CBS SUNDAY MORNING Examines 'Livestrong' Donation Spending

CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports on donors upset with how Livestrong, the charity started by scandal-scarred cyclist Lance Armstrong, spent donations in a story for CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD to be broadcast today, July 21 (9:00 AM ET) on the CBS Television Network.

Armstrong stepped down from Livestrong's board of directors last November, and later admitted he used performance enhancing drugs during his historic Tour de France wins. Now, the charity, formed by Armstrong in 1997 after he was successfully treated for testicular cancer, is facing a future without its founder and questions about how it invests donations.

"I thought a lot of it was actually going - again - to these cutting edge research, mini-grants, you know, to help these promising studies," Livestrong donor and former volunteer Michael Birdsong tells Attkisson. Birdsong is part of a lawsuit being prepared on behalf of donors planning to sue Livestrong to get their money back. He says he donated about $50,000 of his own money and convinced others to kick in another $65,000 to Livestrong, thinking the organization funded cancer research. Birdsong later learned Livestrong no longer invests in research and now he questions some of the charity's expenses.

"It's a little frustrating to us because it sort of mischaracterizes what everyone in this building does," says Katherine McLane, Vice President of Communications for Livestrong Foundation. "We're not sending money to labs to fund research, although we recognize that is tremendously important."

Instead, McLane tells Attkisson, the charity's mission is to help cancer survivors. "What we began investing in, instead of clinical research, was an ongoing dialogue with patients, with survivors, with their families, to gauge the long-term effects that cancer takes on a family and on one's livelihood and on one's psyche, on one's body."

Since Armstrong revealed he cheated, Nike, the maker of the yellow wristbands, cut ties with the charity.

Birdsong wants to cut ties, too, by getting his money back. "We were suckers. We got taken. That's the way sometimes we feel about it," he tells Attkisson.

McLane says a "tiny percentage" of donors have asked for their money back. She says the organization invests in programs and services to help survivors and Livestrong doesn't pull investments out. "We do not offer refunds, just like most nonprofits," she says.

Attkisson's report on Livestrong will be broadcast today, July 21, 2013. CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

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