this month during Livestrong’s “relaunch” ceremony in Austin. The charity announced plans to end its one-on-one cancer support services, where a patient could call for help dealing with insurance, counseling and medical trials. Instead, it will pivot to spending $5-6 million annually to support entrepreneurs developing products to improve treatment and patient care.
Livestrong will maintain its partnership with the Livestrong Cancer Institutes at the University of Texas Dell Medical School, which focuses on cancer research, patient care and treatment.
“We’re more than a wristband,” Livestrong President and CEO Greg Lee told a crowd of about 200 gathered for the event.
Livestrong’s trademark yellow wristbands were once worn by celebrities and politicians the world over. Donations and commercial ties to athletic apparel company Nike brought in tens of millions annually.
But those days are gone. The legacy and reputation of Armstrong, a cancer survivor who won the Tour de France seven times, crumbled abruptly following revelations he used performance-enhancing drugs. Livestrong has chugged along as a much smaller, leaner organization.
“We’re nimble,“Lee said. “We’re not like an ocean liner. We’re more like a jet ski that can turn on a dime.”
Lee insists the move is about better serving cancer patients, not just reversing declining financial trends.
Livestrong was a pioneer in providing one-on-one help to guide people through difficult and sometimes traumatic cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Armstrong founded Lance Armstrong Foundation in 1997 after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. His remarkable recovery and success on the world’s biggest stage for cyclists fueled a boom that transformed the once small charity into a global force.
At its peak, Livestrong took in $41 million in donations in 2009 when Armstrong came out of retirement to finish third in the Tour de France. The downturn came when Armstrong’s career and reputation were undone first by a 2012 investigation in performance-enhancing drug use and his 2013 confession in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The charity desperately tried to distance itself from the scandal. Armstrong was pushed out of his role as chairman of the board of directors — he remains listed as a board emeritus member but is otherwise not involved — and the foundation’s name was formally changed to Livestrong.
According to 2018 financial records, the most recent available, donations and revenue had dipped under $2.5 million. Assets listed at $100 million a decade ago have been whittled to $46 million. That includes a $37 million endowment, which has about $15 million tied to specific spending restrictions.
The 2018 report doesn’t reflect the $17 million sale in 2019 of Livestrong’s former headquarters in downtown Austin.
With that money in the bank, analysts at charity watchdog groups Charity Navigator and Charity Watch still give Livestrong good marks for being financially healthy overall.
But Livestrong still spent three times what it takes in. Lee’s salary is about $350,000 a year.
“They are going to have to increase revenue or decrease spending. It will be a question of how they maintain that revenue,” said Kevin Doyle, analyst with Charity Navigator.