Cause area
Leave a legacy for Cancer Research & Care
Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. Your gift can back bold research, early detection and prevention that are often underfunded.
Why it matters
The American Cancer Society projects about 2.1 million new cancer diagnoses and more than 626,000 cancer deaths in the U.S. in 2026, roughly 1,700 deaths a day. Cancer is the country's second-leading cause of death, after heart disease.
Some of the biggest gains come from unglamorous work: screening, HPV vaccination, helping people quit smoking, and research into cancers that receive little funding for the lives they take.
Sources:
Where an extra dollar goes furthest
These are the kinds of programs our research looks at first in this cause. With a research-guided gift, specific organizations are chosen when your gift arrives, so it can go to what works best then.
High-risk research
Early-career scientists and bold ideas that government grants are slow to fund.
Under-studied cancers
Cancers such as pancreatic and many childhood cancers, where survival has improved least.
Early detection
Getting proven screening to the people least likely to receive it.
Prevention
Tobacco cessation and HPV vaccination, two of the best-evidenced ways to prevent cancer deaths.
Three ways to give to cancer research and care
Recommended
Research-guided gift
Your will dedicates the gift to cancer research and care and asks your executor to choose the most effective organizations working on it when the time comes, guided by published research.
A charity you name
Leave your gift to a specific organization you already know and trust.
Your own named fund
Start a fund in your name or a loved one's that gives to cancer research and care every year. How it works
Sample wording for your will
Our builder fills this in for you. If you already have a will, share this wording with your attorney.
I give ____ percent (____%) of my residuary estate to one or more charitable organizations described in Sections 170(c) and 2055(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, selected by my Executor, to be used for research into, and the prevention, early detection and treatment of, cancer. I ask that my Executor consider the research and recommendations published by MyLastWill.org at the time of my death.
Sample language for discussion with your attorney. Not legal advice.
Questions about giving to cancer research and care
Should my gift go to research or to patient care?
Both matter. Research can help future patients at enormous scale, while care programs help people now. You can split your gift, or let our research team weigh the best opportunities in each when your gift arrives.
Can I fund research on a specific type of cancer?
Yes. Name a specific organization, or create your own legacy fund and describe the type of cancer in its mission statement.
Add cancer research and care to your plan
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