Cancer Fund of America

The Cancer Fund of America, a Knoxville-based nonprofit that became the target of a historic lawsuit filed by the federal government and all 50 states in 2015 as a "sham charity," has agreed to shut down its multimillion-dollar operation. The Cancer Fund of America and its spinoff organizations gained a reputation as being among the worst in the country for spending lavishly on founders, family members and employees while offering little to the cancer patients whom telemarketers claimed the charities were helping. The Cancer Fund of America and its founder, James T. Reynolds Sr., have agreed to a settlement with the government. As part of the deal, Reynolds and his charity would have to surrender all of the organization's property, documents and other assets to a court-appointed receiver in Nashville. Officials in all 50 states must sign off on the deal before it is finalized. Named in the federal court complaint are Cancer Fund of America, Inc. (CFA), Cancer Support Services Inc. (CSS), their president, James Reynolds, Sr., and their chief financial officer and CSS’s former president, Kyle Effler; Children’s Cancer Fund of America Inc. (CCFOA) and its president and executive director, Rose Perkins; and The Breast Cancer Society Inc. (BCS) and its executive director and former president, James Reynolds II. CCFOA and Perkins, BCS, Reynolds II and Effler have agreed to settle the charges against them. Under the proposed settlement orders, Effler, Perkins and Reynolds II will be banned from fundraising, charity management, and oversight of charitable assets, and CCFOA and BCS will be dissolved.