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Ways to Support and Donate to Conquer Childhood Cancer

The story of the Four Diamonds is the creation of Christopher Millard, who wrote this story soon after receiving a cancer diagnosis at age 11. After he returned to school from summer vacation, his teacher asked the class to write about their break. Christopher had spent the summer receiving treatment and asked if he could write on another topic. In the story he created, a great knight searches for the four diamonds of courage, wisdom, honesty and strength, symbolizing the attributes Christopher’s family believed would help him overcome cancer.

After Christopher lost his battle with cancer at age 14, his parents founded Four Diamonds to help other children and their families fight childhood cancer. Through Four Diamonds, Christopher and his story continue to live on and inspire hundreds of children fighting childhood cancer each year.

Since its founding in 1972, Four Diamonds has helped thousands of childhood cancer patients at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. This hospital, which is proudly known as one of the top 50 hospitals in the nation for childhood cancer, delivers a holistic approach to both treatment and care. Along with treating the disease, we also look after patients’ and families’ well-being throughout the entire treatment and into survivorship.

Supporting Four Diamonds means you’ll be directly contributing to improved treatments and cures. Every childhood cancer contribution bolsters life-saving medical care and research. With several ways to donate, you can join us in our fight for a cure and positively impact children all around the world.

The Life-Changing Impact of Your Donation

Thanks to donors throughout the years, Four Diamonds has directly impacted many children’s lives. Your generous support has ensured that Four Diamonds could cover the total out-of-pocket cost of cancer treatment for Four Diamonds child Riley during his initial diagnosis in 2017 and two relapses in the following years. Today, Riley has been declared “no evidence of disease,” and we are committed to helping more children like him. Riley’s courage and determination inspire us at Four Diamonds to continue providing the highest quality childhood cancer care and ensuring their family never sees a bill for their care.

Four Diamonds drives the discovery of new and improved cures and treatments to benefit kids in our community and around the world. We support more than 90 pediatric cancer research professionals at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital and collaborate with over 300 research partners nationwide. Every laboratory that Four Diamonds supports makes fundamental contributions to the ultimate goal of achieving a cure for all childhood cancers.

 

Four Diamonds childhood cancer charity donation

In 2022 alone, 10,470 children will receive a cancer diagnosis in the United States. When you donate to Four Diamonds, you are making a direct impact in the lives of children like Riley and supporting:

  • 100% coverage for medical bills: Four Diamonds covers out-of-pocket medical fees for primary cancer treatment or clinical trials at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital.
  • Funding for over 30 specialty care providers: These providers exclusively serve cancer patients and their family’s emotional, spiritual, mental and physical needs.
  • Funding for over 90 research professionals and scientists: Four Diamonds researchers are members of five national and international research consortia and connect doctors and scientists at more than 300 institutions nationwide to combine efforts and work toward finding safer treatments and cures. 

Four Diamonds aims to help every child receive world-class treatment at Penn State Children’s Hospital. Our mission is personal, and we help children such as Weston receive the care they need to beat their diagnosis. The Four Diamonds mission also helps families like Weston’s focus on their child’s treatment without financial stress. His mom Amy A. says:

“Regardless of what Weston needed medically, we never received a bill because of four diamonds support — that was an enormous weight lifted off our shoulders.”

No matter how much or how you choose to donate, you’ll be making it possible for childhood cancer patients and their families to receive the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual support and care they need. Four Diamonds is committed to delivering world-class care, which is why patients have access to over 30 specialty care providers, ranging from a neuropsychologist to a clinical nutritionist, while receiving treatment.

Ways to Donate and Support Kids Fighting Cancer

Because of the generosity of individuals, businesses and communities, Four Diamonds has been able to help every childhood cancer patient at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. To continue supporting the care and research necessary to save lives, we rely on ongoing pediatric cancer donations.

We offer several ways to donate:

Online

We accept credit cards on our secure online donation portal. After your online donation, we will send you an online confirmation and a tax receipt by email or mail.

Recurring Gifts

Set up convenient recurring monthly or annual gifts through our safe, protected website, using your credit card.

By Phone

To donate by phone, call either Four Diamonds at 717-531-6086 or the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at 717-531-8497 during regular business hours, and a member of our team will walk you through how to donate to childhood cancer research. 

By Mail

Checks and cash can be mailed to Four Diamonds, P.O. Box 852, Hershey, PA 17033.

Donating by mail is a great way to get the whole family involved and share your fundraising experience. For example, if your child raises money for their birthday For The Kids® (FTK®), you can include a photo of your child and their donation experience when you mail their donations to our team. With your permission, we may request to use your story in our communications to showcase how anyone can make a difference For The Kids®.

More Ways to Donate

Four Diamonds offers multiple options for childhood cancer donations to match your preferences. Some additional ways you can donate to help treat childhood cancer include:

Bequests and Planned Gifts

Bequests are gifts that you make through a will or living trust. You can add a bequest to a new will, an existing will or a living trust.

