Pancare restructures operations, enhances fundraising, and deepens cancer patient care with Microsoft Teams

“Every day there is a new person, a new story, but the common thread is fear and feeling alone,” says Bernie Muscat, Head of Operations at Pancare Foundation. “Being able to give people the help and information they need in what is often their darkest hour is what gets me up in the morning.”  

The mission of Pancare Foundation, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, cuts through some of the most harrowing territory in medicine: upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancers—including pancreatic, liver, stomach, esophageal, and biliary cancers—where the five-year survival rates are below 35%. The organization serves 1,500 to 2,000 Australians each year who are diagnosed, many of them already in stage 4 when they first call the organization. Determined to improve the odds and ease the experience of living with cancer, the organization is committed to funding groundbreaking research and providing direct, holistic support to patients, caregivers, and families across the country. 

With just 20 employees and over 450 volunteers, the organization runs national counselling, nursing, and bereavement programs; coordinates expert-led online support groups; and orchestrates wide-reaching fundraising campaigns through a novel business partnership model called the PAR 5 Commercial Program.

In early 2020, just as Pancare Foundation’s ambitions were expanding, the world shut down—and Melbourne became one of the most locked down cities in the world. Within weeks, half of its annual revenue—much of it reliant on in-person events—evaporated. The organization, like many others, was suddenly decentralized. 

“We had no one to answer the phones, so all calls were diverted to my mobile,” recalls Muscat. “People would call at 5:30 in the morning. I’d pick up, and the first thing I’d hear was, ‘I’ve been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.’ It was very hard for a while.”

To keep moving forward, the organization needed a new backbone that could connect its people, protect its data, enable remote service delivery, and scale with its new vision for growth and impact. That’s when they turned to Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.

Rewiring the foundation from the inside out

The transformation began with Pancare Foundation’s long-time IT partner, BusinessWorks. “We knew Pancare Foundation needed to go fully cloud-based—not just for collaboration, but for security and agility,” says Tim White, Director at BusinessWorks. “We built Pancare Foundation’s infrastructure around Microsoft 365 Business Premium, with all data hosted securely, no physical servers, and Teams as the organization’s central workspace.” 

For Pancare Foundation, the transition was no quick switch. With staff including nurses, administrators, volunteers, and counsellors of varying technical ability, adoption was uneven at first. “The biggest challenge was getting people off email and into the Teams chat environment,” says Muscat. “Our solution was to implement a Teams-only day each week where no one could use Outlook. It built confidence slowly. It took a year, but eventually Teams became our norm.” 

Behind the scenes, Microsoft Defender, Intune, and Entra ID were layered in to strengthen compliance and cybersecurity. Geo-blocking, conditional access, and mobile device management ensured that even as the team worked from anywhere, even caravans, the environment remained secure and compliant.

Once the internal organization gained confidence in using Teams, it became the platform for Pancare Foundation to onboard new volunteers, train clinicians, run national webinars, and even launch major corporate partnerships. 

Collaboration at speed, healing at scale

The Pancare Foundation now runs 61 Teams channels, covering national operations, patient and caregiver support groups, campaigns, and internal projects. The organization’s counsellors and nurses use Teams for telehealth sessions with patients too ill to travel. “Our support groups, our education sessions, our patient-care connections all happen through Teams,” says Muscat. “Even our specialist speakers, like dietitians or researchers, log in remotely to support patients across Australia.” 

The impact is tangible, says James Stewart, General Manager at Pancare Foundation. One standout example is how Teams impacted fundraising efforts through Pancare Foundation’s multiyear partnership with national flooring retailer Floorworld. Before the pandemic, the two organizations had worked together to raise just $15,000 AUD over six years through traditional charity fundraising. But during year one of lockdown, Stewart and Pancare Foundation CEO Doug Hawkins started testing and piloting a new commercial approach to fundraising—completely via Teams. 

With the ease of online collaboration, Stewart, Hawkins, and the CEO of Floorworld co-designed a national retail campaign with Floorworld’s suppliers and store owners, all over virtual meetings. The result? A $27,000 AUD return from the first campaign alone and over $300,000 raised to date, with more than a dozen suppliers now involved. 

“We created something truly collaborative using Teams,” says Stewart. “We were able to run workshops, map out revenue models, present creative ideas, editing our plans in real-time. That kind of alignment just wouldn’t have happened with phone calls. Now that model—which is grounded in mutual value creation—is the blueprint for our entire Par 5 Business Program, which today boasts 37 member businesses and partners who are highly engaged with a business marketplace that creates sustainable funding for cancer research through Impact Procurement.” 

The productivity boost isn’t limited to fundraising. Policy writing, board meetings, training, and compliance reviews are all happening faster and more fluidly. Microsoft Teams Rooms solutions support hybrid meetings with one-click joining people across locations. “We’re a small core team that relies on our amazing volunteers,” says Muscat. “Technology is helping us join together in new and powerful ways to better help our clients.”

Helping people feel less alone

Perhaps the most profound impact of Microsoft Teams at Pancare Foundation is emotional. “We can talk about how Teams has helped us operationally, but for our patients and their carers it’s a lifeline,” says Muscat. “When they can see someone’s face and we’re able to tell them, ‘You’re not alone, we’ve got you’—it’s like a weight gets lifted.” 

Through Teams, the organization now runs monthly virtual support groups for patients, carers, and even bereaved family members. The organization hosts expert-led education sessions on topics like diet and treatment options that are accessible to people across Australia, even in remote regions. Counselling sessions are also conducted via Teams, enabling patients with compromised immune systems to receive vital emotional support from the safety of their homes. 

“We support people from diagnosis right through to end of life—and help their carers and families beyond that,” Muscat says. “Our counsellors and nurses use Teams to meet people in their most vulnerable moments giving them genuine compassion and connection.” 

The Pancare Foundation on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

AI, policy, and purpose

Pancare Foundation is now poised for its next chapter with Microsoft 365 Copilot and agentic AI at the center. 

Muscat says that she has already been using Copilot to streamline complex policy reviews. “We manage about 80 compliance documents. With Copilot, I can ask whether legislation is current and where updates are needed. It saves hours, and while we do doublecheck everything, it’s highly accurate.” 

Copilot is now being used by multiple staff, with plans for broader rollout once AI use policies are finalized. “It’s still early days,” says White, “But our aim is to build a secure, responsible AI framework. Copilot is the first step. Eventually, we see AI supporting everything from donor engagement to streamlining research data.” 

As Pancare Foundation looks to the future, its goals remain grounded in human connection. Says Muscat, “We can’t change the diagnosis but from the point of that first call and beyond, we can make sure they’re not alone. Technology, used the right way, makes personal care like that possible.”