'Breaking Bad' website halts donations to National Cancer Coalition

The website savewalterwhite.com is no longer encouraging Breaking Bad fans to donate to the National Cancer Coalition after it was ranked No. 21 on a list of America’s Worst Charities. The study, a collaboration between the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Tampa Bay Times, looked at the latest 10 years of available federal tax filings to determine the amount of money charities spend on outside fundraisers. (Read more about the methodology here.) Watchdogs say no more than 35% of cash donations should go to fundraising costs. Per the findings, the National Cancer Coalition raised $41.5 million in cash, but paid $14 million to solicitors.

AMC confirms it’s removed the link to the NCC from the site, which went live in real-life when Walt Jr. launched it on the show after learning of his father’s cancer diagnosis in season 2 of the AMC drama. AMC has provided no information about if or when another charity will be linked.

In October 2012, a blog post on AMC’s website said that between the July 2009 launch of savewalterwhite.com and then, more than one million Breaking Bad fans had visited the NCC site and their donations had exceeded $125,000. It also noted that the National Cancer Coalition, one of the nation’s largest charities, was not affiliated with Breaking Bad or AMC.