| Type | Non-Profit |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1982 in Dallas, Texas |
| Founder(s) | Nancy Goodman Brinker |
| Headquarters | 5005 LBJ Fwy., Ste. 250 Dallas, TX 75244 901 E Street NW Washington, DC 20004 |
| Key people | Nancy Goodman Brinker (Founder & CEO) Alexine Clement Jackson (Chairman) Elizabeth "Liz" Thompson (President) Dr. Eric P. Winer (Chief Scientific Adviser) Susan Goodman Komen |
| Website | komen.org |
Susan G. Komen for the Cure, formerly known as The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, often referred to as simply Komen, is the most widely known, largest and best-funded breast cancer organization in the US.[1]
Since its inception in 1982, Komen has invested nearly $2 billion[2] for breast cancer research, education, advocacy, health services and social support programs in the U.S.,[3] and through partnerships in more than 50 countries.[4][5] Today, Komen has more than 100,000 volunteers[6] working in a network of 124 affiliates worldwide.[7] As of March 2011, Komen is listed on Charity Navigator with the site's highest rating of four stars.[8] According to the Harris Interactive 2010 EquiTrend annual brand equity poll, Komen is one of the most trusted nonprofit organizations in America.[9][10] However, the organization has been criticized for its use of donor funds, as well as its choice of sponsor affiliations and its role in commercial cause marketing.
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Susan Goodman, later Susan Goodman Komen, was born in 1943 in Peoria, Illinois. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 33.[11] She died of the disease at age 36 in 1980.[12] Komen's younger sister, Nancy Goodman Brinker, who believed that Susan's outcome might have been better if patients knew more about cancer and its treatment, promised her sister that she would do everything she could to end breast cancer.[12][13] To fulfill that promise, Brinker founded the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in Komen's memory in 1982.[13]
In 2007, the 25th anniversary of the organization, the name was changed to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and trademarked a new logo in support of its promise "to end breast cancer forever."[14] The new logo is a pink ribbon that resembles a runner in motion[15][14] and is meant to reflect the importance of Komen's signature Race for the Cure event,[15] which is currently the world's largest fund raising event for breast cancer education and research.[16] The logo symbolically associates the organization with the values of the pink ribbon culture: fear of breast cancer, hope, and the charitable goodness of people and businesses who publicly support the breast cancer movement.[1]
In December 2009 Brinker was appointed CEO of the organization.[17]
Komen advocates for breast self-awareness as a primary method for fighting breast cancer.[18][19] Komen supports universal screening mammography and breast self-examinations, as well as ever-increasing levels of government spending on diagnosing and treating breast cancer.[20] They promote early detection as the primary tool for preventing breast cancer deaths.[21]
Their response to scientific evidence that the indiscriminate nature of screening mammography for all middle-aged and older women, regardless of each woman's individual risk of developing breast cancer, results in overtreatment of some women whose cancer would regress on its own or would grow so slowly that it would never harm them—for every one woman whose life is saved by screening mammography, between two and ten women will receive completely unnecessary and toxic treatment for a harmless growth, 250 to 500 women will be wrongly told that they might have breast cancer (false positives), and 125 to 250 will have biopsies performed[22]—is to "keep hammering away at our basic message, which is, early detection saves lives".[23]
By contrast, organizations like the National Breast Cancer Coalition follow a medical consumerism model, in which individual women are educated by their physicians about their options and encouraged to make individualized, evidence-based decisions about their health care.[20] Other organizations advocate for more research into the environmental causes of breast cancer and cancer prevention.[20]
Komen's 2009–2010 Expenses
In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, ending March 31, 2010, Komen reported approximately US $400 million in earnings. Of this, $365 million (91.3 percent) came from contributions from the public, including donations, sponsorships, race entry fees, and contributed goods and services. Approximately $35 million (8.8 percent) came from interest and dividends and gains on investments.[24]
That same fiscal year, Komen reported approximately US $360 million in expenses. $283.2 million of this went towards program services: $75.4 million (20.9 percent of total expenditure) went to research, $140.8 million (39.1 percent) went to public health education, $46.9 million (13 percent) went to health screening services, and $20.1 million (5.6 percent) went to treatment services. The other $76.8 million went to supporting services, including $36.1 million (10 percent of total expenditure) toward fund-raising costs and $40.6 million (11.3 percent) toward general and administrative costs.[24]
Since its foundation in 1982, Komen has provided funding for basic, clinical, and translational breast cancer research and for innovative projects in the areas of breast health education and breast cancer screening and treatment. The organizations has awarded more than 1,000 breast cancer research grants totaling more than $180 million.[25] Komen adheres to a peer-review process that is recognized by the US National Cancer Institute.
As of 2007[update], research grants are available for basic, clinical, and translational research; postdoctoral fellowships; and breast cancer disparities research.[26]
Komen awards three-year postdoctoral fellowships to individuals working under the guidance of experienced cancer researchers in order to recruit and retain young scientists in the field of breast cancer research. In addition to funding research, Komen and its affiliates fund non-duplicative, community-based breast health education and breast cancer screening and treatment projects for the medically under-served.[25]
Since 1992, Komen has also annually awarded work in the field of cancer research with the Komen Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction.