A planned gift allows you to support Four Diamonds’ childhood cancer research throughout your life or after your death. Using a planned gift enables you to match your donations with your overall plans for your finances and real estate. Giving can also offer economic benefits that let you make the most significant impact while maintaining financial security.

Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds

A donor can donate stocks, bonds and mutual funds that they have owned for more than a year. Four Diamonds will then sell these securities and keep the proceeds. As a donor, you will get an income tax charitable deduction based on the value of the securities. For more information about how to donate to children’s cancer support with stocks, mutual funds and bonds, you can contact The Pennsylvania State University Gift Planning office for assistance.

In-Kind Gifts

Another way to contribute to childhood cancer treatment and research is by donating in-kind gifts. Instead of donating money, you can contribute either goods or services to support kids’ cancer. All in-kind gifts to Penn State Health Children’s Hospital are managed by Child Life. Please contact Child Life at childlife@pennstatehealth.psu.edu or call 717-531-8366 to discuss donation opportunities.

Employee Gift Matching

Many companies have programs in place that will match employee donations. Depending on your company, they may match your gift’s exact amount or double your donation amount. 

Start a Fundraiser

Celebrate a birthday, honor a loved one or start your own event to fundraise for Four Diamonds. Four Diamonds also works with For The Kids® to make it easy to fundraise. All you need to do is develop a fundraising idea, create a page on the FTK® website and start raising funds.

Donor Advised Funds

A donor advised fund is a giving account at a public charity that enables donors to make a charitable contribution to support childhood cancer research and immediately receive tax deductions. Donors can then recommend fund grants over time and donate as frequently as they’d like.

Donate Tax-Free With an IRA

Donors can name Four Diamonds as the beneficiary on part or all of their IRA. After settling the donor’s estate, their donation amount will go to Four Diamonds, and the heirs will avoid income and estate taxes.

Frequently Asked QuestionsFrequently Asked Questions

The following are frequent questions regarding Four Diamonds. If you want to learn more or do not see an answer to your question, we encourage you to complete our online contact form today.

Four Diamonds helps hundreds of families annually thanks to our generous donors. To ensure donor funds make the most significant impact, we utilize three funding priorities:

  1. Financial assistance: At Four Diamonds, we ensure every child receives the highest quality care without seeing a bill. Our compassionate care program relieves the financial pressures of care for parents and the task of completing and submitting billing paperwork.
  2. Care support: Our team ensures that every Four Diamonds child has access to specialists and support services to meet their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual needs.
  3. Research: Through your donations, we can make grants to various innovative research projects that aim to learn more about childhood cancer and develop effective treatments. We also invest funds in endowments and use the interest to create secondary, permanent funding streams for ongoing research in search of curing childhood cancer.

At Four Diamonds, we prioritize patient care and support, which is why we split the majority of our funds between patient care and family support and research. By designating a large percentage of funds to families and research, we can ensure all children are well cared for and that research operations do not experience any funding delays. 

We also use a smaller percentage of funds for research endowments and administrative tasks such as fundraising and marketing to raise awareness about Four Diamonds and encourage more donations.

When you make a gift to Four Diamonds, your donation is tax deductible. When making a gift online, be sure to select whether you would like to receive your tax receipt via email or mail. You will receive your tax receipt after you have made a contribution to Four Diamonds.

If you require additional support related to a tax receipt, please contact Four Diamonds at 717-531-6086 or by email at fourdiamondsinfo@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.

If you need to obtain a copy of a tax receipt or statement, please contact Four Diamonds at 717-531-6086 or by email at fourdiamondsinfo@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.

We are grateful for the generosity and support of organizations within our community in the fight against childhood cancer.

Organizations interested in supporting Four Diamonds can contact us by calling 717-531-6086 or by completing an interest form.

Learn more about the impact organizations can make for families facing pediatric cancer.

In the 2023 fiscal year, Four Diamonds donated $0.85 of every dollar to patient care, family services and research. Our donations are three cents higher than organizations, such as St. Jude. Of our total budget, only 15% goes to administrative costs.

Thank you for your interest in fundraising For The Kids®! If you are a K-12 student, we encourage you to complete the Four Diamonds Mini-THON® online form. After you submit the form, our team will contact you with more information within two days.

If you are a college student, we encourage you to complete this form or call our team at 717-531-6086, and one of our team members will share more information about our Team FTK® collegiate program.

If you require additional support or would like more information about a specific Four Diamonds program, please visit the ‘About Us’ tab to connect with our staff directly via email.

The federal tax ID number of Four Diamonds is 24-6000376.

Yes! Unlike other organizations that primarily fund one aspect, Four Diamonds is proud to fund all three. By investing in financial assistance, care support and research, we can support families fighting pediatric cancer and fund research to help children across the globe.

Donate Today to Support Our Hope for a Cure

Whether you donate online, through the phone or mail or by an alternative way, your contributions will be helping to prevent, diagnose, treat and cure childhood cancers.

Ready to join our mission of saving the lives of children all around the world? Make a donation to Four Diamonds today and support our hope for a cure.

Make a Life-Saving Gift