‘Outside’ Looks Inside Lance Armstrong’sCharity, Offers Both Praise and Criticism

The Livestrong Foundation has morphed from a cancer-research charity into “something that looks more like a hip marketing agency,” according to the journalist Bill Gifford, writing for Outside magazine (February).

And much of the group’s work, the author says, seems to be about burnishing the reputation of its founder, Lance Armstrong.

Mr. Gifford writes that he began a months-long probe into Livestrong following reports that surfaced last year about the author of Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, and his Central Asia Institute. Mr. Gifford and other critics wondered whether Mr. Armstrong has treated the charity’s money like his own expense account.

After dozens of interviews and a close examination of financial records, however, Mr. Gifford concludes that Mr. Armstrong has done nothing illegal—and goes further to say it appears that Mr. Armstrong has been “scrupulous” in his handling of charity-related expenditures. Mr. Gifford also praises as “innovative” Livestrong’s growing number of programs to help cancer patients navigate their often-complicated health-care and insurance needs.

Still, Mr. Gifford doesn’t let Mr. Armstrong off the hook. He says that the athlete has taken advantage of the charity’s appeal “for personal gain,” using Livestrong to fuel interest in his 2008 professional-cycling comeback, for example, and making money over the years for himself, not the foundation, as an inspirational speaker.

Mr. Gifford’s piece also criticizes the charity’s work, which he says is heavy on branding efforts in support of what he describes as a “curiously fuzzy mix of cancer-war goals like ‘survivorship’ and ‘global awareness.’ ” Contrary to popular belief—a belief, Mr. Gifford claims, that Mr. Armstrong perpetuates—Livestrong no longer supports cancer research.

The article quotes Livestrong’s leader, Doug Ulman, who says that the group’s research spending was just too small to make a dent in a field dominated by huge players like the American Cancer Society. “We started to realize that there’s literally billions of dollars in cancer research,” Mr. Ulman said, “and we asked, Is that the best use of the money we’re raising?”