The Steven G. Cancer Foundation

On Saturday, January 30th, 2021 we hosted our first ever virtual town hall. We of course wish it could be in person but due to COVID-19 it just was not possible – but plan on it for 2022! If you would like to view the recording of the town hall please click here. We had some big announcements to make!

For those that are not aware, as of January 1st, 2020, Elephants and Tea is a nonprofit media brand under the nonprofit organization of the Steven G. AYA Cancer Research Fund (SGAYA). SGAYA was founded 11 years ago by Harry and Angie Giallourakis to focus on research funding at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, advocacy, social support, and wellness for AYAs faced with cancer in the Cleveland, OH area.

In 2020, with the addition of Elephants and Tea, SGAYA grew exponentially and with that came an opportunity to take a hard look at how we are seen in the community (both locally and nationally).

As part of the review process, we spoke with stakeholders in focus groups, an online survey, and personal interviews to see how people viewed us. It was clear that we have a very strong presence locally (Cleveland, Ohio) with SGAYA branding and nationally (Elephants and Tea brand) but that the two needed some help on the “brand awareness” front to bring the brand closer together.

It was evident that our local stakeholders didn’t want us to move away from being a “Cleveland” organization but recognized that we are growing for the better in supporting the AYA cancer community. Because of that, we wanted to be very careful to frame this change as a natural, positive evolution of the organization while honoring our history.

Thus, the Steven G. AYA Cancer Research Fund is making the change to the name the Steven G. Cancer Foundation. Keeping Steven’s name ties us to our legacy in Cleveland, all while adding the word “Foundation” to showcase the natural growth of our nonprofit organization – and that we have grown to be more than just a research fund.

Our new logo

To help build on the new brand image, we will be focusing more on the “bow tie” logo across all that we do (including Elephants and Tea, more to come on that in 2021). We will be phasing out Steve’s face (as pretty as it is).

We have also come up with the new tagline for the organization – “Our Community is Support” because, as Angie (aka Mom) said to me, “Support is what we do”.

This tagline will be for the Steven G. Cancer Foundation AND the cool thing with this tagline is it will be used in many ways across our other areas of focus. For example, it will also be the tagline for Elephants and Tea with a twist “Our Community is Heard” or “Our Community is Storytelling”. I think you get the idea!

We also wanted to honor the founders of the organization, our parents, Harry and Angie Giallourakis for their dedication to the AYA cancer community. None of this would be possible without them. With that said, the research arm of the organization will go forward with the sub-brand of “The Harry and Angie Giallourakis AYA Research Fund”. As stated above, this goes along with our history of the organization, all while building on the natural progression of our growth as an organization.

Branding honoring our founders

Here is how our new structure of the organization will look in 2021 and beyond:

Parent Brand – Steven G. Cancer Foundation (SGCF)
- Key Area of Focus – Research
  - The Harry & Angie Giallourakis AYA Cancer Research Fund
- Key Area of Focus – Community & Survivorship
  - Elephants and Tea
  - Wellness Programs
  - Advocacy

Our goal is by the end of Q2, June, we will have made changes across all of our websites, social media, and marketing materials. It will be a gradual change over the first half of the year.

Thank you for being such phenomenal supporters of what we do at the Steven G. Cancer Foundation and Elephants and Tea! Any questions please feel free to contact me at nick@elephantsandtea.org.

Have an amazing day!

Nick Giallourakis
Executive Director
Steven G. Cancer Foundation