According to the United Nations World Health Organization, more than 500,000 people worldwide die from breast cancer every year, and breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide.[27] Komen for the Cure states that its aim is to "reduce the burden of breast cancer on a global level". Believing that no single approach to breast health will prove effective around the world, Komen works with local communities and organizations to develop programs for particular groups or cultures.[28]
In 2006, Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced their involvement with the US-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research, a Middle East Partnership Initiative program that unites leading breast cancer advocates in the U.S. and the Middle East with the goal increasing early detection of breast cancer and reduce mortality through improved awareness, increased clinical resources, and research.[29]
Today, Susan G. Komen for the Cure is active in over 50 countries with its largest affiliates in Italy and Germany.[30]
On October 28th, 2010, Jerusalem, Israel held its first Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Over 5,000 Christian, Muslim and Jewish people walked and ran to show solidarity in what was described as a historic event.[31] The main goal of the race was to raise awareness of breast cancer and establish the organization as a permanent fixture in Israel. Prior to the Race the Old City walls of Jerusalem were illuminated pink by Komen founder Nancy G. Brinker, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and the Prime Minister's wife Sara Netanyahu.
The Organization raises over $35 million a year from over 60 cause marketing partnerships. These include prominent campaigns, such as those with Yoplait, which runs the Save Lids to Save Lives program, and a partnership with American Airlines.[32]
Cause marketing allows Komen to associate the breast cancer brand with its organization. By promoting the "fear, hope and goodness" associated with the breast cancer brand, Komen is able to promote itself, breast cancer awareness, its sponsoring corporations, and conscientious consumption.[33]
The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is the world's largest fundraising event for breast cancer.[34] It consists of a series of 5K runs and fitness walks to to raise money to for breast cancer, to raise awareness of the disease, to celebrate those who have survived breast cancer, and memorialize those who have not.
The first race was run in Dallas, Texas in 1983, with 800 participants.[35] The 25th Anniversary of the Race was celebrated in 2008. In 2009, it was renamed as Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure.[36] In 2010, there were about 130 races worldwide.[37] Additionally in 2010, over 1.6 million people participated in the race, which utilized over 100,000 volunteers.[38]
The primary source of revenue for the event is donations collected by the participants in the race. Three-quarters of the net proceeds from the event are used locally to pay for community outreach programs, breast health education, and breast cancer screening and treatment projects run by the Komen affiliate. The remaining quarter is sent to the central organization.[37]
Komen's other nationwide events include:
In October 2008, Susan G. Komen for the Cure launched a mobile donating campaign, allowing supporters to donate money by texting.[41]
The Susan G. Komen organization allows its affiliates to award grants to Planned Parenthood and other clinics. This partnership has garnered criticism from Pro-Life advocates because Planned Parenthood provides abortion.[42] More recent studies reported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes for Heath show that there are no links between breast cancer and abortion.[43] Komen says its affiliates provide funds for screening, education and treatment programs in dozens of communities in which Planned Parenthood is the only place that poor, uninsured or under-insured women can receive these services.[44][45]
Komen has also been caught up in the controversy over "pinkwashing"—the use of breast cancer and the pink ribbon by corporate marketers, especially to promote products that might be unhealthful—in return for a donation to the cause. Komen benefits greatly from these corporate partnerships, receiving over $55 million a year from them.[46] However, critics say many of these promotions are deceptive to consumers and benefit the companies more than the charity.[47]
Organizations such as Breast Cancer Action, an advocacy group, say that such promotions are often financially ineffective.[48] For instance, in 2005 Yoplait donated ten cents to Komen for each lid mailed in by consumers at a time when postage to mail a letter cost 37 cents.[48] Since the Save Lids to Save Lives campaign began in 1998, Yoplait has donated more than $25 million to Komen. In 2010 their annual maximum commitment was raised to $1.6 million.[49]
In April 2010, Komen received national attention when it paired with fast food restaurant chain KFC to offer "Buckets for the Cure," a promotion in which fried and grilled chicken was sold in pink branded buckets. The collaboration garnered criticism from media outlets including The Colbert Report[50] and Bitch magazine,[49] and it raised concerns about the promotion of unhealthful eating habits and obesity.[51] KFC contributed over $4.2 million to Komen, the largest single contribution in the organization's history.[52] The partnership with KFC, which has since ended, allowed Komen "to reach many millions of women that they had been unable to reach before," said Brinker.[46]
In 2007, the organization changed its name to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and trademarked the running ribbon as part of its new branding strategy.[53] Komen has come under fire for legal action against other nonprofits or organizations using the phrase "for the cure" within their names. An August 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal detailed a case in which the organization Uniting Against Lung Cancer was told in a letter from Komen that they should no longer use the name "Kites for the Cure" for their annual fundraising event. Komen also wrote to the organization to warn them "against any use of pink in conjunction with 'cure.'"[54] More than 100 small charities have received legal opposition from Komen regarding various uses of the words "for the cure" in their names, at a cost of nearly $1 million per year in donor funds.[55] Among the offending charitable organizations and events were "Par for the Cure," "Surfing for a Cure," "Cupcakes for a Cure" and "Mush for the Cure".[55] Komen says that the organization protects its trademarks as a matter of financial stewardship and that they want to prevent confusion among donors. According to Komen general counsel Jonathan Blum, a mixup could result in a donation being inadvertently sent to another charity.[56] Others suggest that the trademark issue is more about dominating the pink ribbon marketplace.[57]